Michael C. Duff

Michael Duff is a professor of law at the Saint Louis University School of Law. Duff teaches courses in torts, labor law, Workers’ Compensation law, and occupational safety and health. He has previously taught bankruptcy, employee benefits law, and administrative law. He was a trial attorney with the National Labor Relations Board for a decade, and before that he engaged in the private practice of Workers’ Compensation law. He was a union grievance steward, organizer, and blue-collar worker for 15 years before attending law school.

Duff is a nationally recognized expert in workplace injuries. He is especially interested in the intersection of Workers’ Compensation, tort, and constitutional law. He is focused on the extent to which injured workers are entitled to a certain minimum baseline of benefits. He writes frequently on whether the grand bargain of Workers’ Compensation is entitled to constitutional protection. Duff is inspired by the memory of his grandfather, a Harlan County, Kentucky coal miner who died of black lung in his early 1950s. Duff also writes on labor issues arising under the National Labor Relations Act from the unique perspective of a former blue-collar worker who participated as a unionist personally and directly in labor disputes while working his way through college.  

Duff earned his bachelor’s degree from West Chester University of Pennsylvania and his J.D. at Harvard Law School.

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