Scott Moss
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401 UCB
2450 Kittredge Loop Drive
451 Wolf Law Building
Boulder, CO 80309-0401
Office: 429
Phone: (303) 735-5374
E-mail: scott.moss@colorado.edu
Curriculum Vitae: View (PDF format)
Bio:Scott Moss has taught Federal Litigation - Everything But the Trial (pretrial drafting and simulations), Employment Law and Discrimination, Constitutional Law, and Economic Analysis of Law. Students have voted him the annual teaching award at both Colorado Law and Marquette Law School; he also has won the University-wide Student Affairs Faculty Member of the Year Award for support he has provided to CU students. His main research areas are wages and other compensation, employment discrimination and retaliation, and the First and Fourteenth Amendments; he also researches litigation practice and procedure, including summary judgment briefwriting, class action practice, discovery sequencing, settlement confidentiality, and damages assessments. In addition to academic articles, he has co-authored a leading employment law casebook, the wages chapter of a popular employment litigation treatise, and supplementary material to the most-cited employment discrimination treatise. Moss also is a statistician who regularly conducts statistical analyses, empirical tests, and simulations for the law school, for litigants, and in academic publications.
Moss is an experienced trial and appellate lawyer who still litigates and has won the following victories for plaintiffs and defendants: enjoining Colorado's century-old criminal statute against showing anyone a completed ballot, leading the legislature to repeal the statute; an appeal that led to reinstatement of a Colorado State Patrol Officer "outed" as gay by an improper polygraph; a multi-million-dollar victory against several major employers that forced the New York City supermarket and pharmacy labor market to start paying delivery workers the minimum wage; a verdict for an immigrant cook for unpaid wages under federal and Colorado law, and against an immigration fees counterclaim; an implied covenant of good faith victory against a Wall Street firm for deferred compensation and bonuses; an over $20 million verdict for securities fraud and fiduciary breach as to rare coin investments; an appeal that revived a business's racketeering investment claim against a competitor funded by tax fraud; an abuse of process counterclaim verdict under Colorado law in defending a woman sued for defamation by the ex-husband she procured a restraining order against; and dismissal of a qui tam claim filed by someone after he was caught committing fraud. But he has lost about as many claims as he's won, because that's how litigation goes. Moss has counseled and represented clients outside litigation as well: drafting and reviewing employers' handbooks, contracts, and noncompetition provisions; advising businesses on personnel decisions and on employment law compliance; and negotiating severance and settlement agreements. He also was twice appointed a Boulder County hearing officer, presiding over evidentiary submissions and testimony, and issuing a written decision, reviewing County employment decision-making.
At CU, Moss has been Chair of the Admissions committee for 10 years and Chair of two search committees for Director-level staff members. As Schaden Chair in Experiential Learning, he works to improve the experiential curriculum and supervises the Program Director running externships, litigation competitions, and pro bono projects. Moss also actively participates in the Colorado and national bar: serving as Secretary of the ABA Labor & Employment Law Section, and as CLE Chair on the Board of Directors of Colorado's federal court bar association (the Faculty of Federal Advocates); being invited to testify at Colorado legislature committees on employment and constitutional legislation; and speaking regularly at bar events sponsored by the ABA, Colorado Bar Association, National Employment Lawyers Association and its Colorado chapter (PELA), Colorado Defense Lawyers Association, and Association of Corporate Counsel.
Articles
| The Value of the Restatement of Employment Law, Based on 50-State Empirical Analyses and the Importance of Clarifying Disputed Issues - But with Caveats About the Restatement's Imperfect Work Product, 21 Employee Rights and Employment Policy Journal. 409 (2017). |
| Moss (with Alexia Brunet Marks), What predicts Law Student Success? A Longitudinal Study Correlating Law Student Applicant Data and Law School Outcomes, Journal of Empirical Legal Studies 2 (June 2016). |
| Casebook: Richard Carlson & Scott A. Moss, Employment Law (3d ed., Aspen / Wolters Kluwer, 2013). |
| Bad Briefs, Bad Law, Bad Markets: Documenting the Poor Quality of Plaintiffs' Briefs, Its Impact on the Law, and the Market Failure It Reflects, 63 EMORY L.J. 59-125 (2013). |
| (In)Competence in Appellate and District Court Brief Writing On Rule 12 And 56 Motions, 57 N.Y.L. SCH. L. REV. 842-862 (2013) (invited symposium contribution). |
| Moss (with Nantiya Ruan), The Second-Class Class Action: How Courts Thwart Wage Rights by Misapplying Class Action Rules, 61 American U. L. Rev. 523-583 (2011). |
| The Overhyped Path from Tinker to Morse: How the Student Speech Cases Show the Limits of Supreme Court Decisions - for the Law and for the Litigants, 64 Florida L. Rev. 1407-57 (2011) (Winner, Annual Scholarship Award, Byron White Center for American Constitutional Law). |
| The Story of Tinker v. Des Moines to Morse v. Frederick: Similar Stories of Very Different Results for Very DifferentStudentSpeech: Chapter 14 in Garnett&Koppelman,FirstAmendmentStories (Foundation Press 2011). |
| Yes, Labor Markets Are Flawed - But So Is the Economic Case for Mandating Employee Voice in Corporate Governance, 94 Marq. L. Rev. 933-953 (2011) (invited symposium contribution). |
| Litigation Discovery Cannot Be Optimal but Could Be Better: The Economics of Improving Discovery Timing in a Digital Age, 58 Duke L.J. 889 (2009). |
| Moss (with Peter H. Huang), How the New Economics Can Improve Discrimination Law, and How Economics Can Survive the Demise of the "Rational Actor", 51 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 183 (2009). |
| The Courts under President Obama, 86 Denv. U. L. Rev. 727 (Special Issue: Obama Phenomena) (2009). |
| Reluctant Judicial Factfinding: When Minimalism and Judicial Modesty Go Too Far, 32 Seattle U. L. Rev. 549 (Symposium: Alternative Visions of the Judicial Role) (2009). |
| The Intriguing Federalist Future of Reproductive Rights, 88 B.U. L. Rev. 175 (with Douglas M. Raines) (2008). |
| Illuminating Secrecy: A New Economic Analysis of Confidential Settlements, 105 Mich. L. Rev. 867 (2007). |
Students and Workers and Prisoners'Oh, My!: A Cautionary Note About Excessive Institutional Tailoring of First Amendment Doctrine, 54 UCLA L. Rev. 1635 (Symposium: Constitutional "Niches": The Role of Institutional Context in Constitutional Law). (2007).
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| Fighting Discrimination While Fighting Litigation: A Tale of Two Supreme Courts, 76 Fordham L. Rev. 981 (2007). |
| Against "Academic Deference": Keeping Title VII Alive to Redress Academic Discrimination, 27 Berkeley J. Emp. & Lab. L. 1 (2006). |
| Where There's At-Will, There Are Many Ways: Redressing the Increasing Incoherence of Employment at Will, 67 U. Pittsburgh L. Rev. 295 (2005). |
| Women Choosing Diverse Workplaces: A Rational Preference with Disturbing Implications for Both Occupational Segregation and Economic Analysis of Law, 27 Harv. Women's L. J. 1 (2004). |
| An Overview of Disparate Impact Litigation, Annual Civil Rights Training Institute of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc. (2004). |
Courses:
| Fall 2024 | Employment Law | LAWS 6521-801 |
| Spring 2024 | Employment Law | LAWS 6521-801 |
| Fall 2019 | Wage Law and Litigation | LAWS 7531-801 |
| Spring 2019 | Constitutional Law | LAWS 6005-801 |
| Fall 2018 | Employment Law | LAWS 6521-801 |
| Fall 2018 | Employment Law | LAWS 6521-902 |
| Spring 2018 | Constitutional Law | LAWS 6005-801 |
| Spring 2018 | Federal Litigation - Everyting But the Trial | LAWS 6373-001 |
| Fall 2017 | Employment Law | LAWS 6521-001 |
| Fall 2017 | Employment Law | LAWS 6521-902 |
| Spring 2017 | Constitutional Law | LAWS 6005-803 |
| Spring 2017 | Federal Litigation - Everyting But the Trial | LAWS 6373-001 |
| Fall 2016 | Employment Law | LAWS 6521-001 |
| Spring 2016 | Constitutional Law | LAWS 6005-803 |
| Spring 2016 | Federal Litigation - Everyting But the Trial | LAWS 6373-001 |
| Fall 2015 | Employment Law | LAWS 6521-001 |
| Spring 2015 | Constitutional Law | LAWS 6005-801 |
| Spring 2015 | Federal Litigation - Everyting But the Trial | LAWS 6373-001 |
| Fall 2014 | Employment Law | LAWS 6521-001 |
| Spring 2014 | Federal Litigation - Everyting But the Trial | LAWS 6373-001 |
| Spring 2014 | Employment Law | LAWS 6521-001 |
| Spring 2014 | Journal: University of Colorado Law Review | LAWS 7896-901 |
| Spring 2014 | Journal: University of Colorado Law Review | LAWS 7896-902 |
| Spring 2014 | Journal: University of Colorado Law Review | LAWS 7906-901 |
| Spring 2013 | Federal Litigation - Everyting But the Trial | LAWS 6373-001 |
| Spring 2013 | Employment Law | LAWS 6521-001 |