Ruben J. Garcia

What do you have planned for the summer? 

Like most academics, I greet the beginning of the summer with anticipation and many plans for how I am going to use the three months. First, I will continue my work with the Thirteenth Amendment Project, an interdisciplinary group of scholars which held a successful conference in March of this year at Boyd. The papers from that conference will be published next year in the Nevada Law Journal. I am also working on an article on "Right to Work" Laws: Ideology and Impact, for the Annual Review of Law and Social Science, which should be quite timely as the United States Supreme Court will soon issue its decision in Janus v. AFSCME on the question of whether laws that require workers to pay their "fair share" for union representation are unconstitutional in public sector workplaces. And I am completing a chapter about the Culinary Workers Union for a collection on the American labor movement in the 21st Century to be published this year.

My role as associate dean encouraging and promoting our faculty’s research continues through the summer, which is a really a pleasure since our faculty is very productive and Boyd has always strongly supported scholarship. I also promote the many events and speakers we have at the school, which is also enjoyable because there’s no shortage of great programs and speakers. Before we know it, we’ll have a very full schedule of events, and it will be time to start classes again and welcome the students! But I certainly am looking forward to teaching Labor Law, Employment Law and Constitutional Law again next year. 

Do you think students should try to identify a specialty quickly, or take the time to explore many of their interests?

I was fortunate to find my passion when I was a student more than 20 years ago and have not really veered from a focus on workplace law. Some students will take longer, and some attorneys are on their second or third job before they find what they really love. The truth for students is that the time will slip away in the wink of an eye and suddenly graduation happens. That is why I think it is good that Boyd has recently introduced academic concentrations in fields like Health Law, Intellectual Property and Dispute Resolution. For the Workplace Law Program, which I co-direct with Professor Ann McGinley, it has meant a much more focused approach to curricular and professional development for the students. 

Do you have any fun travel planned for the summer?

I enjoy mostly staying here (inside) during the summer in Las Vegas. My wife Tori and I will travel across the border briefly to Mérida on the Yucatán Peninsula to learn more about that colonial city, and to pick up some cooking techniques and recipes to try at home.