About

Samuel Estreicher is the Dwight D. Opperman Professor of Public Law at NYU School of Law, where he also serves as the Director of the Center for Labor and Employment Law and the Institute of Judicial Administration. He is a nationally preeminent scholar in US and international-comparative labor and employment law and arbitration law. Estreicher has authored more than a dozen books, including 'Beyond Elite Law: Access to Civil Justice in America,' and has published over 200 articles in professional and academic journals. He served as Chief Reporter for the American Law Institute’s Restatement of Employment Law in 2015 and has contributed significantly to the field through his work on legislation, regulatory issues, and employment discrimination law. His research areas include access to civil justice, employee voice and firm performance, employment law, ADR, foreign relations power of the United States, global labor rights, and labor law reform. Estreicher has a distinguished background that includes clerking for Judge Harold Leventhal of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, practicing in a labor law firm, clerking for Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. of the US Supreme Court, and serving as counsel to major law firms. He has held leadership roles such as secretary of the Labor and Employment Law Section of the American Bar Association and chair of the Committee on Labor and Employment Law of the New York City Bar Association. In 2016, he was appointed by the UN Secretary General as a member of the UN’s Internal Justice Commission. His work also extends into public international law, where he has authored briefs in the US Supreme Court and courts of appeals on employment and US foreign relations law issues.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Law and economics
• Sociology
• Law
• Economics

Selected publications

• The Employment Relationship

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2026-01-01

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• TOWARDS SUSTAINBLE LABOR LAW REFORM

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

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• Revisiting the Scope of Constitutional Birthright Citizenship

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding
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• Curtiss-Wright and the Case Against Unbounded Delegation Under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA)

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

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• Labor Board is in Need of a Restructuring, Not its Destruction

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding
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• Employment Arbitration: Toward a Hearing on the Merits for Most Americans

  2025-08-21

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract This article posits that the arbitral forum might be preferable to court litigation because it is considerably more accessible to workers who cannot afford or do not have claims interesting enough to attract private counsel or in many cases administrative agencies as well This article questions whether the existing justice system truly serves most employee claimants better than a private arbitration system. The author supports these claims with available empirical evidence, which establishes that arbitration is faster than litigation and that employee claimants win more frequently in arbitration, albeit receiving lower awards. The article leverages this information to support the theory that courts offer “Cadillac” justice to high-income employees with claims large enough to attract a private lawyer. The high costs and long delays inherent in the court system leave lower-paid employees with few options—the proverbial rickshaw. This article concludes that, while the result of the existing system works for well-off claimants, it does not provide any form of justice for an average claimant. This article suggests that arbitration’s critics reconsider the arbitration process. Properly designed employment arbitration is cheaper and faster than litigation, like the old Saturn automobile (a mid-priced automobile in the 1990s), and, perhaps more importantly, is more accessible to most workers workers..

  PublisherDOI

• Are Tariffs an Emergency Power?

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• LABOR LAW REFORM FOR THE LONG HAUL

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Brief Amici Curiae of Professors of Administrative Law, Legislation and the Regulatory State, and Separation of Powers in Support of Respondents in Trump v. Slaughter, No. 25-332

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding
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• AI's Limitations in the Practice of Law

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

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Frequent coauthors

• Michael C. Harper

  Mayo Clinic

  10 shared

• Stephen R. Forrest

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  9 shared

• David L. Noll

  Rutgers Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

  9 shared

• Theodore M. Besmann

  University of South Carolina

  9 shared

• Marjorie Mayo

  9 shared

• Steven Trohalaki

  9 shared

• M.-I Baraton

  Centre Européen de la Céramique

  9 shared

• Ian W. Boyd

  9 shared

Education

• B.A.

  Columbia College

• M.S., industrial relations

  Cornell University

• Other

  Columbia Law School

Awards & honors

• 2010 Susan C. Eaton Award for Outstanding Scholar-Practition…