Associate Professor of Law
Grantee, University of California Student Loan Law Initiative
Senior Fellow, Student Borrower Protection Center
Courses Taught
Links
Background
Jonathan Harris researches contracts, labor and employment law, and workforce development. His most recent article, Consumer Law as Work Law, 112 Calif. L. Rev. 1 (2024), was selected for the 2023 Harvard/Stanford/Yale Junior Faculty Forum. His publications have appeared or are forthcoming in the Georgetown Law Journal, California Law Review, Alabama Law Review, Comparative Labor Law and Policy Journal, California Law Review Online, Northwestern University Law Review Online, and New York City Law Review. Professor Harris's article, Unconscionability in Contracting for Worker Training, brought national attention to Training Repayment Agreement Provisions (TRAPs) that require workers to pay to quit and are used as workarounds to non-competes. He is a grantee of the University of California Student Loan Law Initiative and a senior fellow with the Student Borrower Protection Center. His writing has been cited by federal entities including the FTC in its rule banning non-competes, the CFPB, and the Senate Banking Committee. Major news outlets have quoted Professor Harris, including the New York Times, New York Times Magazine, and Washington Post.
Professor Harris is the chair of the AALS Section on Labor Relations and Employment Law, as well as an executive committee member of the AALS Section on Employment Discrimination Law. He is a co-organizer of the 2024 Michael A. Olivas Writing Institute and a member of the Law & Society Association and the Mexican American Bar Association. He previously taught in the Lawyering Program at NYU School of Law. Professor Harris clerked for Judge James E. Graves, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit while teaching at Mississippi College School of Law. He began his legal career as a Skadden Fellow, focusing on the intersections of employment and consumer law. Prior to that, he was a labor and community organizer.
Law Review Publications
- Credentialism at Work, 113 Geo. J.L. (forthcoming 2025)
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Consumer Law as Work Law, 112 Calif. L. Rev. 1 (2024) (selected for Harvard/Stanford/Yale Junior Faculty Forum)
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Economic Duress in U.S. Employment, 43 Compar. Lab. L. & Pol'y J. 557 (2023) (invited contribution to peer-reviewed journal)
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The New Noncompete: Training Repayment Agreement Provisions as a Scheme to Retain Workers through Debt, Nw. U. L. Rev. Of Note (2022)
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Unconscionability in Contracting for Worker Training, 72 Ala. L. Rev. 723 (2021) (reviewed in JOTWELL by Miriam A. Cherry)
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Is There a Right to Job Quality? Reenvisioning Workforce Development, 11 Calif. L. Rev. Online 339 (2020) (with Livia Lam)
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Worker Unity and the Law: A Comparative Analysis of the National Labor Relations Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act, and the Hope for the NLRA’s Future, 13 N.Y.C. L. Rev. 107 (2009) (winner, Burton Award for Distinguished Writing in a Student Note)
Book Chapter
- Legal Reform for Job Training and Lifelong Learning in the United States (with Livia Lam), in Employment, Training, and Lifelong Learning (forthcoming, Routledge)
Reports
- Stay or Pay: Federal Actions to End Modern-Day Indentured Servitude Across the Economy, (with Reed Shaw & Anna Rodriguez), Governing for Impact & Student Borrower Prot. Ctr. (Dec. 2023)
- Trapped at Work: How Big Business Uses Student Debt to Restrict Worker Mobility (with Chris Hicks), Student Borrower Prot. Ctr. (July 2022)
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Collecting Unpaid Wages & Enforcing Judgments in Maryland (with Molly Theobald), Pub. Just. Ctr. (2012)
Op-Eds & Other Works
- An Integrated Work Law (with Dylan Holmes), ACS Expert Forum (May 16, 2024)
- The FTC Abolishes Non-Compete Clauses (with Sandeep Vaheesan), Law & Political Economy Blog (Apr. 25, 2024)
- The "Protecting the Right to Organize Act" and the Radical Roots of Labor Law Reform (with Dylan Holmes), ABA Hum. Rts. Mag. (Oct. 2023) (invited)
- The Militant Labor Roots of this "Striketober," Daily Journal (Oct. 9, 2023)
- The FTC’s Proposed Noncompete Ban Still Lets Companies Trap Workers in Bad Jobs, Truthout (June 12, 2023)
- Can Consumer Law Protect Workers?, Law & Political Economy Blog (Feb. 27, 2023) (invited)
- Bringing Home the Supply Chain (with Samuel Estreicher), Verdict (Apr. 15, 2020)
Agency Comments & Legislative Testimony
- Comment Letter to DOL on Proposed Rule on National Apprenticeship System Enhancements (Mar. 18, 2024)
- Testimony Before CA Assembly Judiciary Committee on Training Repayment Agreement Provisions (TRAPs) (Apr. 25, 2023)
- Comment Letter to FTC on Proposed Rule on Non-Compete Clauses (Apr. 19, 2023) (cited in final rule)
- Comment Letter to FTC on Proposed Rule on Non-Compete Clauses (with Rachel Arnow-Richman & Orly Lobel) (Apr. 19, 2023)
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Comment Letter to CFPB on Employer-Driven Debt (Sept. 23, 2022)
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Comment Letter on Dec. 6-7, 2021 FTC & DOJ Workshop, "Making Competition Work: Promoting Competition in Labor Markets" (Dec. 19, 2021)
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Comment Letter to FTC on Contract Terms that May Harm Competition (Sept. 30, 2021)
Amici Briefs
- ATS Tree Services v. FTC, et al., Case No.: 2:24-cv-1743-KBH (E.D. Pa. June 7, 2024) (professors' brief in support of FTC rule banning non-competes) (core drafter of brief)
- Ryan, LLC & Chamber of Commerce, et al. v. FTC, Case No. 3:24-CV-986-E (N.D. Tx. June 3, 2024) (professors' brief in support of FTC rule banning non-competes) (core drafter of brief)
Media Mentions
- U. of Fl. School of Law, Converge for Impact, Professor Jonathan Harris' Scholarship Fuels Efforts to Abolish TRAPs (Fall 2024)
- Sarah Lazare, Minnesota Workers Strike Down Shady Provision that Restricts their Freedom of Employment, American Prospect (Aug. 15, 2024)
- Alexis Waiss, 'Stay-or-Pay' Suits Cast Light on Immigrant Nurse Recruiting, Bloomberg Law (Aug. 7, 2024)
- Danielle Kaye, Judge Backs Challenge to F.T.C.'s Noncompete Ban, at Least for Now, N.Y. Times (July 3, 2024)
- J.J. Prescott, Stewart Schwab, & Evan Starr, First Evidence on the Use of Training Repayment Agreements in the US Labor Force, ProMarket (Mar. 27, 2024) (references to my writing)
- Tim Ryan, Spa Deal Shows Progress of NLRB GC's Noncompete Strategy, Law360 (Feb. 15, 2024)
- David Dayen, Federal Agencies Can Disable Employer Debt TRAPs, American Prospect (Dec. 6, 2023) (references to writing)
- Robin Kaiser-Schatzlein, Pay Thousands to Quit Your Job? Some Employers Say So., N.Y. Times Mag. (Nov. 20, 2023)
- Sarah Lynch, Training Repayment Agreements: What Employers Need to Know for 2024, Inc. (Oct. 16, 2023)
- Mark Betancourt, Health Care Companies Are Using Debt to Trap Nurses on the Job, Mother Jones (Sept. + Oct. 2023)
- CBS Los Angeles, Los Angeles City Workers Prepare for One-Day Strike, (Aug. 7, 2023)
- Roxanne Nelson, Nurses Owe Thousands if They Break "TRAP" Training Contract, Medscape (July 27, 2023)
- Brian De Los Santos, The "Summer of Strikes", LAist (July 14, 2023)
- Michael Gormley, Bill would outlaw making some lower-wage workers pay cost of training, Newsday (June 7, 2023)
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Jillian Berman, They recruited IT staffers with the promise of a prestigious career. But there’s a catch—workers had to stay for two years or pay nearly $24,000, MarketWatch (Apr. 22, 2023)
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Sarah Lazare, How Secret ‘Bondage Fees’ Trap Contracted Workers in Low-Wage Jobs, American Prospect (Apr. 21, 2023)
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LAist, How to LA Podcast (KPCC), How Successful Are Worker Strikes? (Mar. 28, 2023)
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Shannon Pettypiece, “Indentured Servitude”: Nurses Hit with Hefty Debt when Trying to Leave Hospitals, NBC News (Mar. 12, 2023)
- Karla L. Miller, Work Advice: Training Debt Can Keep Employees Trapped at Jobs, Wash. Post (Feb. 9, 2023)
- Josh Eidelson & Zachary Mider, Giving Four Months' Notice or Paying to Quit Has These Workers Feeling Trapped, Bloomberg Businessweek (Jan. 26, 2023)
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Newsy, The Why, Quick Quitting (Nov. 29, 2022) (television)
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Taryn Luna & Hannah Wiley, A Sexual Misconduct Settlement Could Threaten #MeToo Progress at California Capitol, L.A. Times (Oct. 23, 2022)
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Jacob Zinkula, Be Careful before “Quick Quitting” and Joining the Great Resignation. Your Employer May Hand You a Bill for Your Job Training., Business Insider (Oct. 19, 2022)
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KMOX, The Show, Training Repayment Agreement Provisions (Oct. 18, 2022) (radio)
- Aayat Ali, Watch Out Great Resigners—These TRAPs Could Cost You, Allwork.Space (Oct. 17, 2022)
- Diane Bartz, More U.S. Employers Charging Employees for Job Training if They Quit, Reuters (Oct. 17, 2022)
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USC Annenberg Media, ATVN News, Disneyland Wages (Oct. 11, 2022) (television)
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Sam Knight, More US Employers Are Trapping Workers in a New Form of Indentured Servitude, Truthout (Sept. 19, 2022)
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Jillian Berman, ‘They are Looking for Other Ways to Keep Workers from Leaving Their Jobs’: Training Repayment Agreements are the Latest Corporate Battleground in a Tight Labor Market., MarketWatch (Sept. 1, 2022) (quoted in headline)
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Devin Leonard, ‘Free’ Job Training Can Cost a Fortune for Employees Who Quit, Bloomberg Markets (Aug. 11, 2022)
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Dave Jamieson, A PetSmart Dog Groomer Quit Her Job. They Billed Her Thousands of Dollars for Training., HuffPost (Aug. 4, 2022)
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Caitlin Harrington, Beware the Contract Clause Loading US Workers With Debt, Wired (Aug. 4, 2022)
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Evan Weinberger & Rebecca Rainey, Employers Face CFPB Scrutiny Over Job Training Repayment Demands, Bloomberg Law (Apr. 21, 2022)
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Shelby Nelson, California Bill Looks to Redefine, Scale Back 40-Hour Workweek, KTLA (Apr. 8, 2022)
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Josh Eidelson, Nurses Who Faced Lawsuits for Quitting Are Fighting Back, Bloomberg Businessweek (Feb. 2, 2022)
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CBS Los Angeles, Vaccine Mandates & Workplace Violence (Nov. 9, 2021)
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CBS Los Angeles, Worksite Vaccine Mandates (Aug. 24, 2021)
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Emily Albert Reyes & Luke Money, L.A. City Council Votes to Require COVID-19 Vaccine for City Employees, L.A. Times (Aug. 18, 2021)
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Elena Botella, More Workers Are Starting Their Jobs in Debt Under “Training Repayment Agreements,” Forbes (Jul. 19, 2021)