Willamette University

College of Law — Faculty

Acclaimed Legal Educators

Keith Cunningham-Parmeter

Keith Cunningham-Parmeter

Associate Professor of Law

  • J.D. Stanford University, with distinction, Order of the Coif
  • B.A. University of Oregon, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa

Curriculum Vitae

A scholar whose research has explored immigrant workers' rights, employment discrimination and work-family balance, Keith Cunningham-Parmeter focuses his writing on nontraditional employees and the growing contingent workforce. Prior to joining the law faculty at Willamette University in 2006, he represented migrant farmworkers as a Skadden Fellow with the Oregon Law Center. His work there placed special emphasis on issues related to occupational health and workplace discrimination. Professor Cunningham-Parmeter was lead counsel in a wage and hour class action lawsuit brought on behalf of food processing employees, which resulted in the largest judgment ever for agricultural workers in Oregon.

Professor Cunningham-Parmeter graduated from Stanford Law School with distinction and was elected to the Order of the Coif. He was the first-place winner of two writing competitions in law school and was selected as a Stanford Law School Public Interest Fellow. During law school, he worked at the East Palo Alto Community Law Project and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, providing focused legal services to immigrant communities and low-wage workers.

Upon graduation, Professor Cunningham-Parmeter served for two years as law clerk to Chief Judge Ancer Haggerty of the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon. Prior to law school, he worked as a high school teacher in the Mississippi Delta as a member of Teach for America.

Willamette law students voted Professor Cunningham-Parmeter Professor of the Year in 2008. His publications have appeared in leading law reviews and have been cited in the Yale Law Journal, the Stanford Law Review, the Columbia Law Review, and by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

SSRN Author Page

Legal Academic Writing

  • Forced Federalism: States as Laboratories of Immigration Reform, 62 HASTINGS L.J. (forthcoming 2011)
  • Alien Language: Immigration Metaphors and the Jurisprudence of Otherness, 79 FORDHAM L. REV. (forthcoming 2011).
  • Review of Illegal People: How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants, by David Bacon, 63 INDUS. & LAB. REL. REV. 357 (2010).
  • Redefining the Rights of Undocumented Workers, 58 AM. U. L. REV. 1361 (2009) (lead article).
  • Fear of Discovery: Immigrant Workers and the Fifth Amendment, 41 CORNELL INT'L L.J. 27 (2008).
  • A Poisoned Field: Farmworkers, Pesticide Exposure, and Tort Recovery in an Era of Regulatory Failure, 28 N.Y.U. REV. L. & SOC. CHANGE 431 (2004).
  • Dreaming of Effective Assistance: The Awakening of Cronic's Call to Presume Prejudice from Representational Absence, 76 TEMPLE L. REV. 827 (2003).
  • Note, Father Time: Flexible Work Arrangements and the Law Firm's Failure of the Family, 53 STAN L. REV. 967 (2001).

Essays and Other Publications

  • Twenty Something, AM. LAW., Sept. 2000 (cover story)
  • The Defense Rests, AM. LAW., Aug. 2000.
  • Beside the Gate, a Revolving Door, AM. LAW., Aug. 2000.
  • 1990-1999: The Way We Were, AM. LAW., July 2000 (with John Turrettini).
  • Between Two Worlds - A Delta/Cambridge Diary, ENGLISH (University of Oregon), 1998-99.

Lectures and Presentations

  • Floods, Crimes, and Aliens: Representations of Immigrant Workers in the Law, Washington University in St. Louis School of Law and St. Louis University School of Law, September 24, 2010
  • Speaking of Immigrants, University of Connecticut School of Law, March 26, 2010.
  • The Future Rights of Undocumented Workers, Seton Hall Law School, Sept. 25, 2009.
  • Labor Rights and Workplace Raids, presented at the University of San Francisco Law Review Symposium, University of San Francisco School of Law, Feb. 27, 2009.
  • Immigration Status and Self-Incrimination, presented at the Second Annual Labor and Employment Scholars Colloquium, University of Denver College of Law and University of Colorado Law School, Sept. 28, 2007.
  • Farmworkers and Pesticides: Manufacturer Liability and Common Law Theories, presented at the 25th Annual Public Interest Environmental Law Conference, University of Oregon, March 2, 2007.
  • Immigration Policy: Who Belongs?, presented at the Cornell International Law Journal Symposium, Cornell University Law School, Feb. 23, 2007.
  • Balanced Hours: The Business Case & Financial Successful Solutions, presented at the Lawyers Club of San Diego, Jan. 26, 2007.
  • Male Lawyers, Flexible Work Arrangements, and the Challenges of Implementation, presented at the Working Time Conference, University of San Francisco School of Law (sponsored by the Center for Worklife Law, UC Hastings College of Law), March 10, 2006.
  • Rights Without Remedies: Enforcing Workplace Protections for Undocumented Migrant Farmworkers, presented at Lewis & Clark Law School, (sponsored by Environmental Justice Advocates and the Latino Legal Society), Nov. 16, 2005.
  • Farmworkers and Environmental Justice, presented at Environmental Justice: Action, Communities, and Topics, Washington State University Vancouver, Feb. 26, 2005.
  • From AWPA to FIFRA: Litigating Pesticide Cases, presented at the National Farmworker Law Conference, Washington, D.C., Dec. 3, 2004.