Porter, Nicole B.

Rita Anne Rollins Professor of Law

Areas of Specialization

Employment Discrimination; Employment Law; Disability Law; Labor Law; Contracts

Representative Professional Activities and Achievements

Professor Nicole Porter joined the William & Mary Law School faculty in 2024, where she teaches employment discrimination, employment law, disability law, labor law, and professional responsibility. Porter is a nationally known expert in employment discrimination and disability law. She is the author or co-author of five books and 50 law review articles and essays. Her most recent book, The Workplace Reimagined: Accommodating Our Bodies and Our Lives, was published by Cambridge University Press.

Before joining William & Mary, Porter was a professor of law and director of the Martin H. Malin Institute for Law and the Workplace at Chicago-Kent College of Law. She also served as a law professor, distinguished university professor, associate dean for faculty research and development, and associate dean for academic affairs at the University of Toledo College of Law. She began her academic career at Saint Louis University School of Law and was a visiting professor at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, the University of Iowa College of Law, and Washington University in St. Louis School of Law.

Professor Porter earned her J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School, where she was a member of the Order of the Coif and editor-in-chief of the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform. After law school, she clerked for the Honorable James L. Ryan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, before practicing labor and employment law for five years.

Professor Porter’s academic peers have recognized her excellence. First, Professor Porter is an elected/invited member or fellow of several prestigious organizations, including the Labor Law Group (an invitation-only organization of law professors dedicated to producing quality scholarship and teaching materials on labor and employment law), the American Bar Foundation, and the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. Second, Porter has served in leadership roles for AALS sections or other organizations. Currently, she is the vice chair and will become chair in September 2026 of the legacy committee that plans and organizes an annual conference—the Colloquium on Scholarship in Employment and Labor Law (COSELL), which is the largest gathering of labor and employment law professors in the country. Finally, Porter has won two awards given to her by her peers. In 2020, she was the recipient of the Paul Steven Miller Memorial Award for “outstanding academic and public contributions to the field of labor and employment law scholarship.” And in January 2026, Porter won the Chai Feldblum Award, given by AALS Section on Law Professors with Disabilities and Their Allies for “substantial contributions to the inclusion of people with disabilities in legal academia.”