Professor Crain joined the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Law faculty in 1995. She is the Paul Eaton Professor of Law and Director of the UNC Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity, founded in 2005 by Senator John Edwards, its first Director. She teaches labor law, employment law, family law, and feminist legal theory. Professor Crain's scholarship examines the relationship between gender, work and class status, with a particular emphasis on collective action. Professor Crain has authored or coauthored over 25 law review articles and two book chapters. She is the author of two textbooks, LABOR LAW: CASES AND MATERIALS (with Theodore St. Antoine and Charles Craver), and WORK LAW: CASES AND MATERIALS (with Pauline Kim and Mike Selmi), both published by Lexis Law Publishing. She is a coeditor, together with Senator John Edwards and Professor Arne Kalleberg (UNC Sociology), of a commercial press book: Ending Poverty in America: How to Restore the American Dream (The New Press, 2007).
Professor Crain earned her B.S. at Cornell University and her J.D. at the UCLA School of Law. Before entering law teaching, Professor Crain clerked for the Honorable Arthur L. Alarcon on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and practiced with Latham and Watkins in Los Angeles. Professor Crain held regular faculty positions at West Virginia University and the University of Toledo prior to joining the UNC-Chapel Hill faculty. She has been a visiting professor at the University of Michigan, George Washington University, and the University of Alabama.
Professor Crain serves on the Executive Committee of the Labor Law Group, a national collective of law professors dedicated to advancing pedagogy and scholarship on labor and employment law. She is Treasurer and Program Chair for the Group, as well. In addition, she serves on the editorial Board of the Employee Rights and Employment Policy Journal, a peer-reviewed journal focusing on labor and employment law. Professor Crain is a past chair of the AALS Section on Labor and Employment Law.