Professor Samantha J. Prince showcases new avenues for protecting app-based drivers and moderates gig economy panel at UC Berkeley Law

CARLISLE, PA—Professor Samantha J. Prince presented her latest research and served as a panel moderator at the annual Colloquium on Scholarship in Employment and Labor Law (COSELL), hosted by the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.

Her current work analyzes the fracturing boundaries of traditional employment law, specifically challenging the historical legal premise that an individual must be classified as an employee to receive baseline workplace safety nets. Building upon her extensive empirical research into the platform economy, Prince identified emerging regulatory mechanisms where independent contractors, such as app-based drivers, can successfully secure core legal rights. These decentralized frameworks utilize localized city ordinances and state laws to mandate protections including minimum wage, eligibility for unemployment compensation, and explicit legal remedies for sexual harassment and discrimination.

In addition to presenting her paper, Prince served as a panel moderator during the conference proceedings, guiding a critical academic discussion titled “The Gig Economy’s Next Chapter.” The panel featured leading workplace law experts and practitioners, including California Western School of Law Professor Susan Bisom-Rapp, University of San Diego School of Law Professor Orly Lobel, and workers' rights attorney Tascha Shahriari-Parsa.

Professor Prince’s extensive scholarship on platform work and worker classification law includes several foundational articles. Her work includes: “The Shoe Is about to Drop for the Platform Economy: Understanding the Current Worker Classification Landscape in Preparation for a Changed World,” published by the University of Memphis Law Review; “The AB5 Experiment – Should States Adopt California’s Worker Classification Law?,” published by the American University Business Law Review; and “The Climate Risk Transfer That Defines The Gig Economy,” a forthcoming article co-authored with Creighton School of Law Dean Joshua Fershée, to be published by the Georgetown Environmental Law Review.

Professor Samantha J. Prince is a Professor of Law and Director of Legal Analysis & Writing at Penn State Dickinson Law. She has a Master of Laws in Taxation from Georgetown University Law Center and was a partner in a regional law firm, where she handled transactional matters that ranged from an initial public offering to regular representation of a publicly traded company. A significant part of her practice was in employee benefits, including retirement plan design and operation. Her expertise from practice has fueled her research, enabling her to become an expert on 401(k) vesting schedules, employee benefits transparency, and gig work. In practice, most of her clients were small- to medium-sized businesses and entrepreneurs, including start-ups. Professor Prince brought her practice knowledge to the Law School and established the Dickinson Law entrepreneurship program. She is an advisor for the Entrepreneurship Law Certificate that is available to students and is the founder and moderator of the Inside Entrepreneurship Law blog.