Aaron Baker was an internationally recognised scholar specialising in the area of employment law.
Originally from the United States where he was born in 1965, he earned a perfect 4.0 grade point average during his BA in political science from St Louis University followed by graduating at the top of his JD class at St Louis University School of Law winning the university’s moot competition and several awards. He then spent the early part of his career as an employment lawyer representing both employers and employees in disability, race, gender and age discrimination cases for over five years. During this time, he spent a year as law clerk to the Honourable Edward D. Robertson, Jr., then Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Missouri.
He then came to the UK to read for the BCL at Oxford University in 2000. While there, he was named Vinerian Scholar (proxime accessit) in 2001 and on the founding editorial board of the Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal.
After a year at Plymouth University, Aaron was appointed Lecturer in Law at Durham University in 2002. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2006 and an Associate Professor (Reader) since 2011. At Durham, Aaron served in several leadership roles including as Deputy Head of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Health. His educational focus on creating ‘communities of practice’ an innovation that still underpins current university strategy. His teaching was popular with students and his employment law module among the most popular options offered.
Aaron built up an impressive body of research. He has published articles in several top refereed law journals, including the Modern Law Review, the American Journal of Comparative Law, Public Law and the Industrial Law Journal. He has written on anti-discrimination dispute resolution, comparative dispute resolution and anti-discrimination law under the European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act 1998. He is a co-author of the authoritative textbook Smith and Wood’s Employment Law. He has also been a visiting professor at the University of Paris-Nanterre.
Aaron passed in July 2020 after a courageous battle with health issues over the last year. He is greatly missed by all who knew him.
