Mr. Willis received his B.A. from Wesleyan University in 1974 and is a 1978 graduate of Boalt Hall School of Law (Order of the Coif). He is admitted to practice in California, Arkansas, and Nevada. While his practice has largely focused on traditional labor and employment law cases, he also has tried a number of ERISA actions, contract claims, and education law cases. Some of his recent appellate cases include Advanced Stretchforming, Inc. v. NLRB, 208 F.3d 801 (9th Cir. 2000), superseded on reconsideration, 233 F.3d 1176 (9th Cir. 2000), which expands the rights of unionized workers against successor employers, and United Food & Commercial Workers Union v. Superior Court, 83 Cal.App.4th 566, 99 Cal.Rptr.2d 849 (2000), which found that California's version of the Norris-LaGuardia Act barred an injunction against picketing in that case.

For ten years, he was co-editor of the National Lawyers Guild's Employee and Union Member Guide to Labor Law, to which he contributed the current chapter on the right to strike. He has also published articles on international labor solidarity, labor law during the Clinton years, and Wal-Mart's threat to workers' health care benefits, and has spoken to labor and attorney groups on issues such as workplace violence, privacy rights, and the Americans With Disabilities Act.