Wydział Prawa i Administracji Uniwersytet Warszawski

Professor Małgorzata Gersdorf graduated with honours from the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Warsaw in 1975. She made therein her way from Assistant to Head of the Department of Labour Law and Social Policy of that Faculty. Under the supervision of Professor Zbigniew Salwa, she prepared and defended (in December 1981) her doctoral thesis entitled. "Conclusion of an employment contract" (PWN 1985), for which she received an award from the Minister of Science and Higher Education. The basis for the initiation of the habilitation procedure was a monograph entitled. "Employer insolvency in labour law" (LexisNexis, 2002). On 10 March 2003, the habilitation colloquy of Professor Gersdorf took place and unanimously the Faculty Council conferred upon her the degree of Doctor Habilitated (approved in June 2003). Further contributions and a study on employment law (LexisNexis, 2013) resulted in the academic title of Professor of Legal Sciences conferred on 1 April 2015.

The academic record of Professor Gersdorf includes nearly 350 publications, ranging from monographs and commentaries to articles, glosses, reviews and a number of other studies. Her scientific work also includes cooperation with renowned legal journals. From March 1997 to 2003. she was the editor-in-chief of the ‘Social and Health Insurance Review’. Currently, she is Editor-in-Chief of "Labour and Social Security" (in the past Deputy Editor-in-Chief and Chair of the Scientific Council) and a member of the editorial board of "Judicial Review".

From 1 January 1992 to 31 August 1993, she served as Vice-Director of the Institute of Legal and Administrative Sciences at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Warsaw; from 1 September 1993, she was Vice-Dean for Finance of the Faculty for two terms. At the Faculty she headed the Doctoral Studies and currently, the Department of Labour Law and Social Policy. For one term (2005-2008), she served as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Warsaw. From 2000 to 2012, she was a member of the Senate of the University of Warsaw (including 2008-2012 as Chair of the Legal and Statutory Committee).           

She combines her work at the university with the practice of law, providing an overview of real-life problems and up-to-date topics for research. She passed the bar exam in 1986 with a very good result and practised as a legal advisor for many years. From 1991 to 2004, she was a member of the Office of Studies and Analyses of the Supreme Court (formerly the Office of Jurisprudence) and then a legal adviser to the Supreme Court until 2005. In recognition of her knowledge and practical skills, she became a judge of the Supreme Court, ruling in the Chamber of Labour, Social Security and Public Affairs. The six-year term of office of the First President of the Supreme Court, which she assumed on 30 April 2014, proved to be a trial period that none of her predecessors had to face in democratic Poland.

These endeavours have been recognised and appreciated by a number of Polish and European bodies. In 2019, Professor Gersdorf was awarded the 'Theodor Heuss Prize' (awarded by the Stuttgart-based Theodor Heuss Foundation) and the 'Bonn International Democracy Prize' (funded by the Bonn-based Internationale Demokratiepreis Bonn). On 29 Apr.il 2020, she was awarded the Polish Senate Medal. In 2021, she received the Gez Medal (awarded by the Dutch Geuzenpenning Foundation based in Vlaardingen)