Comments from the Chair Good News on the ABA's E-Mail Crisis! As has been previously reported, Immediate Past Section Chair Gordy Krischer and I started the ball rolling on getting the ABA Section Officers Conference working on the ABA’s massive email problem that has led 42% of ABA members and Section members to limit their emails from the ABA. A checked box in the Communications Restriction area of your ABA member record prevents us from sending email messages to you about our CLE programs, midwinter meetings, discounts for Early Bird registrations, and even the FLASH. That is why I’ve been asking you to forward the FLASH to anyone in your firm or outside it who may be interested. E-mails are critical because mail has become prohibitively expensive, as well as slow. Many other Sections have also been putting on pressure on this issue after we alerted them. The hard work the Section Officers Conference has put in on this has finally paid off. Last week, we were notified that the ABA will change its e-mail policy before the August Annual Meeting in Chicago. Under the new policy, the ABA will activate a feature that will allow members to specify the ABA entities from which they would like to receive e-mails. Thus, anyone who does not want to receive a deluge of e-mails from the ABA can still choose to get e-mails from us. Nominations for Section Awards and their Deadlines The Section bestows awards each year recognizing individuals, firms or projects. These are: - the Arvid Anderson Public Sector Labor and Employment Attorney of the Year Award (next nomination deadline January 2013), to be selected at the February 2013 Midwinter Meeting of the State and Local Government Bargaining Committee. This year's award will be presented at the Annual Section Conference in Atlanta on November 1, 2012.
- the Frances Perkins Public Service Award (nomination deadline July 2, 2012), to be awarded at the Annual Section Conference in Atlanta on November 1, 2012, recognizing attorneys or law firms for significant pro bono work. In November 2011, the award was presented to Outten & Golden LLP;
- the Federal Labor & Employment Attorney of the Year Award (nomination deadline July 2, 2012), to be awarded at the Annual Section Conference in Atlanta on November 1, 2012. In November 2011, the award was presented to Lafe Solomon, Acting General Counsel, National Labor Relations Board.
Nominations for ABA Awards and their Deadlines Each year, various ABA entities present awards to honor individuals who have made the kind of difference recognized by the award. In the past, for example, the Section has nominated the Honorable Marsha Berzon for the Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award, sponsored by the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession and given during the ABA Annual Meeting. She received the award in 2007. Information on the award and on nomination criteria is online. The deadline for the nominations for the 2013 awards have not been announced but likely will be in November 2012. The ABA Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession sponsors an annual Spirit of Excellence Award, given during the ABA Midyear Meeting in February. Information on the award and on nomination criteria is online. Council Member-At-Large Cynthia Nance received this award in 2012. The Section nominated her for this award. The deadline for submission of nominations for the 2013 awards is July 16, 2012. This year, we have nominated Council Member Kelly M. Dermody for the Stonewall Award, sponsored by the ABA Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. Information on the award and on nomination criteria is at the same page already linked. The person selected for the award has not been announced, but we're keeping our fingers crossed. The ABA Commission on Disability Rights sponsors the Paul G. Hearne Award for Disability Rights. The next nomination deadline will be sometime in November or December 2012. The ABA Commission on Disability Rights also has just instituted the Award for Champions for Disability Inclusion in the Legal Profession, which will honor organizations such as law firms and corporations. The Commission is still working on the details and will post them on its Website, when finalized. GPSolo Magazine Will Print a Digest of an Article from the ABA Journal of Labor and Employment Law The ABA General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division digests, in its GPSolo Magazine, what its editors consider the best articles in ABA publications. It has decided that an article in the Spring 2011 issue of the ABA Journal of Labor and Employment Law, "Continuous Confusion: Defining the Workday in the Modern Economy," meets the "Best of" test, and it will digest the article and print the digest in an upcoming issue. Congratulations to authors Richard L. Alfred and Jessica M. Schauer of Seyfarth Shaw LLP, and to editors Professor Stephen F. Befort and Professor Laura J. Cooper of the University of Minnesota Law School, and then-Student Editor-in-Chief Tyler Wiese! Submit Your Own Article to the ABA Journal of Labor and Employment Law Professors Stephen Befort and Laura Cooper are always looking for new authors to expand the breadth and depth of the Journal, and to help keep it balanced. The guidelines for submission of articles are available via links on the Journal's page under the ABA Website's Publications hub.
Audio Recordings of the Seattle Conference Will Soon Be Available The 2011 Seattle Annual Section Conference was a huge success with about 1,300 attendees. That is still less than 10% of the attorney members of the Section. In addition, many members who were there are like me: with such an embarrassment of riches, we wished we could hear more than one panel at the same time. We audio-recorded all panels at the Seattle Conference and are in the home stretch on discussions with providers so that we can make them available at reasonable prices. Order details will be included in next month's FLASH. In addition, the program written materials are available online. Rick Seymour
Chair, ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law | 