Comments from the Chair

Where the Substantive Work of the Section Gets Done: Standing Committees and Midwinter Meetings

The Section has 18 standing committees, ranging alphabetically from ADR in Labor and Employment Law to Workers' Compensation and covering almost all of the areas of our practice. These committees are involved in the publication of our 27 treatises and put on an enormous amount of CLE programming at their midwinter meetings, going into much greater depth than is possible at our Annual Conferences. When issues touching on a committee's core interests are raised within the larger ABA, we frequently ask for the views of the committee co-chairs and liaisons.

The standing committees are extremely important, and the richest experiences of Section membership arise when members join standing committees, attend their midwinter meetings, and participate in their activities. Persons who cannot take the time to attend a midwinter meeting can still participate in the regional activities that some committees put on, and can participate in writing or reviewing chapters of the committee's publications.

Many members may not be aware of this: more than half of our attorney members have not joined a standing committee, and the majority of those who join do not attend the midwinter meetings. This may be because they have not been before and are not aware of how educational--and enjoyable--they are.

A complete list of the committees, with descriptions of their areas of focus ("Who We Are"), their leadership, their midwinter meeting, their treatises, and rosters of their members, is available on the Section web site at www.americanbar.org/groups/labor_law/committees.html. Please take a moment to check out the committees relevant to your areas of practice. Section members may join any number of committees without charge! Just click on "Join a Committee" on the same page as the list of committees.

Rick Seymour

Chair, ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law

Special Feature

NLRB Round-Up

A number of new developments at the Board warrant the interest of both labor and employment practitioners.

• Three Board appointees. On January 4, the White House announced the recess appointments of Sharon Block, Terence Flynn, and Richard Griffin to the Board, bringing the Board up to a full five members for the first time since August 2010. The Board had dropped to two members on January 3, thus lacking a quorum under the Supreme Court's decision in New Process Steel (New Process Steel v. NLRB, 130 S. Ct. 2635 (2010)). The nominations have been the subject of some controversy, as the President made recess appointments despite the pendency of a "pro forma" session in the Senate.
  
• Boeing settlement. Of course, the Agency has been no stranger to controversy over the past year, in part due to the widely-publicized case involving The Boeing Company's location of a plant in South Carolina. The case was resolved when the Machinists Union requested withdrawal of its charge after reaching a settlement with the company - including a successor collective bargaining agreement for employees in Washington State - in early December, and the Acting General Counsel approved that request.
  

Midwinter Meetings 2012

State & Local Government Bargaining 2012 Midwinter Meeting

The State & Local Government Government Bargaining Committee will hold its 2012 Midwinter Meeting on January 26-28, 2012 at the Westin Resort and Spa in beautiful Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

Our Committee addresses head-on the nationwide movement to amend, restrict or repeal several state and local public sector collective bargaining laws, with a three-hour "Great Debate" between two impassioned advocates. Guest speaker Dr. Daniel DiSalvo (Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow, Asst. Prof. of Political Science, CUNY) advocates for restricting collective bargaining right, while long-time Committee member and Union attorney Joel D'Alba (Asher, Gittler & D'Alba, Ltd., Chicago) defends public sector workers' rights. The Committee also will present its comprehensive sub-committee reports, covering the past year's wide-ranging collective bargaining and constitutional issues that affect public sector employers and employees.

Visit the meeting webpage to register, and learn more about meeting events including a sunset cruise and golf tournament. We look forward to seeing you in sunny Puerto Vallarta!

Committee on ADR 2012 Midwinter Meeting

The Committee on ADR in Labor & Employment Law will have its Midwinter Meeting from February 2-5, 2012, at the brand new Trump Ocean Club International Hotel in Panama City, Panama. Highlights of the meeting include:

• Professor Alexander Colvin (Cornell) will present his recent empirical study on employment arbitration;
• Professor Kristen Blankley (Nebraska-Lincoln) will discuss recent Supreme Court decisions that impact our practice;
• We will hear from officials from the EEOC, FMCS, FLRA and the Panama Canal Authority's LRB; and
• We will have Panel Discussions on developing topics, including:
  • Working through Impasse in Employment Mediation - Are There Lessons to be Learned from Collective Bargaining Mediation?;
  • Public Sector Bargaining Update;
  • Recent Developments at the NLRB and DOL; and
  • Emerging Ethical Issues involving "Who Is the Client" in an ADR setting

This Midwinter Meeting is ideal for any labor & employment practitioner whose work includes an ADR component. For more information and registration, please click here.

Contribute to the Journal of Labor & Employment Law!

The ABA Journal of Labor & Employment Law invites members of the Section to submit articles for possible publication in the Journal on any topic of labor and employment law of interest to practicing attorneys. The Journal seeks to include articles from diverse perspectives (representatives of unions, employers, and employees, as well as neutrals) As a large proportion of the Journal's submissions have come from attorneys practicing labor or discrimination law, it has a special interest in receiving articles from other areas of practice including ERISA, OSHA, state common law, public sector labor and employment law, and ADR. Manuscripts should be shorter than forty pages, and doublespaced in Word format, and attached to an e-mail.
Learn more about the Journal.

Listen to the 2011 Supreme Court Update!

Listen to Professor Eric Schnapper's 2011 Supreme Court Update (mp3 file)
Note: The Supreme Court Update begins approximately six minutes into the presentation.

Section Treatises: New Editions & Updates

Now available: The Fourth Edition of Trade Secrets: A State-by-State Survey, containing in-depth analysis of each state's statutory and common law protection of trade secrets. Written in cooperation with the Employment Rights and Responsibilities Committee, Trade Secrets: A State-by-State Survey, Fourth Edition provides expanded discussion of the inevitable disclosure doctrine, the types of information granted or denied trade secret protection under the various Uniform Trade Secrets Acts, and the availability of injunctive relief and damages. The treatise also addresses several issues as specific "Additional Topics," including amendments to complaint, consolidation, conspiracy, conversion, declaratory judgments, default judgments, directed verdicts, evidence (circumstantial), first-filed rule, forum selection clauses, gist of the action doctrine, interrogatories, jurisdiction (supplemental), litigation privilege, ownership versus possession, questions of law, and sanctions. Additionally, it contains expanded discussions of the inevitable disclosure doctrine and important cross-references to other titles in the Section's State-by-State Survey Series.

LEL Hot Topic

NLRB Issues Final Rule Requiring Employers to Post NLRA Rights Poster

Unionized and non-unionized employers subject to NLRB jurisdiction must post an NLRA rights poster in their work places beginning January 31, 2012. The new posting requirement is the result of NLRB formal rulemaking finalized on August 30, 2011. The NLRB's Final Rule can be viewed here.

LEL Hot Topic

Specialty Healthcare & Rehab. Ctr. Of Mobile, 357 NLRB No. 83 (2011)

Introduction
The National Labor Relations Board ("NLRB" or "Board") overturned its decision in Park Manor Care Center, 305 NLRB 872 (1991) and held that the traditional community of interest standard will determine appropriate bargaining units in non-acute healthcare facilities.