Message from the Co-Chairs

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

2022 was a year of considerable changes in the job market. Terms such as: remote working, great resignation, work/life balance, and short week have become commonly used. The reallocation of international employees at all levels has changed during and following the pandemic. In the second half of the year, we also witnessed the phenomenon of the reorganization of large US IT companies, which indeed anticipates a future trend in other sectors.

Based on this perspective, all legal operators: lawyers, academics, and institutional representatives are called to be active subjects of change. And today, as never before, the American Bar Association plays a decisive role in providing information and creating dialogue between all the stakeholders.

As co-chairs of the International Labor & Employment Law Committee, we are committed to nurturing dialogue within the committee, and we believe that the participation of all is more important today than ever, given the significant changes that are taking place in the labor market.

We look back fondly at the incredibly informative panels on the International Track at the 16^th Annual Labor & Employment Law Conference and CLE in Washington, D.C. and look ahead to the 2023 Mid-Year Meeting of our committee in Amsterdam. 

We also want to welcome to the 2022/2023 leadership of our committee the following new Co-Chairs: Claire Dawson, Employee, Cristiano Cominotto, International – Employee,  Paul Callaghan, International – Employer, and Monika Mehta, Union & Employee. We welcome back for their last year of committee leadership Kelly Bunting, Employer, and Ify Okoli-Watson, In-House Corporate Counsel, and we give a big shout out to the co-chairs whose terms ended in 2022: Melanie Crowley, JJ Rosenbaum and Nancy Shilepsky.

The 2022/23 Committee Co-Chairs are all looking forward to building upon the great traditions of this committee, including sourcing and presenting cutting-edge topics of importance to international practitioners, as well as continuing the fostering of global friendships and the camaraderie which have always been the hallmark of our committee.

If you missed the Annual Section Conference in Washington, D.C., the papers and presentations from the three International Track programs are available on the Section website: https://www.americanbar.org/groups/labor_law/events_cle/lel-conference16/conference-materials/. A huge thank you to our panelists for “Securing Client Communications and Data: Requirements for Attorneys Practicing Labor and Employment Law Internationally.” “Was Brexit that Bad? Separating the Hype from Reality.” and “Workplace Culture Shifts and New Atypical Work Arrangements.” And an especially huge thank you to the speakers who stepped in at the last moment for the original speakers who could not attend the conference: Marcia Longdon, Denise Backhouse and Johannes Traut.

And if you missed the Committee’s Business Meeting at the Annual Section Conference, we are very excited to announce the 2023 Midyear Meeting will take place in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, from April 30 - May 4, 2023. Another huge thank you to the Host Committee of our 2022 Midyear Meeting in Berlin, Germany, without whom we could not have had such a fantastic meeting: Dr. André Zimmermann, Dr. Thomas Granetzny, Dr. Kara Preedy, Dr. Daniel Hund, Peter Krebühl, Dr. Christopher Jordan and Benjamin Biere. And a welcome and thank you to the members of the 2023 Host Committee: Wietje de Muinck Keizer, Martijn van Hall, Bart Hunnekens, Els de Wind and Thomas Timmermans.

In case you haven’t noticed, there are a LOT of people who work together all year long to make our mid-year meetings and our International Track presentations at the annual conferences successful.

We hope you will consider attending the 2023 Midyear Meeting in Amsterdam, and please reach out to any of the co-chairs or Brad Hoffman of the ABA if you are interested in a sponsorship. The Midyear Meeting not only takes teamwork, it takes money! 

Until we meet again, we say “tot ziens” – for now!

Warm regards,

Committee Co-Chairs
Kelly Bunting (Employer Co-Chair)
Paul Callaghan (International-Employer Co-Chair)
Cristiano Cominotto (International-Employee Co-Chair)
Claire Dawson (Employee Co-Chair)
Ify Okoli-Watson (In-House Corportae Counsel Co-Chair) 
Monika Mehta (Union & Employee Co-Chair) 

Thank You, Rick Bales!!

If you have enjoyed reading the International Labor & Employment Law Committee’s Newsletter all these years, then please thank the man who is largely responsible – Professor Rick Bales. Professor Bales has been the curator of the content of our newsletters since February 2015. He is the one who pestered our members about getting their articles in on time, who came up with topic ideas, who encouraged and supported those who did not think they could write a good article, and who always made sure the newsletter was timely, informative and full of interesting ideas that kept everyone talking. The committee newsletter was a beacon of light during the dark times of COVID, when none of us could meet in person.

Professor Bales may be stepping down from his position as editor, but he will remain a valuable and valued member of our committee.  Now he will now have more time for his arbitration work and will continue teaching at Ohio Northern University (where he was dean for 3 years) and as a visiting professor at other universities, which have recently included the University of Akron and the Peking School of Transnational Law in Shenzhen, China – not to mention the immeasurable support he provides for the labor and employment law community through the Colloquium for Scholarship in Employment and Labor Law (COSELL), Workplace Prof Blog, and SSRN.

Please join the Co-Chairs and me in thanking Rick for an oftentimes thankless job. He has been the driving force in keeping the committee’s newsletter going and in making it the fantastic publication it is today.

Kelly Bunting