The Section

Greetings Section members, and welcome to my last column as Section Chair!

It has been an incredible year for our Section and for the labor and employment bar, notwithstanding all of the challenges we face in our profession, country, and the world at large.

It seems we have adapted to constantly adapting.

Over these past months I have been so privileged to spend time in the company of thousands of Section members and friends. This year has challenged us with hybrid offices, caregiver burnout, the great resignation, wellness worries, and chasms of cultural and political disagreement—issues reverberating through our clients’ lives and often our own workplaces or families. Through great camaraderie and wonderful programming across the Section, this past year reinforced that we have much we can learn from each other.

To that end, our Section’s Webinar Committee, led by co-chairs Keith Greenberg, Gary Messing, Alyson Palmer, Kate Sedey and Amy Zdravecky, with Vice Chairs Sarah Bryan Fask and Jason Veny, delivered incredible educational content. In particular, the Heritage Month Webinar Series produced by Kate Sedey amplified Section members’ content honoring racial, ethnic, gender, and/or LGBTQ identities. The Committee investigated and presented emerging issues all year.

Through the tremendous work of our International Labor and Employment Law Committee and the Outreach to International Lawyers Committee, our Section furthered connections with our LEL colleagues globally, organizing alliances among Section members and sister labor and employment bars around the world. Last month, through the efforts of Mercedes Balado Bevilacqua, Cristiano Cominotto, Kathleen Healy and Clare Murray, the Section hosted an online gathering in which over a dozen bar leaders from Asia, Europe and both North and South America shared perspectives from our home countries about the “modern workplace during these times of economic turbulence.” The conversation, revealing overlapping themes and strategies, was another compelling reminder that so many of the things that trouble and confound us in 2022 are broadly shared across all variety of political and cultural differences.

As I described in the Spring Newsletter, we also enjoyed getting back to in-person programming this year. Among the great pleasures of being a Section leader is the opportunity for extensive engagement with Section members working in LEL areas outside one’s own professional silo and hearing how other Section members, committees and projects are tackling tough LEL issues. From my lucky vantage, I can attest that the Section is chock-full of interesting, dynamic and hilarious people.

Yet while I am genuinely buoyed by the connections and commonalities our Section furthered this year, my travels across our membership illuminated a common theme that so many shared: both locally and globally, people in 2022 are exhausted and worried and, of course, it is affecting our workplaces.

The amount of racism, gender violence and transphobia in our society is frankly, breathtaking. Climate change is upon us, raising existential questions. The global economy is disrupted, and in too many places workers cannot afford to support their families’ basic needs through full-time work. And we have witnessed attacks on our democracy that envelop us with a dread about what institutions can be trusted. That is a lot to assimilate even before you consider that, on average, there is a mass shooting every other day, and COVID-19 is endemic.

As we have seen, the constant stress of so many issues can make anyone a bit overwhelmed or panicky. And people can become paralyzed into inaction when so many things are simultaneously a crisis priority. But if I have one parting message from my journeys, it is that we have to find ways to focus and engage. For the sake of our country and humanity, not to mention equity and justice, these societal threats require committed, results-driven action. More than ever, we will need to be creative and resilient. We need all of us working together. To paraphrase National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman, we also must be brave enough to bring light to the darkness of these days . . . .

When day comes, we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never-ending shade?

The loss we carry. A sea we must wade.

We braved the belly of the beast.

We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace, and the norms and notions of what “just” is isn’t always justice.

And yet the dawn is ours before we knew it.

Somehow we do it.

As I pass the baton to incoming Section Chair Doug Dexter, along with incoming Chair-Elect Denise Clark and Vice Chairs Joe Torres and Jason Marsili, I am genuinely excited for their ability to lead in this moment. Importantly, our Section will also continue to be directed by our amazing Section staff, led by Director Brad Hoffman, with Associate Director Rose Ashford and Office Administrator Gema Zaragoza, a team that makes possible everything that happens in our Section and who, individually and collectively, have my deepest respect and appreciation.

The Section is in great hands.

Finally, thanks to all for the honor of serving this year.