Welcome to the Section of Labor and Employment Law! The Section has an ongoing goal of increasing young lawyer membership and participation. There are plenty of reasons why you as a young lawyer should become active in the Section. In my own case, attendance at annual meetings and midwinter meetings of the Committee on Development of the Law Under the NLRA allowed me to become confident in my view of legal issues, with the realization that my thinking on some things was in line with that of seasoned, expert lawyers. I had the experience of working on editing the Developing Labor Law treatise over many years, and I learned a lot of law in the process. I also met great people at all levels of experience. With our Section's many substantive committees and their related publications, you'd find these same things to be true in your particular area of interest. Participation can also be good for business, and the contacts that you make with members of all sides of the bar (plaintiff, union, management, in-house, government, academia and the judiciary) will help you in your practice. And I can pretty much guarantee you that you will have fun.

I look forward to working with you and to seeing you at Section events in the near future.

Sincerely,

James R. LaVaute, Chair

The Section of Labor and Employment Law is your link to information that matters to you. Our 22,000+ members represent all perspectives of labor and employment law: employer, union, employee, public, and neutral. All are committed to a balanced discussion of employment issues. Annual dues are $40 for ABA Lawyer and Associate members.

The benefits of membership include committee participation, publications, CLE, government contacts, networking and more.

Employee Benefits Committee. The membership of this Committee has grown substantially in recent years, reflecting developments in the area of employee benefits law resulting from significant statutory, regulatory, and caselaw changes. Membership is well-balanced among management, union and plaintiff practitioners and is comprised of full-time benefits practitioners, academics, government attorneys, and lawyers who have a more general labor and employment practice but who deal with employee benefits issues frequently enough to benefit from committee membership and participation. The committee is responsible for the publication of Employee Benefits Law. >>Featured Committee Newsletter Article

The Section of Labor & Employment Law is pleased to announce that it is accepting applications for its Young Lawyers Division Fellowship Program. This program is designed to give young lawyers who are Section members the opportunity to become familiar with and actively involved in the Section.

Highlights of this program are as follows:

1. A two-year Fellowship term with the Section of Labor & Employment Law;
2. Participants will be assigned to a substantive committee within the Section;
3. Participants will be expected to attend the midyear meetings for the committee on which the individual is placed;
4. In addition to waiver of the registration fee, participants will be funded by the Section for the midyear meetings as follows:
   a. Airfare in compliance with Section policy;
   b. Parking and ground transportation to and from the airport up to $50 total;
   c. The conference rate for a single hotel room for the duration of the midwinter/midyear committee meeting.

Completed applications by interested individuals must be postmarked no later than August 31, 2008. The application should be sent to the Section office at the following address:

American Bar Association
Section of Labor & Employment Law
321 N. Clark Street
Chicago, Illinois 60610