Message from the Chairs

Diane and I hope that you all have had a great summer. It has been a busy and productive spring and summer for the Employment and Labor Relations Committee, and we are looking forward to an even more eventful fall.

Our program at the Section of Litigation Annual Conference in San Antonio, Texas was very well received, and we would like to give special thanks to Lee Stapleton of Baker & McKenzie, Kim Stith of Waste Management, Anne Marie Estevez of Morgan Lewis, Mike Sullivan of Paul, Plevin, Sullivan & Connaughton and our own Diane Seltzer for their excellent papers and panel discussion. In addition, to some fantastic programs, the group enjoyed Texas barbeque and roadhouse music and the pleasure of seeing colleagues dressed up in some rather amazing cowboy attire.

Diane and I attended the Spring Leadership meeting in Vancouver, B.C. and the ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco and are excited about upcoming opportunities for Committee members. The Section of Litigation is drawing together talent from up to nine separate committees for a publication on class actions. It will be in a format much like the Section's recent e-Discovery publication—a journal type format, not a law review article format. Our committee has been asked to contribute an article addressing important developments over the last couple of years and any emerging trends and issues in class actions affecting our area of practice. The publication will be organized by an editorial group made up of the authors and the overall editors. Anyone interested should contact me, Diane, or John Isbister. Many of our committee members have participated in the updating of the ABA's "Employment Litigation Handbook" and have submitted excellent work. We are starting the editing process and hope to have a completed version submitted for publication before the end of the year. Thank you to all who have spent valuable time working on this book. We very much appreciate your efforts, teamwork and dedication to seeing this project through to completion.

After August, we will be preparing for the 2007-2008 year and will meet in Chicago for the first leadership meeting of the year. Our newsletter editors and web editors will be attending the Editor's Symposium to further enhance our written and electronic offerings to the Committee. As a part of that, we would like to invite any Committee members who have an interest in writing articles for the newsletter or who are interested in submitting materials for the website, including writing for a blog on this website to contact me or Diane. Also, there are opportunities for leadership at the programming and membership subcommittee levels as well, and we certainly want to hear from you if you would like to be considered for the upcoming year.

Finally, we have submitted a program proposal for the 2008 Section of Litigation Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. and have agreed to co-sponsor programs with other committees, including the Insurance Coverage Litigation Committee (Top Ten Insurance Traps for Litigators) and the Woman Advocate Committee (Lessons Learned from My First Trial). Please contact David Warner or Susan Lonowski if you have specific proposals for other CLE presentations this year, including online webinars.

Have a safe and wonderful rest of summer, and we will be in touch soon!

Diane Seltzer
Ann Marie Painter
Co-Chairs, Employment & Labor Relations Law Committee