I was thrilled to participate on the panel "Online Activity in the Workplace" at Fordham University School of Law on March 19, 2013.  C-SPAN recorded, and the video is available here.

In February 2012, the Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution at UNLV hosted a conference on Democracy and the Workplace.  They brought together terrific scholars to examine various aspects of the connections between democracy and the workplace.  They have now posted the videos of the conference. You can access background on the program here: http://www.law.unlv.edu/LaborLawSymposium.   You can go directly to the videos here: http://www.law.unlv.edu/node/11586.  Included in panel 1, near the end, is a talk describing my current research about worker cooperatives.

Twenty-Ninth Annual

Carl A. Warns Jr. Labor & Employment
Law Institute

Call for Proposals and Manuscripts

The Twenty-Ninth Annual Carl A. Warns Jr. Labor &
Employment Law Institute invites you to submit a proposal to speak on a labor
law or employment law topic.  We are accepting proposals on important or cutting-edge developments on issues that are relevant to practitioners. Some suggested topics are: wage and hour issues involving independent contractors and the Internal Revenue Service, the Dukes decision and class actions in employment law, and issues involved in advising those engaged in
non-traditional service relationships, rather than traditional employment
relationships, about their contracts.   

The Institute will take place on June 21 & 22, 2012, at
the Downtown Marriott in Louisville, Kentucky. 
Attendees will be a nice blend of practitioners, public servants, and
professors.  If you are unfamiliar with Louisville, it is a great place to spend a few days.  More
information is available at http://www.gotolouisville.com/index.aspx.

Proposals must be submitted by midnight Friday, December 30.  Based on your proposal, you may receive an invitation to speak at the Institute. Speakers at the Institute will also have the opportunity to submit a manuscript that will be published in the University of Louisville Law Review
Warns Institute Colloquium Issue, subject to space availability, a review of
quality, and entrance into and compliance with the University of Louisville Law
Review Author Agreement.  Manuscripts will be due March 1, 2011.  Selection of
manuscripts for publication will occur in April.  All speakers must ultimately have some type of written material, such as an outline, article, or work in progress to
include with the conference materials. 

Please submit your proposals to Ariana Levinson at a.levinson@louisville.edu and copy Elisabeth Fitzpatrick at elisabeth.fitzpatrick@louisville.edu.  There is no page limit or standard format for proposals although a short succinct proposal is preferred.  You are welcome to send draft manuscripts in addition to your proposal, if you desire.

 

I had the pleasure of presenting my work in progress regarding "What the Awards Tell Us about Labor Arbitration of Employment Discrimination Claims" at the Sixth Annual Labor and Employment Law Colloquium at Southwestern Law School on Friday, September 16, and then, again yesterday at a University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law facutly workshop.  I received helpful comments and will post again when the manuscript is ready for public circulation.  For now, I am attaching my slides.

I recently posted the materials from my lecture "Workplace Privacy and Monitoring:  The Quest for Balanced Interests."  You can now watch the video of the lecture in synch with the slides here!

I had the wonderful opportunity to give The Littler Mendelson Employment and Labor Law Lecture on "Workplace Privacy and Monitoring: The Quest for Balanced Interests" at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law (Cleveland State University) on the evening of Thursday, March 31, 2011.  I am attaching copies of the handouts.  

 I have just posted a draft of my article, "Toward a Cohesive Interpretation of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act for the Electronic Monitoring of Employees," forthcoming in volume 114 of the West Virginia Law Review on SSRN.  Here is the abstract. 

Professor Levinson proposes a cohesive interpretation of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) designed to protect employees' fundamental right to privacy in their electronic communications.  The difficulty of new technology outpacing the law's ability to protect employees' privacy from electronic monitoring by employers is widely acknowledged.  Yet, scholars have generally overlooked or dismissed the potential of the ECPA to provide privacy protection for employees in the electronic workplace, calling instead for reform through the legislative process.  Nevertheless, despite increasing calls from a broad range of entities for stronger privacy protections, passage of new legislation designed to adequately protect employees is, at best, not close at hand, and, at worst, unlikely.  On the other hand, several recent cases suggest that the courts are beginning to interpret the ECPA in ways that accommodate the changes in technology.  Indeed, despite the admittedly limited scope of its coverage, the ECPA can and should be interpreted to provide employees some significant level of protection for their electronic communications.  This article describes the details of how this can be done.

I had the pleasure of presenting on Arbitration and New Technologies at the Federal Mediation & Conciliation Service Bi-Annual Midwest Arbitrators' Symposium at Chicago-Kent College of Law (Institute for Law and the Workplace) on Friday, November 19, 2010.  This presentation updates my previous work in the area.  Attached are my notes and slides, which include citations to recent decisions.  A copy of the article referenced in the slides is available to download here.

The arbitration team competed at the ABA Arbitration Competition Regional at NKU last weekend.  They won the first round (but lost the second to a very high ranking team that came in second overall after the first two rounds).  The team received compliments from many judges on their professionalism.  The judges complimented Brandon Edwards for a well organized opening and direct examination and good leading questions on cross examination, as well as an overall excellent presentation.  They complimented Megan Keane for her very smooth direct examination, her good leading cross examination, her use of a document, and a great job overall.  The judges complimented Samantha Thomas for use of a good timeline on opening statement, her submission of relevant reliable evidence on direct examination, her strategic use of respondent's own exhibits on cross-examination, and her overall very good presentation.  The judges complimented Aaron Price for his use of a good timeline on direct examination, his effective discrediting of the witness on cross examination, his persuasive presentation and use of a demonstrative exhibit on summation, and his overall very good presentation.

 

I had the pleasure of serving as the moderator for a panel last week, at the Fourth Annual ABA LEL Section Conference, entitled "The Art of ADR Advocacy and When to Ignore Your Basic Instincts."  On the panel were four highly experienced and knowledgeable neutrals, Vivian Berger, Susan Grody-Ruben, Mark Irvings, and David Weisenfeld, whose bios are attached.  Also attached are the questions addressed and the outline for the presentation (which includes some of Vivian's insightful thoughts) as well as the papers or outlines submitted by me and the other panelists.