Agenda the American Employment Law Council

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Agenda the American Employment Law Council HOME Agenda The American Employment Law Council Twenty-Third Annual Conference The Ojai Valley Inn & Spa Ojai, California October 21–24, 2015 Protecting Domestic and Global Employers from High-Stakes Challenges While Gaining a Competitive Edge in an Age of Unprecedented Change and Governmental Scrutiny The American Employment Law Council (AELC) 2015 conference will take a deep dive into pressing international employment law developments and strategies, the unprecedented volume and scope of federal government compliance and enforcement initiatives, the effect of new technologies on employment practices and litigation, what pay equity means and what it will take to make it a reality, worker centers and new forms of concerted activity, pitfalls and pratfalls in classifying employees in light of federal exemption regulations, and advanced techniques for defending individual and class employment litigation—among others. Senior lawyers from national and multi- national companies and experienced outside counsel from around the world will address the most pressing legal issues and offer key insights and advice for tackling the major challenges we face. The plenary sessions, smaller group discussions, and afternoon panels will offer attendees an opportunity to meet and benchmark with peers, address issues of mutual concern and interest, and socialize throughout the three-day conference. Hope Eastman, Chair, Board of Directors Paley, Rothman, Goldstein, Rosenberg, Eig, & Cooper, Chtd. Lawrence Ashe Parker, Hudson, Rainer & Dobbs LLP Mark Dichter Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP Paul Grossman Paul Hastings LLP Jocelyn Hunter The Home Depot Carl Jordan Vinson & Elkins LLP Mark Nordstrom General Electric Company Michael Reiss Davis Wright Tremaine LLP Gary Siniscalco Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP 1 AELC 2015 PAGE 1 HOME Wednesday, October 21, 2015 12:00 noon – 1:30 p.m. AELC Board of Directors Meeting 1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. AELC Advisory Board Meeting (Board of Directors and Members of Advisory Board) 2:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. Working Sessions: A Deep Dive into Pressing International Employment Law Developments and Strategies Wednesday’s sessions are designed for international practitioners, in-house counsel with global operations, and U.S. counsel who coordinate international employment advice. Participants are encouraged to contribute actively in these sessions through advance submission of documents that will be included in the program materials and/or remarks during the sessions that will focus on recent developments, experiences and strategic advice on: 2:30 p.m. – 3:50 p.m. The Challenges of Acquiring Businesses Internationally: Legal Overview and Best Practices for In-house Counsel This panel will focus on the practical and legal aspects of managing an international M&A transaction (i.e., a stock sale, asset sale or merger) from an employment law perspective, including topics such as the Acquired Right Directive in Europe and other unique requirements elsewhere; planning and executing reductions in force; establishing new terms and conditions; the content and timing of consultation with unions and works councils; challenges regarding global announcements; practical solutions to assist in- house counsel in achieving business targets and limiting legal exposure, litigation costs, and business disruption. Panelists and Discussion Leaders: Melanie Crowley Mason Hayes & Curran Ming Henderson Seyfarth Shaw (UK) LLP Sally Sommers Western Union 3:50 p.m. – 4:10 p.m. Break 4:10 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. Self-Inflicted Agony: Background Checks that Bite. How Much (or Little) Can Domestic and Global Employers Find Out About Candidates and Employees? Global organizations increasingly use background checks as part of their hiring process, but legal restrictions on their permissible use. content, and retention of results vary from country to country. Drawing on U.S. and a number of international examples, the panel will discuss data privacy restrictions, including employee consent and transfer to the U.S.; reliability of background checks; the onslaught of class claims and systemic cases arising from background and credit checks based on the Fair Credit Reporting Act or the EEOC’s guidance on reliance on criminal convictions; and best background check practices for domestic and global employers. Panelists and Discussion Leaders: Teresa Hutson Microsoft Corporation Trishanda Treadwell Parker, Hudson, Rainer & Dobbs LLP 5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. Registration Open 6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. Welcoming Reception for All Registrants and Their Guests 2 AELC 2015 PAGE 2 HOME Thursday, October 22, 2015 7:15 a.m. – 8:00 a.m. Continental Breakfast 9:00 a.m. Spouse/Guest Breakfast 7:15 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. Registration Open 8:00 a.m. – 8:10 a.m. Welcome and Greetings Hope Eastman, Chair, Board of Directors Paley, Rothman, Goldstein, Rosenberg, Eig, & Cooper, Chtd. Nancy Abell, 2015 Program Chair Paul Hastings LLP 8:10 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. Corporate Counsel Roundtable: Challenging Issues Confronting In-House Counsel of Global Employers Our corporate counsel lead-off will explore the threats and disasters that keep in-house counsel up at night and the proactive strategies they have adopted (or wish they had adopted) to best protect their companies: Foreign corrupt practices; trusted-advisor-turned-whistleblower; BYOD gone wrong; cyber breaches; labor organizing using the company email; and anticipating, training for and managing challenges that employees face on global assignments— from security of employees and their families, to hatred directed at multi-racial couples, LGBT employees and religious minorities, to exposure to life-threatening illnesses. Moderator and Panelist: Jane Howard-Martin Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A. Inc. Panelists: Ted Borromeo McKesson Corporation John Hamlin Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. Shawna Swanson The Walt Disney Company 9:00 a.m. – 10:15 a.m. Finding a Needle in a Haystack or Something More Painful: The Use of Algorithms and Big Data in the Hiring Process One of the EEOC’s enforcement priorities is curbing discriminatory barriers to hiring. Dozens of hiring software programs and vendors promise to harness the power of big data by using proprietary algorithms to search the universe of potential job applicants and narrow the field to a few extremely qualified candidates. Streamlining and improving the hiring process is tantalizing but presents legal risks that must be carefully analyzed and addressed. This panel will introduce the available technology; present empirical results and validation studies thus far; identify applicant-tracking, privacy and data-loss challenges; caution of the vulnerabilities, if a plaintiff or the EEOC demonstrates that alternative software is equally accurate with less adverse impact; discuss the ADA implications of personality testing; review Fair Credit Reporting Act liability theories, including whether a vendor’s actions subject it and the employer to FCRA liability; evaluate whether individual arbitration agreements in the application process minimize class-action risks; and reveal best practices for hiring processes that garner the new technology’s benefits and protect against what may become the next big wave of class actions. Panelists: Allan King Littler Kathleen Lundquist, Ph.D. APTMetrics, Inc. Heather Morgan Paul Hastings LLP 3 AELC 2015 PAGE 3 HOME 10:15 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. Break 10:30 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. Pay Equity: A Close Look at the Actions by Regulatory Authorities and Private Claimants to Level the Compensation Playing Field and Employer Processes to Define and Achieve Gender Equity Plaintiffs have taken to heart the Dukes Court’s insistence that plaintiffs point to an “employment practice” that had an effect on pay differences. Their statistics now attempt to parse out the effect of performance evaluations, starting pay or 360-degree reviews. This panel will review key domestic and international policies, guidance, data collection requirements and demands, audit tactics, and recent enforcement and litigation actions to address the gender gap. It will conclude by presenting the details of some programs that actual employers have used to manage starting pay on a domestic and global basis to avoid the contention that it perpetuates the impact of societal discrimination. Moderator and Panelist: William Sailer Qualcomm Incorporated Panelists: Donald Livingston Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld LLP Janet Thornton, Ph.D. ERS Group Juana Schurman Oracle Corporation 11:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. Post-Dukes, Pre-Tyson: An Important Update on Class Actions for In-house Advisors and Litigators Four years after the Supreme Court decided Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes, class actions continue unabated. General Counsel regularly identify employment class actions as one of the main issues keeping them up at night. The speaker will discuss the current battleground in the class action wars; plaintiffs’ new “innovative procedural devices”; and how the landscape likely will change with the Supreme Court’s decision next Term in Tyson Foods, Inc. v. Bouaphakeo, which presents in the FLSA context the questions (1) whether differences among individual class members may be ignored, and a class certified, when plaintiffs use statistical techniques that presume rather than demonstrate that class members are identically situated, and (2) whether a class may be certified where a substantial number of class members have no legal right to damages at all. Moderator: Mark Nordstrom General Electric Company Speaker: Jeffrey Klein Weil, Gotshal &
Recommended publications
  • Experts: Sex Bias Case Will Embolden Women Despite Verdict
    Experts: Sex Bias Case Will Embolden Women Despite Verdict By Sudhin Thanawala Appeared March 28, 2015 SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A long legal battle over accusations that a prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firm demeaned women and held them to a different standard than their male colleagues became a flashpoint in the ongoing discussion about gender inequity at elite technology and venture capital firms. Though Ellen Pao lost her lawsuit against Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Silicon Valley observers say her case and the attention it received will embolden women in the industry and continue to spur firms to examine their practices and cultures for gender bias. "This case has been a real wake up call for the technology industry in general and the venture capital community in particular," said Deborah Rhode, a law professor at Stanford University who teaches gender equity law. The jury of six men and six women rejected all of Pao's claims against Kleiner Perkins on Friday, determining the firm did not discriminate against her because she is a woman and did not retaliate against her by failing to promote her and firing her after she filed a sex discrimination complaint. In making their case during the five-week trial, Pao's attorneys presented a long list of alleged indignities to which their client was subjected: an all-male dinner at the home of Vice President Al Gore; a book of erotic poetry from a partner; being asked to take notes like a secretary at a meeting; being cut out of emails and meetings by a male colleague with whom she broke off an affair; and talk about pornography aboard a private plane.
    [Show full text]
  • Jury Rejects Silicon Valley Sex Bias Charge
    INTERNATIONAL SUNDAY, MARCH 29, 2015 Jury rejects Silicon Valley sex bias charge SAN FRANCISCO: A California jury deliberations with the freedom to get any money in the form of missed The session in court on Friday indi- chance at an investment role. rejected charges of gender discrimina- change any or all of the verdict. Pao’s compensation or eligible for punitive cated that the jury was favoring KPCB in During several days of testimony at tion against a prominent venture capi- lawyers painted the 45-year-old woman damages. Judge Kahn’s decision to what would be seen as a major victory trial, Pao maintained that women were tal firm Friday in a case seen as a proxy as an innocent victim of sexual discrimi- send jurors back to deliberate means for the firm, which has been criticized shut out of some KPCB networking trial of Silicon Valley sex bias. The state nation common at the esteemed ven- there is no official verdict. Each point at for not settling with Pao to avoid hav- events and that bad behavior by male court jury found Kleiner Perkins ture capital firm. But KPCB attorneys issue in the closely-watched civil case ing embarrassing in-house scenarios colleagues included the gift of a “Book Caufield and Byers (KPCB) did not dis- portrayed Pao as a calculating schemer remains open for debate in the jury publicly exposed. Jurors began deliber- of Longing” poetry tome and a conver- criminate against Ellen Pao, who burning with resentment and with a room. ations late Wednesday morning after sation that included talk of porn stars.
    [Show full text]
  • Amir Warns Houthis Pose Regional Threat
    SUBSCRIPTION SUNDAY, MARCH 29, 2015 JAMADA ALTHANI 9, 1436 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Shurooq Italy clears Kuwaiti designer Prince Bishop Amin an Knox of Fatma Ismail wins Dubai artist and murder that aspires for World Cup in activist4 gripped7 world global39 fame huge20 upset Amir warns Houthis Min 16º Max 32º High Tide pose regional threat 08:05 & 18:45 Low Tide Sheikh Sabah calls for joint stance against terrorism 00:55 & 12:50 40 PAGES NO: 16474 150 FILS SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt: HH the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah told an Arab summit in Egypt that Houthi fighters in Yemen posed a threat to the region, as Saudi Arabia led a military operation against them. “Rapid developments underway in Yemen pose a threat to our security,” Sheikh Sabah said. Sheikh Sabah was addressing the inaugural session of the 26th Arab Summit yesterday, stressing Arab nations must collectively face challenges, namely “ter- rorism and its annihilating ideas” and urged warring Yemeni parties to adhere to the GCC initiatives aimed at resorting peace and security to the crisis-stricken nation. “We have to face the challenges with collective efforts, solid unity of ranks with negligence to divisions and differences. Such efforts should be within the framework of joint Arab action that may preserve our territorial security and meet our peoples’ aspirations,” he said. “Terrorism and its annihilating ideas, delinquent approach, rogue ideology and blatant acts are some of the most eminent challenges that we, along with the whole world, are facing.” HH the Amir said rapid developments taking place in this country “have posed a threat to our security due to the Houthi militias’ continuing takeover of legitimacy SHARM EL-SHEIKH: (Top) Arab leaders, including HH the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah (center), pose during an Arab League Summit in and key state installations, followed with attacks and this Red Sea resort yesterday.
    [Show full text]
  • UC Hastings (Fall 2015) Hastings College of the Law Alumni Association
    UC Hastings Scholarship Repository Hastings Alumni Publications Fall 2015 UC Hastings (Fall 2015) Hastings College of the Law Alumni Association Follow this and additional works at: http://repository.uchastings.edu/alumni_mag Recommended Citation Hastings College of the Law Alumni Association, "UC Hastings (Fall 2015)" (2015). Hastings Alumni Publications. 140. http://repository.uchastings.edu/alumni_mag/140 This Magazine Issue is brought to you for free and open access by UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Hastings Alumni Publications by an authorized administrator of UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. UC HastingsUniversity of California Made in San Francisco | Ready for the World A special issue on how our PLUS: A campus alumni are transforming the transformed / Faculty way we think about, use, scholars on the cutting edge / Enforcing the and abuse our finances Airbnb law Clinton Chen ’13 is helping the Federal Reserve Board re-evaluate the way dollars move. MONEY FALL 2015 MATTERS { CONTENTS } 02 | FROM THE DEAN 03 | FOR THE RECORD Actor George Takei amused and inspired at the 134th Commencement. 04 | TRENDING Social media updates from and about the UC Hastings community. 06 | IN BRIEF Enforcing the Airbnb law, a partnership with Black Girls Code, a new joint degree program with UC Davis, and more. 18 | ENGAGED SCHOLARSHIP New work by Professors Alina Ball, Evan Lee, Morris Ratner, Reuel Schiller, Joan C. Williams, and Setsuo Miyazawa. Plus: Upfront UC Hastings welcomes new faculty. Cover photo by Gretchen Bedell 62 | COMMUNITY A shared passion for law and art has nurtured Departments the friendship between Jim Ardaiz ’74 and the Rev.
    [Show full text]
  • Litigator of the Week: Lynne Hermle of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe
    Litigator of the Week: Lynne Hermle of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe By Julie Triedman April 2, 2015 Even before last Friday's headline-grabbing victory for Kleiner Perkins Hermle's gut also Caufield Byers, Lynne Hermle says she had won close to 20 employment told her that she could trials. With that experience under her belt, the Orrick, Herrington & press Pao—a highly Sutcliffe partner says she relies more and more on her gut these days to credentialed Harvard evaluate disputes. MBA and J.D. who is now In the case of Ellen Pao, whose gender bias claims against Kleiner interim CEO at Reddit— Lynne Hermle Perkins were rejected by a San Francisco jury on March 27, Hermle's gut on numerous inconsistencies in her deposition testimony. told her the venture capital firm hadn't broken the law when it fired Pao, A watershed moment, she says, came more than a week into trial. Jurors a junior partner, in 2012. had just heard direct testimony from Pao that was "well-articulated, well- The media's chips seemed to be on Pao, though. Pao's inflammatory rehearsed and well-planned," says Hermle. About three questions into her allegations—that Kleiner Perkins failed to promote her because of her cross, Hermle began to impeach Pao using Pao's own earlier videotaped gender and then fired her in retaliation for lodging a discrimination words, gradually getting her to backtrack on a number of contested points. complaint—had struck a deep chord in Silicon Valley, where women Pao had asserted, for example, that she hadn't met with any media after executives are embarrassingly few and complaints of harassment and she filed her complaint.
    [Show full text]
  • Orrick and the Large Technology Enterprise Partners in Global Business Orrick Is a Globally Integrated Law Firm Practicing in 12 Countries and 25 Offices Worldwide
    Orrick and the Large Technology Enterprise Partners in Global Business Orrick is a globally integrated law firm practicing in 12 countries and 25 offices worldwide. Düsseldorf GOC (Wheeling) Brussels Seattle Moscow London Paris EUROPE 27% Portland U.S. Geneva 65% Sacramento Munich Beijing San Francisco Milan Rome Shanghai Silicon Valley New York ASIA 8% Tokyo Los Angeles Washington, D.C. Taipei Orange County Houston Hong Kong Abidjan (Affiliated office) We focus on the technology, energy and finance industries. We work in partnership with our clients, offering a broad array of specialized solutions for mature companies, whether publicly traded or privately held. Here’s how we do it. One Team We operate as one partnership worldwide. Our internal metrics and incentive system are based as a whole—not individual profit centers or alliances. We achieve scale without bloat: Our size is sleek enough that our partners know each other and we can maintain rigorous quality expectations, while substantial enough to offer economies of scale from both expertise and cost-management insights derived from transactional and case volume. All law firms have a history. Having started in San Francisco in 1863, we intentionally expanded both our technology practice and our non-U.S. offices in the past two decades to be able to service mature technology companies. Today, we are truly unique: As one unified law firm, we offer deep Silicon Valley technology roots on one hand, and on the other hand we are a broad, cross-continent platform that tackles increasingly globalized matters. Our partners’ collective commitment to a unified team approach has never been stronger.
    [Show full text]