Message from the Chair

Dear Labor & Employment Law Section Members,

Thank you for the opportunity and privilege of serving as your Chair for the 2023-2024 Bar year. The strength of our Section relies heavily on your continued membership.  During the upcoming year, our leadership team plans to focus on providing increased support and benefits to our members.  As those who practice labor and employment law are undoubtedly aware, there have been numerous changes in recent years that present added opportunities and challenges.  The nature of the relationship between employers and employees has undergone significant changes due to the new normal we encountered after emerging from the pandemic.  At the state and federal levels, the law regarding labor organizations and private and public employers has also changed dramatically. Our mission will be to examine this changing landscape and provide the tools and resources to our members to make them better practitioners and advocates.

Over the next year, the Section has a number of live events planned.  We plan to continue offering remote attendance; however, we would also love to see our members attend in person and hope to make events family-friendly so that they may connect on a personal level.  On October 19-20, 2023, we will have the 49th Annual Public Employment Labor Relations Forum in Orlando.  This long-established conference, held jointly with the City, County, and Local Government Section, takes on new importance this year given recent legislation involving public sector employment.  In January, we will hold our annual update and certification review conference in Orlando as part of The Florida Bar’s winter meeting.  In March, we will partner with the Administrative Law Section for a seminar on practicing before state labor and employment agencies.  Finally, in the Spring, we are hoping to take our Advanced Labor Practices program back on the road and travel to Asheville, North Carolina, for a conference that provides both training and entertainment.

An Executive Council meeting will be held during each of our live events.  These meetings are open to section members, so consider yourself invited to join us.  I also invite you to become more involved in Section activities by volunteering to serve on one of our committees.  Soon, you will be receiving an email with the names of our committee chairs and instructions on how to participate.  I hope you will consider joining your fellow members to make a difference for our Section!

In addition to these live events, the Section will be offering free webinars throughout the year.  These webinars, which will be exclusively offered to our members, will allow us to learn from experts about the cutting-edge topics that face our practice.  Watch your inbox and our website for more details about this year’s calendar of events and webinars.

Further, you can stay updated on Section events and news through our Checkoff newsletter and on social media. We currently have a presence on Facebook and LinkedIn and are planning to add additional platforms.  If you would like to volunteer to write articles or social media posts, or to speak on a topic, please contact me at the phone number or email address below!

I want to thank our outgoing Chair, Sacha Dyson, for everything she did to make last year a great success.  She led us through challenging times and I look forward to her continued work with the Section.  I also want to recognize and thank my fellow officers for their help and dedication to the Section: Yvette Everhart (Chair-elect), Robert Eschenfelder (Secretary/Treasurer), and Chelsie Flynn (Legal Education Director).

I look forward to an exciting and productive year!

Gregg Riley Morton, 2023-24 Chair
Labor and Employment Law Section
greggrileymorton@gmail.com
(850) 408-0713