The Faculty Lounge

Another Reason That Employees Need Unions

This is from Slate's workplace advice column:

Dear Direct Report,

My office announced it’s closing for the week between Christmas and New Year’s, since so many people take time off then anyway. Great! But then they announced that we’ll need to use our PTO for that week, even if we were otherwise planning to work. That makes no sense to me! If we were ready and willing to work, why should we lose vacation time just because the office decided to close? Our unused vacation time rolls over to the next year, so this means we’ll have a week less to use next year than we had counted on having. Is this even legal?

—Fuming

Dear Fuming,

It’s legal, but it’s a bad policy. Unfortunately, it’s not an uncommon policy; a lot of offices that close that week handle holiday closures the same way. But when you’re talking about a full week, that’s a significant bite out of most people’s vacation leave.

You and your co-workers can try pushing back! Point out that some employees have that vacation time allotted for other uses, and this will wreak havoc on anyone who needed that week for, say, their kid’s wedding or a long-planned family trip next year. Your employer may or may not budge, but the more of you who speak up, the better your chances of getting it reconsidered.

First, the appropriation of employees' vacation time may not be against the law, but it certainly might violate the terms of employment, especially if they are set out in an employee handbook. If so, employees would have a much stronger argument than merely speaking up or pointing out that the policy will "wreak havoc" with their plans. The employer obviously knows that already, however, and does not seem to care.

In a union setting, of course, there would be a contract that firmly spells out an employee's PTO, and it surely would not require the use of vacation days when the employer chooses to close the office. Most important, there would be a grievance procedure for raising such issues, and it would be far more effective and available than a few people "pushing back."

Honky Tonk Women

Thanksgiving

In addition to everything else, I am grateful for great writing, as in this passage i just read in Kevin Boyle’s The Shattering: America in the 1960s:

The headliners at the Trips Festival (San Francisco, January 1966) were “The Grateful Dead, fronted by that Garcia kid who used to hang around Kesey’s house; and Big Brother and the Holding Company, who could have used a better vocalist, if only one were available.”

[For those who are too young – or too old – to remember, Big Brother found a pretty good vocalist that June.]

Elon Law Seeks Dean

This just in:

Elon University School of Law (Elon Law), a forward-thinking law school based in Greensboro, North Carolina, and known for its pioneering blend of experiential learning and critical scholarship, seeks applications and nominations for the position of Dean of the School of Law.

Elon Law is the preeminent school for engaged and experiential learning in law. With a focus on learning by doing, it integrates traditional classroom instruction with a required, full-time (30+ hours/week) field placement for every student, known as a Residency-in-Practice. The law school’s distinctive curriculum provides a logically-sequenced program of professional preparation. Elon Law’s innovative curriculum is accomplished in 2.5 years, which provides exceptional value by lowering tuition and permitting graduates early entry into their careers.

Elon Law’s shorter academic program benefits students by substantially reducing their debt load, an attractive proposition for many prospective students drawn to the school’s trimester-based academic calendar. The law school has enjoyed significant increases in applications and enrollment in recent years when most other law schools experienced declines. In fall 2021, total enrollment reached a historic high of 429 students, driven by a record number of students matriculating in the Class of 2023.

Guided by its student-centered approach to legal education, Elon Law’s bar passage and post-graduate employment rates have seen consistent and significant increases since the implementation of the 2.5 year academic program. The increased bar passage rate has resulted from an investment in student success and undergirds the law school’s strong employment figures. Increased graduate employment rates are also attributable to Elon Law’s emphasis on experiential learning. The law school’s Residency-in-Practice Program ensures that students connect classroom learning with real-world practice. The Residency-in-Practice experience also provides students with insights that they bring back to the law school when they return to complete their studies.

Reporting to the Provost, the Dean will be a collaborative, transparent, and strategic leader who guides faculty, staff, students, and processes with empathy and integrity. With a track record of distinguished management and administration, this person must possess a deep commitment to student success, faculty teaching and scholarly engagement, and the organizational and leadership skills necessary to attract and retain human and financial resources. The ideal candidate should have a sophisticated understanding of the changing landscape in legal education and the practice of law, respect and appreciation for shared governance, fundraising experience, and a strong commitment to Elon law's role as an innovator in legal education.

The new Dean will need to lead the Elon Law community in a shared effort to create and execute a strategic vision that builds upon the existing foundation of innovative and successful programs to further distinguish the school in the modern legal education landscape. Elon Law's faculty, staff, students, alumni, Provost, and President are eager to work with a leader who is energetic, creative, supportive, and able to inspire the law school's diverse and highly engaged community. The new Dean must bring a demonstrated passionate commitment in their professional life to diversity, equity and inclusion and be eager to promote its advantages to a variety of constituents. The new Dean will be expected to maintain and nourish close relationships with the Elon Law alumni and donor community to enhance current sources of revenue for the school while also identifying potential new ones. For more information, please visit www.wittkieffer.com.

The successful candidate will offer a proven record in management or administration suitable for appointment as Dean. The successful candidate will, at a minimum, possess a J.D. degree or its equivalent, and will have an outstanding record of academic and professional accomplishment.  In addition, the successful candidate will demonstrate a commitment to inclusive excellence, as well as service to the legal profession and the public.

WittKieffer is assisting Elon in this search. Application materials can be submitted through WittKieffer’s candidate portal or by sending to the email below. Review of candidate materials will continue until the position is filled, with priority given to applications received by January 14, 2022. Confidential nominations and inquiries can be directed to Lucy Leske, Werner Boel, LL.M. and Ashlee Winters at ElonLawDean@wittkieffer.com.

Elon University values and celebrates the diverse backgrounds, cultures, experiences and perspectives of our community members. We embrace diversity in its broadest sense, including, but not limited to, diversity of age, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, nationality, race, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic standing and intellectual viewpoint.

All members of the Elon community have a shared responsibility to act deliberately toward equitable outcomes. Inclusive Excellence is Elon’s framing of diversity, equity, inclusion, and other constructs that support belonging and well-being, resulting in the creation of a community where people strive to dismantle oppression and where individuals flourish.

Camille Carey Named Dean of UNM Law

The University of New Mexico School of Law has announced that Camille Carey, Vice Dean and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at UNM Law, will become its next dean.  Carey, who holds a JD from UCLA, will take over on July 1, 2022.

Morse Tan Named Dean of Liberty University Law

NNorthern Illinois University Professor Morse Hyun Myung Tan has been named the new dean of Liberty University School of Law beginning on January 1, 2022. He holds a JD from Northwestern.

Trump's Executive Privilege Claim Will Fail

This essay of mine in The Hill explains why former President Trump’s executive privilege claim will not prevent the House Select Committee from obtaining White House documents relevant to the January 6 insurrection. Here is the gist:

Trump is learning what executive privilege really means

By Steven Lubet, Opinion Contributor — 11/17/21 12:00 PM EST  

Executive privilege is not absolute, even for sitting presidents. As the U.S. Supreme Court held in a case involving former President Nixon, the privilege can be “overcome by an appropriate showing of public need by the judicial or legislative branch.”

Trump’s lawyers object to Biden’s authority, however, arguing that “weakening executive privilege by allowing it to expire with a president’s term of office makes no more sense than allowing the attorney-client privilege to terminate at the end of a representation.” Trump’s legal team has the right analogy, but their conclusion is dead wrong.

It is black letter law that the corporate attorney-client privilege exists for the benefit of the company itself, and does not belong to any particular corporate officer. Although a CEO may speak in confidence to corporate counsel, seeking advice on sensitive or even potentially criminal matters, it is always up to the corporation, acting through its currently “authorized constituents,” to decide whether to disclose the content of such communications to law enforcement or other outside agencies.

In technical legal terms, it would be totally nuts to allow ex-CEOs to determine the breadth of investigations into their own misconduct. Thus, the privilege is held by the institution for whose benefit it presently exists, to be exercised or relinquished by current executives rather than the former office-holders whose communications or documents are at issue. 

You can read the entire essay on The Hill.

Buddy Guy

George "Buddy" Guy was born in Louisiana in 1936. He moved to Chicago in 1957, where he became a mainstay in the South Side blues scene. He was the house guitarist for Muddy Waters. He later formed a band with Junior Wells as the front man. He also recorded a seminal album with the pianist Memphis Slim. Guy was a session man for Chess Records in the 1960s and 1970s, backing artists such as Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, and Sonny Boy Williamson. Because of his contractual arrangement with Chess, he sometimes performed and recorded under the pseudonym Friendly Chap, which fooled nobody. Blues fans in Chicago were well aware of Guy in the 1960s, and he was certainly recognized as a brilliant guitarist by leading rock musicians, but he did not come into his own as a solo artist until the 1980s. There is no doubt that Buddy Guy is one of the greatest electric guitarists of all time, ranking number 23 on Rolling Stone's list. He continues to perform as the sole surviving member of the original electric Chicago blues generation. (Don't miss a special guest performer at the bottom of this post.)