Help Me Build a Program Business Lawyers Will Actually Want to Attend.

The Pennsylvania Bar Institute has entrusted me with putting together three hours of online continuing legal education. Naturally, my first move is to recruit reinforcements.

---

TL;DR: I’m looking for people interested in speaking at a remote labor and employment Business Lawyer Master Class in June 2027. You don’t need to be a lawyer, live in Pennsylvania, or arrive with a topic proposal. Interested? Email or text me, and we’ll talk.

---

Who’s going to be listening?

The three-hour labor and employment program will take place remotely on June 27, 2027. The intended audience includes business lawyers at large firms, in-house counsel, solo practitioners, and others who advise businesses, although anyone can attend.

I want to give them practical insight into workplace issues that come up when advising a company, negotiating a deal, or answering a client’s call that begins, “We’ve already done something, and now we’d like your advice.” You know. The relaxing calls.

What could we talk about?

The agenda is still taking shape, but we have plenty of possibilities:

• Restrictive covenants: Drafting and negotiating noncompetes, nonsolicitation provisions, and related agreements—and dealing with the departure that puts them to the test.
• Employment issues in business deals: Workforce questions that deserve attention before someone signs on the dotted line.
• Executive hiring and departures: Employment agreements, compensation, severance, and the conversations that accompany a change at the top.
• The employee-side perspective: Attorneys who represent employees discussing the problems they see, what makes a claim worth pursuing, and what businesses could have done earlier to prevent a dispute.
• One business, multiple states: How Pennsylvania’s workplace laws intersect with—or differ from—the laws of other states, and what that means for employers with employees across state lines.
• What’s happening at the agencies: Developments at the EEOC, National Labor Relations Board, and U.S. Department of Labor, with possible perspectives from the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission and Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry.

For the agency panel, I anticipate inviting agency representatives to speak, too. An attorney or HR professional who can connect those developments to the decisions businesses face could help round out that conversation.

These are starting points, and I’d love to hear other ideas that would help business lawyers advise their clients. But having a topic in mind isn’t a prerequisite for reaching out. We can develop one together.

You don’t need a finished presentation. Or an unfinished one.

At this stage, I’m looking for expressions of interest. I expect much of the program to involve panels, although individual presentations are welcome possibilities, too. We can discuss where your experience fits and work out topics and potential panels through follow-up conversations.

Speakers do not have to be lawyers or based in Pennsylvania. I’d welcome interest from management-side and employee-side attorneys, HR professionals, business leaders, and others with relevant practical experience. Because the program is online, you can present from your home, office, European chateau, or wherever you happen to have a reliable internet connection.

For eligible attorney speakers, there’s also the benefit of double CLE credit for teaching, subject to the applicable CLE rules. A little extra credit never hurt anyone.

I’m looking for volunteers. If I don’t get enough, fair warning: some of you will be voluntold. Consider this the courtesy notice before the calendar invitation.

Interested? Email me at eric.meyer@pierferd.com or text me at 202-441-1424. Send a topic idea if you have one. Otherwise, “I’m interested—let’s talk” is plenty, and we’ll take it from there.