MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR

By Deborah Maddux

Deborah Maddux is the Senior Managing Partner of Van Dermyden Maddux Law Corporation. Deborah’s practice focuses on conducting and overseeing workplace investigations and conducting administrative hearings. Her background includes serving as in-house counsel to the University of California, counsel to the California FPPC, and litigation counsel. Deborah is the incoming Chair of the Labor & Employment Executive Committee.

Happy New Year to my Labor & Employment Law Section colleagues!

In the fall Chair’s message, I set aside the tradition of introducing myself as incoming Chair and promised to do so in a later edition when world and national events had calmed down. We still have challenges ahead, but I suspect many of you share my feelings of renewed hope as we move into 2021; thanks to the efforts of the scientific community, it appears we will soon have vaccines available that will start to turn the tide of the pandemic. Unfortunately, no one knows exactly how long that will take, and my tenure as Chair is only one year. So, with the notion that introducing oneself is usually best accomplished at the start of a relationship rather than towards the end, I will go ahead and take this opportunity to tell you a little about my journey as an attorney, and why my focus as the (fairly) new Section Chair will be on collegiality, mentorship, and diversity.