DEI, Affirmative Action, and a Politically Polarized Workforce

David Sherwyn is the John and Melissa Ceriale Professor of Hospitality Human Resources and a Professor of Law at Cornell University’s Nolan School of Hotel Administration. He is also the academic director of the Cornell Center for Innovative Hospitality Labor and Employment Relations as well as a research fellow at the Center for Labor and Employment Law at New York University’s School of Law. In addition, Professor Sherwyn is of counsel to the law firm of Stokes & Wagner. Prior to joining the School of Hotel Administration, Professor Sherwyn practiced management-side labor and employment law for six years.

Professor Sherwyn has published articles in the Arizona State Law Review, Berkeley Journal of Labor and Employment Law, Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, Fordham Law Review, University of California Hastings Law Journal, Indiana Law Journal, Northwestern Law Review, Stanford Law Review, and the University of Pennsylvania Labor and Employment Law Journal. His research interests include arbitration of discrimination lawsuits and union-management relations.

Holly Lawson is the Senior Vice President of Human Resources at Noble House Hotels and Resorts. She has 18 years of hospitality experience, including hotel operations, acquisitions and transitions, learning and organizational development, and human resources. Ms. Lawson’s career began in hotel operations and led to human resources, where she oversaw the Washington, D.C., region for Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants, eventually moving to Los Angeles and supporting the brand’s Southern California portfolio.

From there, Ms. Lawson transitioned to supporting human resources for their corporate environment as well as nightlife, restaurant, and hotel operations in California and Florida. Under Davidson Hospitality, she served for five years as corporate director of people and culture and assisted with the growth of Pivot Hotels and Resorts, their lifestyle and luxury operating division. Ms. Lawson is a graduate of Michigan State University in Human Resources with an emphasis in psychology.

Paul Wagner grew up in the United States, Canada, Liberia, and Kenya, before returning to the U.S. to attend Cornell University starting in 1982. He then worked at a refugee camp in southern Sudan (now South Sudan) for three summers during college. Since graduating from law school in 1990, Mr. Wagner’s practice has been devoted to labor and employment law, primarily representing hotel and restaurant management companies and owners. His international background gives him a unique and valuable perspective on the hospitality industry, which draws its strength from cultural and ethnic diversity. The practice of labor and employment law in the hospitality industry requires as much sociology and anthropology as it does classic legal training, and Mr. Wagner remains a dedicated student of these disciplines.

Mr. Wagner has extensive experience litigating labor and employment cases in federal and state court, private and public arbitration, and administrative agencies including the EEOC, USDOL, NLRB, and numerous state and municipal agencies. Wage and hour class and collective action litigation represents a growing percentage of this work. Mr. Wagner spends as much time counseling his hospitality clients to avoid litigation as he spends aggressively representing their interests when claims are brought against them, focusing on training, leadership, compliance audits, and organizational design. He designs and implements manager and employee training for clients throughout the United States on the subjects of discrimination, harassment, sexual harassment, retaliation, leadership, and general workplace conduct.