Requiring the COVID-19 Vaccine

Abigail Charpentier joined Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts as the Vice President of People and Culture for the Americas in December 2018. In this role, she is responsible for the human resources function for over 50 hotels across North America, South America, and the Caribbean. These responsibilities include driving the talent strategy key in supporting the company’s growth and evolving the position as a great place to work for all. Prior to joining Four Seasons, Ms. Charpentier worked for Aramark Corporation. Over the course of her tenure, she has held a variety of progressive roles in both human resources and operations, including leadership positions in diverse markets. Ms. Charpentier is a graduate of Cornell University and holds a Bachelor of Science from the School of Hotel Administration.

Christine L. Hogan is a Partner at Wigdor LLP. Ms. Hogan is a highly accomplished labor and employment attorney with over a decade of litigation experience. While she started her career advising corporate clients, she decided that her true motivations and desires were to help victims seek justice. Ms. Hogan’s breadth of experience includes handling litigations involving sexual harassment, discrimination on the basis of race, gender, pregnancy, age, religion, disability, LGBTQ+ status and national origin, retaliation, worker misclassification, wage-and-hour violations, family and medical (FMLA) leave, breach of contract, restrictive covenants and many other workplace issues This wide array of experience makes her well situated to advocate on behalf of individuals. Ms. Hogan has also advised clients on a range of strategic employment issues including, but not limited to, employee handbooks, employment contracts, enforcement of workplace policies and procedures, employee classification, leaves of absence, reasonable accommodations based on pregnancy, disability and religious practice, labor law issues involving minimum wage, overtime, spread-of-hours, deductions and rest/meal breaks, paid sick leave, and severance negotiations.

From Fortune 500 companies to fledgling start-ups, Ms. Hogan’s in-depth knowledge of workplace best practices, corporate legal departments, and HR policies enables her to provide shrewd legal counseling and representation to clients across a wide spectrum of industries and experience levels. She offers notable expertise representing clients in the technology, retail, restaurant/hospitality, and gig economy industries.

Ms. Hogan has published numerous articles on hot-button employment issues, including unemployment insurance benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic, remote work policies and procedures, paid sick leave, wage requirements for fast food and retail industry workers, mandatory arbitration and class action waivers, severance agreements and many others. She has also co-authored reference books on the subjects of employee classification, as well as the use of robotics, artificial intelligence and automation to enhance corporate compliance with employment and labor laws.

In addition, Ms. Hogan is a frequent lecturer and speaker on workplace best practices and the evolving employment law landscape. She has spoken at the New York Stock Exchange during a national technology industry conference about the role of corporate legal departments in cultivating a discrimination-free work environment. She has also presented lectures and Continuing Legal Education (CLE) seminars on topical employment issues, including sexual harassment, discrimination, workplace investigations, legal issues in the hiring process, independent contractor misclassification, leaves of absence, and wage-and-hour issues for fast food and retail employers.

Ms. Hogan has been involved in the litigation of many large and complex matters involving discrimination on the basis of race, gender, age, religion, LGBTQ+ status, disability and national origin, as well as cases involving retaliation, sexual harassment, whistleblower complaints, wrongful termination, breach of contract, wage and hour violations, FMLA leave, breach of contract, civil rights violations and class actions.

Prior to joining Wigdor LLP, Ms. Hogan was a Partner at a national labor and employment law firm, where she handled every aspect of litigation in single, multi-plaintiff, and class and collective action lawsuits. Ms. Hogan has extensive experience litigating employment disputes in state and federal court and appellate courts. She has also been involved in numerous wage-and-hour, overtime exemption and independent contractor audits before the New York State Department of Labor and Workers’ Compensation Board.

Ms. Hogan also served as an Adjunct Professor in the Conflict Management Program at Seton Hall University School of Law and was an intern in the New York County District Attorney’s Office.

Ms. Hogan is a member of the Federal Bar Council’s Inn of Court, where she has helped develop educational programs with members of the federal judiciary to promote the ideals of professionalism, ethics and advancement of the rule of law. Ms. Hogan is also an active member of the American Bar Association and the New York State Bar Association.

Ms. Hogan has been selected to the Super Lawyers Rising Stars list for the last five years in a row, a designation reserved for no more than 2.5% of attorneys in New York.

As a law student, Ms. Hogan was the recipient of numerous awards and scholarships, including the Chief Judge Edward D. Re Commencement Price, the Professor Robert Parella Scholarship, a Partial Merit Scholarship, and CALI Awards for Excellence in the categories of Evidence, Trusts and Estates, Professional Responsibility, and Alternative Dispute Resolution.

Ms. Hogan received her J.D. cum laude from St. John’s University School of Law, where she served as the Editor-in-Chief of the St. John’s Law Review.

During law school, she was a legal research writing assistant, mock trial competition quarterfinalist and member of the Student Bar Association’s Public Interest Committee. Ms. Hogan earned her B.A. from Boston College, where she was a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars, the Golden Key International Honor Society and the Psi Chi Psychology National Honor Society.

Ms. Hogan is admitted to practice law in New York, as well as before U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.

David B. Ritter is a partner in the Chicago office of Barnes & Thornburg LLP and a member of the firm’s Labor & Employment Law Department. He represents management nationwide in virtually all areas of labor and employment law, including employment discrimination and harassment claims, non-compete, trade secret and restrictive covenants and employment torts.

With nearly 30 years of experience representing public and private companies, Mr. Ritter has counseled clients in service and manufacturing industries ranging from healthcare to logistics and financial services. He defends employers faced with claims under Sarbanes-Oxley, and routinely represents clients before governmental agencies including the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the Department of Labor (DOL), Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) and similar state agencies.

Mr. Ritter represents high-level executives on issues related to employment and separation agreements. He also handles affirmative action plans, employment issues related to corporate transactions, counseling of employers on employment issues, and assists in employee training as related to employment issues.

Mr. Ritter has been commended on several occasions for his labor and employment practice. He is AV-rated – the highest honor one can receive – by the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory. He has also been recognized as a labor and employment leader in the 2008-2012 editions of Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, and has been listed in Best Lawyers in America every year since 2007 in the categories of Employment Law-Management and Labor Law-Management. Additionally, he is a regular contributor to presentations and publications, providing thought leadership on a wide range of employment law topics.

Prior to his legal career, Mr. Ritter worked as an employee relations assistant at Exxon Mobil (f/k/a Mobil Oil Corporation). He earned his J.D. cum laude from Case Western Reserve University Law School in 1985, where he served as a member of the University’s Law Review. He earned his B.S. from Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations in 1980.

Mr. Ritter is a member of both the Labor and Employment Law and the Litigation sections of the American Bar Association. He is also on the board of directors and acts as general counsel for The Greater North Michigan Avenue Association (GNMAA).

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.

John began his career in the labor movement in 1976 with the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union organizing garment plants in the South. In 1978, following work with the Garment Workers, John joined the staff of Local 25 then known as the Hotel, Restaurant & Bartenders Union. He has held a number of staff and elected positions with UNITE HERE Local 25 and is has held the position of Executive Secretary-Treasurer, the union’s chief elected officer, since 1996. In that capacity he is responsible for the day to day operation of the 7,500 member union. He is also an Executive Vice President of UNITE HERE International Union which represents 300,000 workers in the US and Canada.

During his more than forty years in the labor movement John has acquired extensive collective bargaining experience, has successfully directed the operation of a number of trust funds and has engaged in local and national political organizing. John has held a number of political appointments to various Boards and Commissions.