Labor & Employment Practice Group partner H. Mark Adams recently participated in a panel discussion on the future of labor and employment law under the Obama administration and the Democrat-controlled Congress at the annual meeting of the Employers Counsel Network, held April 29–May 1 in Nashville, Tenn.

Mr. Adams and other panelists discussed the pro-union Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), the likelihood of its passage, and possible compromise measures. They also discussed the act's potential effects on employers; the potential effects of other recent and proposed changes in the law, such as the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act; and the anticipated increase in enforcement activity by the U.S. Department of Labor and other agencies.

Mr. Adams is a founding member of the Employers Counsel Network (ECN), an exclusive organization composed of members of leading labor and employment law practices representing each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Canada. Members convene each spring to share ideas on a variety of topics, including developing trends in the law and legal marketplace and practice development. The ECN also presents two national seminars each year for human resource professionals and publishes a popular HR reference guide, "Fifty Employment Laws in Fifty States," which ECN members update annually.