Labor Relations and the First Amendment in Times of Increasing Political Polarization

Nicki Bazer Related Seminars and Products

Partner

Franczek P.C.

Nicki Bazer serves as co-chair of the firm's Higher Education Practice Group. Nicki focuses her legal practice on policy and governance issues, student privacy rights, teacher evaluation, teacher misconduct issues, educator licensure compliance, general public school compliance, as well as charter schools. As former general counsel at the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), she provides valuable insight and counsel to school districts on the regulations and reform initiatives endorsed by ISBE. Nicki regularly represents clients in both state and federal court, in administrative hearings on teacher matters, and before the Illinois Department of Human Rights. She represented Chicago Public Schools during its most recent labor negotiations with the nation’s largest teachers union resulting in a five-year agreement. Nicki also works with higher education institutions on labor issues, intellectual property matters and student matters. 

Nicki is a frequent speaker on school law matters, specifically on student data security and privacy and teacher performance and evaluation. Nicki has made presentations for the Illinois Council of School Attorneys, the Illinois Association of Administrators of Special Education, the Illinois Association of School Boards and Illinois Association of School Personnel Administrators.

While at ISBE, she provided legal advice and support to districts under direct state oversight. She facilitated state-wide working groups on data security as it relates to student privacy, as well as the state school funding formula. As ISBE’s General Counsel, Nicki oversaw the legislative agenda of the agency, including drafting legislation, working with education stakeholders and testifying before the Illinois General Assembly.

Prior to her time at ISBE, Nicki served as Bureau Chief for the Disability Rights Bureau at the Illinois Attorney General. She completed a federal judicial clerkship with Chief Judge Janet Hall in the U.S. District Court of Connecticut. During law school, Nicki was a Root-Tilden-Kern Public Interest Scholar and an editor with the Review of Law and Social Change.

Martin H. Malin Related Seminars and Products

Chairman

IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law

Martin H. Malin is Professor Emeritus at Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology, where he taught for 41 years, founded the Institute for Law and the Workplace, and served as Director of the Institute for 25 years. He joined the Chicago-Kent faculty in 1980 after serving as law clerk to United States District Judge Robert E. DeMascio in Detroit and on the faculty of The Ohio State University. A renown scholar on the law governing the workplace, he has published more than 80 articles and seven books on labor law. Professor Malin has served as National Chair of the Labor Relations and Employment Law Section of the Association of American Law Schools, Secretary of the ABA Section on Labor and Employment Law, member of the Executive Committee of the Labor Law Group, member of the Board of Governors and Vice President of the National Academy of Arbitrators, and member of the Board of Governors of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. In October 2009, President Obama appointed Professor Malin as a member of the Federal Service Impasses Panel. President Obama reappointed Professor Malin in 2014 and Malin served until May 2017. In 2016, the ABA presented Professor Malin with the Arvid Anderson Award for lifetime contributions to public sector labor law. He has a B.A. from Michigan State University and a J.D. from George Washington University.

Joe Sweeney Related Seminars and Products

Indiana, Illinois, Iowa Foundation for Fair Contracting