We hope that you will join us for PELA's 2025 retreat Wednesday, August 13 at 5 pm for a happy hour/CLE and full-day programming on Thursday, August 14 and Friday, August 15, 2025 in Breckenridge, Colorado. Please register on or before Wednesday, August 6 so that we can timely provide attendance numbers and dietary restrictions to the venue.
***Make your reservation at Beaver Run online here.***
A virtual option will be available.
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A full agenda is coming soon! In the meantime, here are a few sessions to look forward to:
Post-Muldrow – Carey DeGenaro and Jillian Edmonds of the EEOC will be reviewing appellate and district court decisions applying the US Supreme Court’s Muldrow v. City of St. Louisdecision, which held that a plaintiff must allege “some harm” with respect to an identifiable term or condition of employment, but that such harm “need not be significant.”
The Railway Labor Act (and how it applies to your employment case) - Nick Enoch will explain how the Railway Labor Act impacts employment law, including its preemption of employment laws in the railway and airline industry.
Mental Toughness for Lawyers: Lessons for Sport, Performance, and the Courtroom – Chris Houk from Arizona will explore how lawyers can develop mental toughness and manage stress under high-pressure conditions—like trial—by drawing insights from elite athletes, performers, and behavioral science. Through real-world routines, TED Talks, and performance psychology, participants will learn practical strategies to enhance focus, composure, and resilience in the courtroom and elsewhere.
View from the Bench – Judge Kato Crews is a federal judge, so he gets to talk about what he wants to talk about. He may address several subjects, including what judges are really looking for at summary judgment, issues related to jury instructions, inclusivity in the courtroom, and AI.
Keep it Classy – Nieves Bolańos from Chicago and Rachhana Srey from Minneapolis will present on class action case selection and litigation, including identifying possible class claims, considerations in named plaintiffs, and how to pursue the claims in litigation.
Rebounding the Ball in Creative Ways: Damage Mitigation – Clay Wire will review strategies for showing how your client mitigated their damages when the client has not taken the typical route of taking another job, like starting their own business. He will cover using labor economic principles to decrease mitigation.
Legislative/Caselaw Update/Case of the Year – Hayden Deporter, Madeline Leibin, and Paul Maxon will review the important court decisions of the last year, including the Colorado appellate courts, District of Colorado, Tenth Circuit, and Supreme Court. Ian Kalmanowitz and Christine Breen will review bills from the 2025 legislative session.
Blah Blah Blah: Best Practices for Communicating with Clients and Witnesses – Sara Maeglin will focus on the mechanics of communicating with clients and witnesses. She will start with a primer on the ethical rules that touch on communicating with witnesses—essentially, the “dos” and “don’ts” of talking with unrepresented witnesses—and make her way to the techniques she uses to engage in sometimes difficult conversations with clients and witnesses.
AI Discrimination – Matt Scherer will review how corporations increasingly use hidden algorithms to determine who gets hired, promoted, disciplined, and fired, how much workers get paid. These algorithms use data scraped from workers' social media profiles, analyze their facial expressions, and generate risk scores that can violate workers' legal rights and derail their careers. Workers often are unaware that algorithmic systems play any role in these decisions, meaning that they are unable to seek advice or protect their rights when they lose out on a job or raise due to discriminatory or error-prone algorithms. The invisibility of most such algorithmic systems to workers means corporations can use them with little fear that they will be held accountable for violating workers' rights under labor, employment, and civil rights laws.
DEIA, Attacks on Law Firms and the Judiciary, and Our Ethical Obligation to Do Something – Janie Cox gives as good an ethics presentation as you’ve seen.
What is Legal DEIA, What is “Illegal” DEIA, and Who Is Defining This - Stacey Campbell and a PELA Member will review the current status of DEIA in America, including what firms can do to maintain DEIA policies and practices and forecasting what DEIA may look like in a few years.
Defending After Acquired Evidence Defenses in State and Federal Court – Tom Arckey will review this often frustrating affirmative defense, including how to defend against it and how to advise clients to avoid giving the employer a basis for it.
How to Settle “Small” Case Big – Jacqueline Guesno, Diane King, and Mari Newman
Safari Litigation/Depositions Are Trial/Creativity, Ingenuity, and Chaos - Stephanie Wood and Ben Lebsack
