Cornell Institute for Hospitality Labor and Employment Relations Welcomes New Industry Advisors

The Cornell Institute for Hospitality Labor and Employment Relations (CIHLER) at the School of Hotel Administration welcomed new hospitality industry leaders to its advisory board. In this role, they will provide financial support to the institute and engage in the development of CIHLER programming and research.

New advisory board members:

Gregg Gilman ’85 is co-chair of the Labor and Employment Practice Group of Davis & Gilbert. He advises employers on all workplace-related matters. A significant portion of his practice is devoted to various labor and personnel issues. He also represents employers in state and federal courts and before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and state and local employment-rights agencies in race, sex, age, disability, and other discrimination cases. Gilman is the creator of Respect in the Workplace, an interactive training seminar on preventive management, including sexual harassment and workplace sensitivity training. He is a frequent guest lecturer on labor and employment law issues.

Michael Gray leads the Labor and Employment Practice in the Chicago office of Jones Day. His practice focuses on representing corporate clients with complex labor and employment litigation, including class-action and multi-plaintiff employment discrimination lawsuits, state law overtime class actions, FLSA collective actions, and trade secrets and restrictive covenant matters. He represents employers throughout the U.S. in bench and jury trials in state and federal courts, administrative hearings, arbitrations, and appellate courts in matters arising under federal and state antidiscrimination laws, the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, Employee Retirement Income Security Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, labor management relations laws, and diverse state law wrongful discharge, statutory, contract, and tort claims.

Keith Grossman joined Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. in 1999 as senior labor counsel and was appointed senior vice president and deputy general counsel in 2000. His responsibilities include global safety, security, and counter-terrorism; all litigation matters worldwide; employment law matters; domestic labor relation; and Starwood’s government affairs. He also serves as a senior member of the Starwood Workplace Violence Prevention Team and the Corporate Crisis Management Team. Prior to joining Starwood, Grossman was a labor and employment attorney with Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP. His extensive labor law experience includes conducting collective bargaining with major labor unions under the National Labor Relations Act and California’s Agricultural Labor Relations Act.

Barry Hartstein ’73 is a shareholder in Littler Mendelson’s Chicago office and heads the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s core practice group. His career includes more than 30 years of counseling and representing employers in a broad range of labor and employment matters, and he is a frequent writer, commentator, and lecturer on workplace issues. He also has extensive experience as a litigator and has defended employers nationwide in individual and class-action claims and wage and hour collective actions. He has expertise dealing with the EEOC on both a local and national level.

Michael Lebowich ’94 is a partner in the Labor and Employment Law Department and co-head of the Labor-Management Relations Group for Proskauer. He represents and counsels employers on a wide range of labor and employment matters, with a particular interest in traditional labor law. Lebowich acts as the primary spokesperson in collective bargaining negotiations, regularly handles grievance arbitrations, assists clients in the labor implications of corporate transactions, and counsels clients on union organizing issues, strike preparation, and day-to-day contract administration issues.

Alan Momeyer is vice president of human resources for Loews Corporation. He is responsible for overall strategy and management of the human resource function for the New York-based diversified corporation consisting of Loews Hotels, CNA Insurance, Diamond Offshore Corporation, Boardwalk Pipelines and HighMount Exploration and Production. He is also the author of numerous articles on personnel management.

Harold Morgan ’78 is senior vice president and chief human resources officer for White Lodging, a third party management and development company with more than 160 hotels in its domestic portfolio. He has also held chief human resources roles in a number of high-profile organizations, including the Chicago Transit Authority, Bally Total Fitness, and Hyatt, North America. He is a Certified Compensation Professional; was a board member and search committee chairman for the International Health and Racket Sports Association; and was a member of the Organization Resources Counselors, the Human Resources Policy Association, and the Machinery and Allied Products Institute.

Frank Muscolina is vice president of corporate labor relations for Caesars Entertainment. He joined Caesars and the gaming industry as a whole in 2003, following thirty years in the retail sector. Although he has spent the latter portion of his career as senior management in human resources & labor relations, he has a diverse professional background, including previous management positions in field operations, corporate strategic planning, and new business development. He was instrumental in the Sears business model restructuring of the early ’90s, and was part of the Due Diligence Group that facilitated the spinoff of Allstate Insurance, Dean Witter (now Morgan Stanley), and Coldwell Banker Real Estate into independent companies. Muscolina currently serves as an employer trustee for the National Retirement Pension Fund and the Unite-Here Medical Fund.

Larry Regan is president of Regan Development Corporation, and has been developing affordable housing for New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut residents for 33 years. He has served on the boards of the Westchester Housing Fund and Cornell Cooperative Extension in Westchester, and often serves as an informal consultant to community-based entities seeking experience and expertise in the development process. He is a frequent speaker on topics including the development of affordable and special needs housing and redevelopment of urban areas, sharing his expertise in creative development solutions to difficult problems.

Carolyn Richmond ’91 is a partner at Fox Rothschild and serves as co-chair of their hospitality group. She represents and counsels employers in the hospitality, financial services, retail, and manufacturing industries on a wide range of workplace issues, including the hiring process, wage and hour class actions, diversity awareness training, employee handbooks, restrictive covenants, and employment discrimination cases. She has written for a number of publications and is a member of the Board of Editorial Advisors for Hospitality Law, the board of the New York City chapter of the New State Restaurant Association, the Advisory Board of the Center for Hospitality Research at Cornell University, and the Alumni Association’s Board of Directors at Cornell’s ILR School.

David Ritter ’80 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 in industries ranging from healthcare to logistics and financial services, on numerous matters of labor and employment law, including employment discrimination and harassment claims, non-compete, trade secret and restrictive covenants, and employment torts. He is a member of the Labor and Employment Law and Litigation sections of the American Bar Association, and serves on the board of directors and acts as general counsel for The Greater North Michigan Avenue Association (GNMAA).

David Rothfeld is a partner at Kane Kessler, P.C., and leads the firm’s Labor and Employment Law practice group. He represents clients in industries including real estate, manufacturing, service, schools, and not-for-profit organizations, but with a concentration in hospitality. He represents management in all phases of labor and employment law, and represents unions at grievance and arbitration proceedings while offering expertise in negotiating collective bargaining agreements. Rothfeld is a frequent participant at the Labor and Employment Law Round Table presented by SHA and the Cornell Law School. He is a member of the American Arbitration Association’s New York and New Jersey Labor Advisory Committee, the American Bar Association’s Sections on Labor and Employment Law, and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York’s Committee on Hotels and Tourism.

Greg Smith oversees HR, training, and recruitment for Commune and its individual hotels, with responsibility for all employees’ professional development. He also provides consultation and planning for the people component of all merger and acquisition opportunities. Smith offers 20-plus years of experience with a number of national and international hospitality brands, including Denihan, where he most recently served as executive vice president. Before joining the hospitality industry, he honed his HR skills at a number of high-profile organizations. Smith holds BA and JD degrees from Tulane University and Tulane University School of Law.

Celeste Yeager is a Littler Mendelson shareholder with over 17 years of experience litigating and consulting on topics including discrimination, leaves of absence, unfair competition, health and safety, and unfair labor practices. She routinely advises and consults with clients about human resource policies and procedures, and provides management training on various employment-related topics, including union avoidance. Yeager maintains an active traditional labor practice representing clients, both unionized and non-unionized, before the National Labor Relations Board. She is a graduate of the Leadership Arts Institute – a program of Business Council for the Arts – and has been repeatedly recognized as a “Rising Star in Employment & Labor” by Super Lawyers.

“Our advisory board members collectively represent a remarkable breadth of knowledge and practical experience in labor and employment relations. Their contribution is essential to the research, events, and programming we develop for students, academics, and industry,” said David Sherwyn, academic director of CIHLER and the John and Melissa Ceriale Professor of Hospitality Human Resources at the School of Hotel Administration.