Professor of Law, Western New England College School of Law
Professor Gouvin has been a member of the Western New England College School of Law faculty since 1991. He was tenured and promoted to full professor in 1996. He served as Associate Dean for External Affairs during the 2003-2004 academic year and as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 2004-2009. He is currently the Director of the Law and Business Center for Advancing Entrepreneurship.
During his time on the faculty he has taught contracts, business organizations, banking regulation, secured transactions, and other business-related courses. In 2002 he founded the Small Business Clinicat Western New England College School of Law and was the moving force behind the creation of the Law and Business Center for Advancing Entrepreneurship, a collaborative effort with the Western New England College School of Business.
Prior to 1991, Professor Gouvin practiced corporate, banking, and commercial law with the firm of Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer and Nelson in Portland, Maine. At the firm Professor Gouvin helped to represent a diverse array of clients, from Fortune 500 companies to closely held businesses.
Professor Gouvin holds a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University, a master’s degree from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and J.D. and LL.M. degrees from the Boston University School of Law. His scholarly writings focus on the intersection of corporate law and banking law. He is a co-author of the treatiseBlumberg on Corporate Groupswith Phillip Blumberg and Kurt Strasser at the University of Connecticut School of Law and Nicholas Georgakopoulos at the Indiana University (Indianapolis) School of Law. His contributions dealt primarily with corporate groups in the financial services sector. He has written numerous law review articles on a range of topics affecting financial services.
Vice President & Legal Director, National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation
Raymond J. LaJeunesse, Jr., is Vice President and Legal Director of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, a non-profit legal aid organization. He was the first Staff Attorney employed by the Foundation and has more than forty-five years of experience helping workers in litigation in federal and state courts and administrative agencies over the abuses of compulsory unionism.
Mr. LaJeunesse has argued four cases in the United States Supreme Court. Those cases include Lehnert v. Ferris Faculty Ass’n, 500 U.S. 507 (1991), which limited the purposes for which compulsory union fees collected from public employees may lawfully be spent; Air Line Pilots Ass’n v. Miller, 523 U.S. 866 (1998), which established that unions cannot compel nonmembers to exhaust union-established remedies before going to court to challenge compulsory union fees; and Marquez v. Screen Actors Guild, 525 U.S. 33 (1998), in which the Court recognized that unions must notify employees that they can satisfy the “membership” requirement of “union shop” agreements by just paying fees for union bargaining activities and need not join and pay full dues to keep their jobs. He also was lead attorney in Hohe v. Casey, 956 F.2d 399 (3d Cir. 1992), in which more than $8.3 million in compulsory agency fees was recovered from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees for a class of 57,000 nonmembers.
Mr. LaJeunesse is the author of several published articles about labor law, has testified before Congressional committees several times, and was an Advisor on the Transition Team for Labor- Related Agencies, Office of the President-Elect, in 1980-81 and a legislative aide to a member of the Virginia state legislature. He is a Vice Chairman of the Federalist Society’s Labor and Employment Law Practice Group and has spoken or debated at the Society’s National Lawyers Convention and at many Lawyers and Student Chapters on such topics as Right to Work laws, compulsory unionism arrangements, the misuse of union dues for politics, union organizing tactics (“card check” vs. secret-ballot elections), and the future of the union movement.
President, UAW 2322
Ron moved to Springfield 35 years ago after graduating high school and has lived in western Massachusetts ever since. Starting a pottery and stained glass business in 1986 at his home in the Maple High-Six Corners neighborhood and working in the hospitality industry he still made time to be involved in city politics. Ron was a member of his Neighbor Council and the Neighborhood Watch.
In 1993 Ron went to work in the healthcare field working at an area hospital as an alcohol and substance abuse counselor and mental health counselor, spending the next 12 years helping people learn to help themselves.
When their employer tried to cut their wages, increase their health insurance costs and make other changes to their wages, benefits and working conditions, Ron joined his coworkers and helped lead and win a campaign to join UAW 2322. He spent the next 6 years fighting for and winning better wages and benefits for his coworkers as chief steward of the union.
In 2004 Ron ran for and won the position of President of UAW Local 2322 and has worked tirelessly with the 3,200 workers they represent to fight for and win better wages, benefits and working conditions, so they and their families can enjoy a better life.
In 2006 Ron won the Pioneer Valley Labor Leader of the Year award for his efforts on behalf of working people and the community. Later that year Ron and the UAW worked on the campaign to elect Deval Patrick, Governor of the Commonwealth. The UAW was the second major union to endorse Deval due in no small part to Ron’s efforts. In recognition of Ron’s efforts for workers, Governor Patrick appointed him to the Commonwealth Corporation Board of Directors which oversees over $34 million annually in funding for job training in the Commonwealth.
Shareholder & Co-Chair of the Workplace Policy Institute, Littler Mendelson P.C.
Alexander T. MacDonald advises employers on all aspects of the employment and labor landscape, focusing on emerging legislation and regulation. He has extensive experience advising businesses on worker classification, arbitration, the administrative and regulatory process, and the future of work. He frequently writes, publishes, and speaks on these subjects. His work has been cited by scholars and appellate courts. He is a recognized voice for the management perspective.
Alexander is a co-chair of the Workplace Policy Institute (WPI) team. With WPI, he advises employers on legislative, administrative, and regulatory developments at the state and federal level. He advocates for employers in the regulatory and administrative process. He also helps employers protect their businesses by understanding and anticipating cutting-edge legal developments.
Alexander also has extensive experience in traditional labor law. He represents management in all aspects of labor-management relations, including unfair labor practice charges, grievance arbitrations, representation elections, contract negotiations, and related litigation, including litigation in the U.S. courts of appeals.
Before joining Littler, Alexander served as the director, future of work, for a major technology company. He also worked in a national labor and employment law firm and a major public-sector general counsel’s office. He was a law clerk to the senior judges in the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.
He is also a veteran of the U.S. Air Force. He served in Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. In law school, he graduated first in his class
Senior Fellow; Senior Adviser, American Worker Project, Center for American Progress
David Madland is a senior fellow and the senior adviser to the American Worker Project at American Progress. He has been called “one of the nation’s wisest” labor scholars by Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne Jr. His work “is creating a North Star for how we increase workers’ power in the economy and democracy,” according to Mary Kay Henry, former president of the Service Employees International Union.
Madland is the author of Re-Union: How Bold Labor Reforms Can Repair, Revitalize, and Reunite the United States (Cornell University Press, 2021), which helped put sectoral bargaining on the political agenda, and Hollowed Out: Why the Economy Doesn’t Work without a Strong Middle Class (University of California Press, 2015), a pioneering critique of trickle-down economics that has helped policymakers understand that the economy grows from the middle out and the bottom up, not from the top down.
He is frequently featured on television and radio programs, including appearances on PBS, CNN, MSNBC, Fox, and NPR. His work has been cited in numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The New Yorker. He has testified before Congress as well as several state legislatures.
Madland received his doctorate in government from Georgetown University and his bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley. His research about the decline of the U.S. pension system received the “Best Dissertation Award” from the Labor and Employment Relations Association. Madland previously worked on economic policy for Rep. George Miller (D-CA).
Vice President and Legal Director, National Right to Work Legal Defense and Education Foundation, Inc.
William Messenger is Foundation Vice President and Legal Director. He was a staff attorney for over twenty years and, during that time, represented individuals in numerous cases that sought to expand worker freedom of choice. This includes acting as lead counsel in three cases before the United States Supreme Court. In 2018, Messenger argued Janus v. AFSCME Council 31, where the Supreme Court held it violates the First Amendment for governments and unions to compel individuals to financially support unions and their speech. Originally from Youngstown Ohio, Messenger attended Ohio University as an undergraduate and then the George Washington University School of Law.
Partner, Fusion Law, PLLC
Paul is the founding partner of Fusion Law, PLLC. He has extensive experience with state, federal, and global regulators building coalitions and implementing policies to promote innovation in financial services. He is responsible for designing and implementing the first state (Arizona) and federal (CFPB) FinTech sandboxes in the United States. He also designed the CFPB no-action letter and trial disclosure policies. He helped found the first global regulatory innovation coalition (Global Financial Innovation Network) and led the founding of the first U.S. regulatory innovation coalition (American Consumer Financial Innovation Network). He served on the Financial Stability Oversight Council subcommittee on digital assets. He also has drafted state-level laws on blockchain and utility tokens.
Paul also has significant enforcement and litigation experience. He led many multi-state consumer protection enforcement matters as Civil Litigation Division Chief at the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.
Prior to his government service, Paul practiced law in the areas of securities litigation and transactional work for approximately six years at two well-known law firms. He also clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
Legal Counsel, Alliance Defending Freedom
Kathleen Barceleau serves as legal counsel for Allied Legal Affairs and Advocacy Strategy at Alliance Defending Freedom. In that role, she works to coordinate and deploy network attorneys to further ADF’s mission and conducts research in support of ADF’s strategic plans.
Before joining ADF, Barceleau was Of Counsel at Fusion Law, where she focused on financial regulation and policy issues. Previously, she served as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Kansas, where she represented Kansas and its officials in civil rights and constitutional litigation in both state and federal courts. She also served as a law clerk to the Hon. Robert H. Cleland on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
Barceleau received her J.D. summa cum laude from Ave Maria School of Law. She is a 2016 Blackstone Fellow. Before law school, Barceleau graduated summa cum laude from Ave Maria University with a Bachelor of Arts in Classics and Early Christian Literature and Economics. Barceleau is admitted to the state bar of Michigan.
Vice President & Legal Director, National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation
Raymond J. LaJeunesse, Jr., is Vice President and Legal Director of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, a non-profit legal aid organization. He was the first Staff Attorney employed by the Foundation and has more than forty-five years of experience helping workers in litigation in federal and state courts and administrative agencies over the abuses of compulsory unionism.
Mr. LaJeunesse has argued four cases in the United States Supreme Court. Those cases include Lehnert v. Ferris Faculty Ass’n, 500 U.S. 507 (1991), which limited the purposes for which compulsory union fees collected from public employees may lawfully be spent; Air Line Pilots Ass’n v. Miller, 523 U.S. 866 (1998), which established that unions cannot compel nonmembers to exhaust union-established remedies before going to court to challenge compulsory union fees; and Marquez v. Screen Actors Guild, 525 U.S. 33 (1998), in which the Court recognized that unions must notify employees that they can satisfy the “membership” requirement of “union shop” agreements by just paying fees for union bargaining activities and need not join and pay full dues to keep their jobs. He also was lead attorney in Hohe v. Casey, 956 F.2d 399 (3d Cir. 1992), in which more than $8.3 million in compulsory agency fees was recovered from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees for a class of 57,000 nonmembers.
Mr. LaJeunesse is the author of several published articles about labor law, has testified before Congressional committees several times, and was an Advisor on the Transition Team for Labor- Related Agencies, Office of the President-Elect, in 1980-81 and a legislative aide to a member of the Virginia state legislature. He is a Vice Chairman of the Federalist Society’s Labor and Employment Law Practice Group and has spoken or debated at the Society’s National Lawyers Convention and at many Lawyers and Student Chapters on such topics as Right to Work laws, compulsory unionism arrangements, the misuse of union dues for politics, union organizing tactics (“card check” vs. secret-ballot elections), and the future of the union movement.
Professor of Law, Western New England College School of Law
Professor Gouvin has been a member of the Western New England College School of Law faculty since 1991. He was tenured and promoted to full professor in 1996. He served as Associate Dean for External Affairs during the 2003-2004 academic year and as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 2004-2009. He is currently the Director of the Law and Business Center for Advancing Entrepreneurship.
During his time on the faculty he has taught contracts, business organizations, banking regulation, secured transactions, and other business-related courses. In 2002 he founded the Small Business Clinicat Western New England College School of Law and was the moving force behind the creation of the Law and Business Center for Advancing Entrepreneurship, a collaborative effort with the Western New England College School of Business.
Prior to 1991, Professor Gouvin practiced corporate, banking, and commercial law with the firm of Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer and Nelson in Portland, Maine. At the firm Professor Gouvin helped to represent a diverse array of clients, from Fortune 500 companies to closely held businesses.
Professor Gouvin holds a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University, a master’s degree from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and J.D. and LL.M. degrees from the Boston University School of Law. His scholarly writings focus on the intersection of corporate law and banking law. He is a co-author of the treatiseBlumberg on Corporate Groupswith Phillip Blumberg and Kurt Strasser at the University of Connecticut School of Law and Nicholas Georgakopoulos at the Indiana University (Indianapolis) School of Law. His contributions dealt primarily with corporate groups in the financial services sector. He has written numerous law review articles on a range of topics affecting financial services.
Vice President & Legal Director, National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation
Raymond J. LaJeunesse, Jr., is Vice President and Legal Director of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, a non-profit legal aid organization. He was the first Staff Attorney employed by the Foundation and has more than forty-five years of experience helping workers in litigation in federal and state courts and administrative agencies over the abuses of compulsory unionism.
Mr. LaJeunesse has argued four cases in the United States Supreme Court. Those cases include Lehnert v. Ferris Faculty Ass’n, 500 U.S. 507 (1991), which limited the purposes for which compulsory union fees collected from public employees may lawfully be spent; Air Line Pilots Ass’n v. Miller, 523 U.S. 866 (1998), which established that unions cannot compel nonmembers to exhaust union-established remedies before going to court to challenge compulsory union fees; and Marquez v. Screen Actors Guild, 525 U.S. 33 (1998), in which the Court recognized that unions must notify employees that they can satisfy the “membership” requirement of “union shop” agreements by just paying fees for union bargaining activities and need not join and pay full dues to keep their jobs. He also was lead attorney in Hohe v. Casey, 956 F.2d 399 (3d Cir. 1992), in which more than $8.3 million in compulsory agency fees was recovered from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees for a class of 57,000 nonmembers.
Mr. LaJeunesse is the author of several published articles about labor law, has testified before Congressional committees several times, and was an Advisor on the Transition Team for Labor- Related Agencies, Office of the President-Elect, in 1980-81 and a legislative aide to a member of the Virginia state legislature. He is a Vice Chairman of the Federalist Society’s Labor and Employment Law Practice Group and has spoken or debated at the Society’s National Lawyers Convention and at many Lawyers and Student Chapters on such topics as Right to Work laws, compulsory unionism arrangements, the misuse of union dues for politics, union organizing tactics (“card check” vs. secret-ballot elections), and the future of the union movement.
President, UAW 2322
Ron moved to Springfield 35 years ago after graduating high school and has lived in western Massachusetts ever since. Starting a pottery and stained glass business in 1986 at his home in the Maple High-Six Corners neighborhood and working in the hospitality industry he still made time to be involved in city politics. Ron was a member of his Neighbor Council and the Neighborhood Watch.
In 1993 Ron went to work in the healthcare field working at an area hospital as an alcohol and substance abuse counselor and mental health counselor, spending the next 12 years helping people learn to help themselves.
When their employer tried to cut their wages, increase their health insurance costs and make other changes to their wages, benefits and working conditions, Ron joined his coworkers and helped lead and win a campaign to join UAW 2322. He spent the next 6 years fighting for and winning better wages and benefits for his coworkers as chief steward of the union.
In 2004 Ron ran for and won the position of President of UAW Local 2322 and has worked tirelessly with the 3,200 workers they represent to fight for and win better wages, benefits and working conditions, so they and their families can enjoy a better life.
In 2006 Ron won the Pioneer Valley Labor Leader of the Year award for his efforts on behalf of working people and the community. Later that year Ron and the UAW worked on the campaign to elect Deval Patrick, Governor of the Commonwealth. The UAW was the second major union to endorse Deval due in no small part to Ron’s efforts. In recognition of Ron’s efforts for workers, Governor Patrick appointed him to the Commonwealth Corporation Board of Directors which oversees over $34 million annually in funding for job training in the Commonwealth.
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