Senior Scholar, Manhattan Institute; Professor of Law Emerita, University of San Diego
Gail Heriot is a Senior Scholar at the Manhattan Institute, a Professor of Law Emerita at the University of San Diego and the Chairman of the Board of the American Civil Rights Project. She served on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights for 18 years. Her new book is entitled “Why We Walk on Eggshells: How Our Civil Rights Laws Stifle Our Public Discourse.”
Of Counsel, Kirkland & Ellis LLP
John focuses his practice on labor and employment litigation and counseling employers on mergers, acquisitions and consolidations, downsizing, plant relocations, union representation elections, labor negotiations, strikes and lockouts, NLRB unfair labor practices, arbitration, wage and hour, wrongful discharge and equal employment. John, a former NLRB General Counsel and Labor Department official, was selected as a global leader in the field of employment & labor law in The International Who's Who of Labor and Employment Lawyers by Law Business Research, The Best Lawyers in America, and Super Lawyers.
John earned his B.A. from Brown University and both his J.D. and LL.M. from Georgetown.
Attorney at Law
James P. Scanlan is an attorney specializing in the use of statistics in litigation. He has published about 60 articles on legal or public policy issues. About half have pertained to the use of statistics in the law and the social and medical sciences, especially regarding the patterns by which standard measures of differences between outcome rates tend to be systematically affected by the prevalence of an outcome. Most notably, the rarer an outcome the greater tends to be the relative difference in experiencing and the smaller tends to be the relative difference in avoiding it, a pattern termed “Scanlan’s Rule” by scholars in the UK. Thus, for example, improvements in health or healthcare tend to decrease relative differences in favorable health outcomes, while increasing relative differences in the corresponding adverse outcomes; increasing loan approval rates tends to decrease relative differences in approval rates while increasing relative differences in rejection rates. Without recognizing this and related patterns it is not possible to soundly interpret data on group differences in outcome rates.
CEO, Sharf & Associates
As EEOC's Chief Psychologist in the mid-1970s, Jim drafted the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures He subsequently returned to government to serve as Special Assistant to EEOC's Chairman for whom he drafted the "race norming" prohibition in the Civil Rights Act of 1991.
Jim has successfully defended the validity generalization (VG) of measures of cognitive ability (Taylor v. James River Corp., 1989 WL 165953 (S.D. Ala. 1989; McCoy v. Willamette Industries, Inc. U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia, Savannah Dicision, Civil Action No. CV401-075 (2001)) - his VG reasoning having been affirmed by the Fifth Circuit (Bernard v. Gulf Oil Corp., 890 F.2d. 735, 744 (5th Cir. 1989). Jim has also successfully defended validity generalization challenged by OFCCP (TIMKEN) and EEOC (SMECO).
For four years, Jim was industrial psychology's expert writing the licensing exam required of all psychologists in the U.S. and Canada. Jim was awarded the M. Scott Myers Award for Applied Research in the Workplace by the Society for Industrial/ Organizational Psychology for developing the valid, legally defensible employment tests used by TSA to hire fifty-thousand airport security screeners.
With Metrics Reporting, Inc., Jim and the Competency Validation Center team are now partnering with the Hope Street Group nonprofit network both to document and to assess legally defensible, job-related competencies in the healthcare and manufacturing sectors. GOALS: Employers will be able to communicate Talent Supply Chain competencies; Individuals will accumulate stackable credentials documenting their competencies; and Talent Suppliers will align competency-based education with employer requirements.
Senior Scholar, Manhattan Institute; Professor of Law Emerita, University of San Diego
Gail Heriot is a Senior Scholar at the Manhattan Institute, a Professor of Law Emerita at the University of San Diego and the Chairman of the Board of the American Civil Rights Project. She served on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights for 18 years. Her new book is entitled “Why We Walk on Eggshells: How Our Civil Rights Laws Stifle Our Public Discourse.”
Of Counsel, Kirkland & Ellis LLP
John focuses his practice on labor and employment litigation and counseling employers on mergers, acquisitions and consolidations, downsizing, plant relocations, union representation elections, labor negotiations, strikes and lockouts, NLRB unfair labor practices, arbitration, wage and hour, wrongful discharge and equal employment. John, a former NLRB General Counsel and Labor Department official, was selected as a global leader in the field of employment & labor law in The International Who's Who of Labor and Employment Lawyers by Law Business Research, The Best Lawyers in America, and Super Lawyers.
John earned his B.A. from Brown University and both his J.D. and LL.M. from Georgetown.
Attorney at Law
James P. Scanlan is an attorney specializing in the use of statistics in litigation. He has published about 60 articles on legal or public policy issues. About half have pertained to the use of statistics in the law and the social and medical sciences, especially regarding the patterns by which standard measures of differences between outcome rates tend to be systematically affected by the prevalence of an outcome. Most notably, the rarer an outcome the greater tends to be the relative difference in experiencing and the smaller tends to be the relative difference in avoiding it, a pattern termed “Scanlan’s Rule” by scholars in the UK. Thus, for example, improvements in health or healthcare tend to decrease relative differences in favorable health outcomes, while increasing relative differences in the corresponding adverse outcomes; increasing loan approval rates tends to decrease relative differences in approval rates while increasing relative differences in rejection rates. Without recognizing this and related patterns it is not possible to soundly interpret data on group differences in outcome rates.
CEO, Sharf & Associates
As EEOC's Chief Psychologist in the mid-1970s, Jim drafted the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures He subsequently returned to government to serve as Special Assistant to EEOC's Chairman for whom he drafted the "race norming" prohibition in the Civil Rights Act of 1991.
Jim has successfully defended the validity generalization (VG) of measures of cognitive ability (Taylor v. James River Corp., 1989 WL 165953 (S.D. Ala. 1989; McCoy v. Willamette Industries, Inc. U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia, Savannah Dicision, Civil Action No. CV401-075 (2001)) - his VG reasoning having been affirmed by the Fifth Circuit (Bernard v. Gulf Oil Corp., 890 F.2d. 735, 744 (5th Cir. 1989). Jim has also successfully defended validity generalization challenged by OFCCP (TIMKEN) and EEOC (SMECO).
For four years, Jim was industrial psychology's expert writing the licensing exam required of all psychologists in the U.S. and Canada. Jim was awarded the M. Scott Myers Award for Applied Research in the Workplace by the Society for Industrial/ Organizational Psychology for developing the valid, legally defensible employment tests used by TSA to hire fifty-thousand airport security screeners.
With Metrics Reporting, Inc., Jim and the Competency Validation Center team are now partnering with the Hope Street Group nonprofit network both to document and to assess legally defensible, job-related competencies in the healthcare and manufacturing sectors. GOALS: Employers will be able to communicate Talent Supply Chain competencies; Individuals will accumulate stackable credentials documenting their competencies; and Talent Suppliers will align competency-based education with employer requirements.
Partner, Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff LLP
Peter focuses his legal practice on representing management in employment-related litigation and in contract negotiations, NLRB proceedings, EEO matters and arbitration.
Peter Kirsanow is a partner with Benesch’s Labor & Employment Practice Group. He returned to Benesch in January 2008 after serving as a presidential appointee to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in Washington D.C. for two years. While serving on the NLRB, he was involved with significant decisions including Oakwood Healthcare, Inc., Dana/Metaldyne and Oil Capital Sheet Metal, Inc. In addition, Peter testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the nominations of John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. He also continues to testify before and advise members of the U.S. Congress on employment law matters, most recently on November 18 before the House Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight regarding disparate impact theory.
Peter was recently reappointed by the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives to his fourth consecutive six-year term on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. This is a part-time position which will expire in December 2025.
Recently, Peter and a team of Benesch attorneys served as lead counsel to the National Association of Manufacturers in litigation before the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia against the NLRB, challenging the Board’s Notice of Employer Rights Posting Rule. The court ruled in favor of Benesch’s client, striking down the NLRB’s Rule in its entirety. This ruling impacts over 6,000,000 employers nationwide which would have been subject to the posting requirement.
Additionally, Peter is past chair of the board of directors of the Center for New Black Leadership and is a member of Benesch’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee. This committee helps ensure that the firm promotes an environment in which differences are respected, employees are treated fairly, and individual skills and talents are valued.
Senior Fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center
Stanley Kurtz is a Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. On a wide range of issues, from K-12 and higher education reform, to the challenges of democratization abroad, to urban-suburban policies, to the shaping of the American left’s agenda, Mr. Kurtz is a key contributor to American public debates. Mr. Kurtz has written on these and other issues for various journals, particularly National Review Online (where he is a contributing editor).
Mr. Kurtz has published two influential books on President Obama’s political history and policy agenda: Radical-in-Chief: Barack Obama and the Untold Story of American Socialism (Threshold) and Spreading the Wealth: How Obama is Robbing the Suburbs to Pay for the Cities (Sentinel). He has also led the campaign to reform federal subsidies to academic programs of “area studies” under Title VI of the Higher Education Act.
Mr. Kurtz received his undergraduate degree from Haverford College and his Ph.D. in social anthropology from Harvard University. He later taught at Harvard, winning several teaching awards for his work in a Great Books Program. He was also Dewey Prize Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Chicago.
Senior Scholar, Manhattan Institute; Professor of Law Emerita, University of San Diego
Gail Heriot is a Senior Scholar at the Manhattan Institute, a Professor of Law Emerita at the University of San Diego and the Chairman of the Board of the American Civil Rights Project. She served on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights for 18 years. Her new book is entitled “Why We Walk on Eggshells: How Our Civil Rights Laws Stifle Our Public Discourse.”
Of Counsel, Kirkland & Ellis LLP
John focuses his practice on labor and employment litigation and counseling employers on mergers, acquisitions and consolidations, downsizing, plant relocations, union representation elections, labor negotiations, strikes and lockouts, NLRB unfair labor practices, arbitration, wage and hour, wrongful discharge and equal employment. John, a former NLRB General Counsel and Labor Department official, was selected as a global leader in the field of employment & labor law in The International Who's Who of Labor and Employment Lawyers by Law Business Research, The Best Lawyers in America, and Super Lawyers.
John earned his B.A. from Brown University and both his J.D. and LL.M. from Georgetown.
Attorney at Law
James P. Scanlan is an attorney specializing in the use of statistics in litigation. He has published about 60 articles on legal or public policy issues. About half have pertained to the use of statistics in the law and the social and medical sciences, especially regarding the patterns by which standard measures of differences between outcome rates tend to be systematically affected by the prevalence of an outcome. Most notably, the rarer an outcome the greater tends to be the relative difference in experiencing and the smaller tends to be the relative difference in avoiding it, a pattern termed “Scanlan’s Rule” by scholars in the UK. Thus, for example, improvements in health or healthcare tend to decrease relative differences in favorable health outcomes, while increasing relative differences in the corresponding adverse outcomes; increasing loan approval rates tends to decrease relative differences in approval rates while increasing relative differences in rejection rates. Without recognizing this and related patterns it is not possible to soundly interpret data on group differences in outcome rates.
CEO, Sharf & Associates
As EEOC's Chief Psychologist in the mid-1970s, Jim drafted the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures He subsequently returned to government to serve as Special Assistant to EEOC's Chairman for whom he drafted the "race norming" prohibition in the Civil Rights Act of 1991.
Jim has successfully defended the validity generalization (VG) of measures of cognitive ability (Taylor v. James River Corp., 1989 WL 165953 (S.D. Ala. 1989; McCoy v. Willamette Industries, Inc. U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia, Savannah Dicision, Civil Action No. CV401-075 (2001)) - his VG reasoning having been affirmed by the Fifth Circuit (Bernard v. Gulf Oil Corp., 890 F.2d. 735, 744 (5th Cir. 1989). Jim has also successfully defended validity generalization challenged by OFCCP (TIMKEN) and EEOC (SMECO).
For four years, Jim was industrial psychology's expert writing the licensing exam required of all psychologists in the U.S. and Canada. Jim was awarded the M. Scott Myers Award for Applied Research in the Workplace by the Society for Industrial/ Organizational Psychology for developing the valid, legally defensible employment tests used by TSA to hire fifty-thousand airport security screeners.
With Metrics Reporting, Inc., Jim and the Competency Validation Center team are now partnering with the Hope Street Group nonprofit network both to document and to assess legally defensible, job-related competencies in the healthcare and manufacturing sectors. GOALS: Employers will be able to communicate Talent Supply Chain competencies; Individuals will accumulate stackable credentials documenting their competencies; and Talent Suppliers will align competency-based education with employer requirements.
Partner, Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff LLP
Peter focuses his legal practice on representing management in employment-related litigation and in contract negotiations, NLRB proceedings, EEO matters and arbitration.
Peter Kirsanow is a partner with Benesch’s Labor & Employment Practice Group. He returned to Benesch in January 2008 after serving as a presidential appointee to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in Washington D.C. for two years. While serving on the NLRB, he was involved with significant decisions including Oakwood Healthcare, Inc., Dana/Metaldyne and Oil Capital Sheet Metal, Inc. In addition, Peter testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the nominations of John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. He also continues to testify before and advise members of the U.S. Congress on employment law matters, most recently on November 18 before the House Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight regarding disparate impact theory.
Peter was recently reappointed by the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives to his fourth consecutive six-year term on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. This is a part-time position which will expire in December 2025.
Recently, Peter and a team of Benesch attorneys served as lead counsel to the National Association of Manufacturers in litigation before the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia against the NLRB, challenging the Board’s Notice of Employer Rights Posting Rule. The court ruled in favor of Benesch’s client, striking down the NLRB’s Rule in its entirety. This ruling impacts over 6,000,000 employers nationwide which would have been subject to the posting requirement.
Additionally, Peter is past chair of the board of directors of the Center for New Black Leadership and is a member of Benesch’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee. This committee helps ensure that the firm promotes an environment in which differences are respected, employees are treated fairly, and individual skills and talents are valued.
Senior Fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center
Stanley Kurtz is a Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. On a wide range of issues, from K-12 and higher education reform, to the challenges of democratization abroad, to urban-suburban policies, to the shaping of the American left’s agenda, Mr. Kurtz is a key contributor to American public debates. Mr. Kurtz has written on these and other issues for various journals, particularly National Review Online (where he is a contributing editor).
Mr. Kurtz has published two influential books on President Obama’s political history and policy agenda: Radical-in-Chief: Barack Obama and the Untold Story of American Socialism (Threshold) and Spreading the Wealth: How Obama is Robbing the Suburbs to Pay for the Cities (Sentinel). He has also led the campaign to reform federal subsidies to academic programs of “area studies” under Title VI of the Higher Education Act.
Mr. Kurtz received his undergraduate degree from Haverford College and his Ph.D. in social anthropology from Harvard University. He later taught at Harvard, winning several teaching awards for his work in a Great Books Program. He was also Dewey Prize Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Chicago.
Partner, Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff LLP
Peter focuses his legal practice on representing management in employment-related litigation and in contract negotiations, NLRB proceedings, EEO matters and arbitration.
Peter Kirsanow is a partner with Benesch’s Labor & Employment Practice Group. He returned to Benesch in January 2008 after serving as a presidential appointee to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in Washington D.C. for two years. While serving on the NLRB, he was involved with significant decisions including Oakwood Healthcare, Inc., Dana/Metaldyne and Oil Capital Sheet Metal, Inc. In addition, Peter testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the nominations of John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. He also continues to testify before and advise members of the U.S. Congress on employment law matters, most recently on November 18 before the House Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight regarding disparate impact theory.
Peter was recently reappointed by the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives to his fourth consecutive six-year term on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. This is a part-time position which will expire in December 2025.
Recently, Peter and a team of Benesch attorneys served as lead counsel to the National Association of Manufacturers in litigation before the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia against the NLRB, challenging the Board’s Notice of Employer Rights Posting Rule. The court ruled in favor of Benesch’s client, striking down the NLRB’s Rule in its entirety. This ruling impacts over 6,000,000 employers nationwide which would have been subject to the posting requirement.
Additionally, Peter is past chair of the board of directors of the Center for New Black Leadership and is a member of Benesch’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee. This committee helps ensure that the firm promotes an environment in which differences are respected, employees are treated fairly, and individual skills and talents are valued.
Disparate Impact: Reducing Innovation in the Workplace?
Gail L. Heriot, John S. Irving, James Scanlan, James Sharf
The slogan "Personnel is policy" reflects the principle that hiring the right people is one...
Disparate Impact: Reducing Innovation in the Workplace?
Gail L. Heriot, John S. Irving, James Scanlan, James Sharf
The slogan "Personnel is policy" reflects the principle that hiring the right people is one...
Disparate Impact: Reducing Innovation in the Workplace?
Fourth Annual Executive Branch Review Conference
Washington, DCTopics
Executive Branch Review Conference Live Streams
The Fourth Annual Executive Branch Review Conference was live streamed on May 17. The theme...
Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing - Podcast
Peter Kirsanow, Stanley Kurtz
In July of 2015, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced its...
Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing
TeleforumTopics
Two Members of U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Criticize Racially Themed Housing on College Campuses
Should colleges and universities be in the business of operating racially separate “theme housing?” Two...
Topics
Should Congress Enact the Blue Lives Matter Act of 2016?
Recently, Representative Ken Buck introduced the Blue Lives Matter Act of 2016, which would amend...
Fisher v. University of Texas: The Future of Racial Preferences in Higher Education
RochesterTopics
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and Russia Today
Yesterday, Commissioners Gail Heriot and Peter Kirsanow sent a letter explaining why they had declined to...