It was another hot one in Northwest Arkansas. I believe we shattered heat records that day.  Sure gives new meaning to hump day—getting over the hump of the heat!

 The first thing on the day’s agenda was the see Stylist Extraordinaire, Lora Williams.  Didn’t want to head to Toronto looking crazy–ok, at least not hair wise.  That’s no way to represent on a Presidential Showcase CLE (continuing legal education) panel.  I’ll tell you more about that in a bit.  Lora is a hair miracle worker, so if you need help, give her a call.  She’s at the J.C. Penny salon in Rogers.  Thanks Lora, for the hook-up.  What better time to take a new driver’s license picture than with your butter whipped?

 

The next stop was an office the Department of Motor Vehicles. Sigh.  Everyone knows getting your driver’s license renewed is a time sink.  But to my amazement, there was an express lane just for renewals and I was in and out of there in less than 20 minutes.  Sweet! Must be living right.

 From there, I went to check in at the office. I needed to pick up my travel file for the trip to Toronto, which is where the American Bar Association Meeting (yes, I know it’s ironic) was held this year. The temperature there promised to be a lot cooler, a quick check showed the highs to be in the upper 80’s, with a chance for showers (which we really need in NWA). The panel I mentioned above was scheduled for Sunday August 7th.  It was entitled, Investigating and Forgetting on the Web. Here’s the description of our presentation:

Every month there is a new site, or a new app designed to connect multiple sites and make it easier for users to link to each other and to share personal, biographical, attitudinal information and other resources and media. A panel of Canadian and American attorneys will examine the privacy, liability, and other potential problems raised by the constantly-expanding social media universe. The panel will also examine potential solutions, including whether the use of “cleaners,” social media expiration dates and other mechanisms to purge on-line histories could be used to benefit employees or to hamper employers and, if so, what the legal implications would be of using these new technologies? 

The ABA CLE Centre Showcase Panels are those submitted to, and accepted by the big ABA as a highlighted CLE program.  The ABA sections select the programs submitted.  The speakers on my panel represented different perspectives on the practice of labor and employment law– as is required by our section. Somewhere back in the early days of the blog I’ve described all that.  Suffice it to say that management, employee, labor and neutral perspectives are represented in the leadership and programming of the Section.  Joining me on the panel (and doing the heavy lifting) were:

 Douglas Dexter, Social Media Policies for the New Digital Age: New Issues for Employers, Roy Heenan, Investigating and Forgetting on the Web: Privacy Law and Social Media in the Employment Context—The Canadian Perspective, Hanan Kolko, The Intersection of 21st Century Social Media and the 20th Century National Labor Relations Act, Lauren E. Schwartzreich, The Internet is Written in Ink: Workplace Liabilities & Litigation Hurdles in the Age of Web 2.0.  It’s fortunate that that Roy was to be a member of our panel, as he is able to present a comparative perspective on our topic, which would allow for a more nuanced consideration of workplace social media issues.