President Biden Appoints Martin H. Malin as Chair of the Federal Labor Relations Authority Federal Service Impasses Panel

CHICAGO, August 24, 2021—Chicago-Kent College of Law Professor Emeritus Martin H. Malin has been appointed as chair of the Federal Labor Relations Authority Federal Service Impasses Panel (FSIP) by President Joseph R. Biden. The announcement was made by the White House on Monday.

Malin, who recently retired as director of Chicago-Kent’s Institute for Law and the Workplace (ILW), was previously appointed to the Federal Service Impasses Panel under former President Barack Obama in 2009. He was reappointed in 2014 and served until 2017.

“I am honored to once again have the opportunity to serve our country on the Federal Service Impasses Panel,” Malin says. “President Biden is appointing an incredible group of seasoned and highly regarded labor relations professionals to serve on the Panel. I am humbled by the confidence the President has expressed in me by appointing me to lead this amazing team.”

Martin H. Malin
Martin H. Malin, Professor of Law Emeritus and
founder of the Institute for Law and the Workplace.

The panel’s members resolve impasses in collective bargaining between federal agencies and unions that represent the agencies’ employees. If bargaining between the parties, followed by mediation assistance, is unsuccessful, the FSIP has the authority to recommend procedures and to take whatever action it deems necessary to resolve the impasse. The FSIP members are presidential appointees who serve on a part-time basis.

Malin founded ILW at the law school in 1996 as a national center for research, training, dialogue, and reflection on the law that governs the workplace. The institute serves as an intellectual home for the labor and employment law community, both in the Chicago area and nationwide. ILW is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, and the law school is preparing to launch the public phase of its fundraising campaign to rename it after Malin.

“Marty Malin’s long and distinguished career has had an impact on nearly every corner of the labor and employment community nationwide,” says Chicago-Kent Dean Anita K. Krug. “His work among academics, policymakers, and practitioners on both the union and management sides of the bargaining table is highly respected. I am elated that President Biden has recognized Marty’s dedication to resolving important and complex labor and employment matters in an equitable way.”

Malin is a former national chair of the Section on Labor Relations and Employment Law of the Association of American Law Schools, served as secretary of the American Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Law Section, and is a former member of the board of governors and vice president of the National Academy of Arbitrators. During 1984 and 1985, Malin served as consultant to the Illinois state, local, and educational labor relations boards and drafted the boards’ regulations implementing the newly enacted Illinois Public Labor Relations Act and the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act. From 2003 to 2008 he served as reporter to the Association of Labor Relations Agencies’ Neutrality Project, which produced a restatement-like mini-treatise on labor board and mediation agency impartiality.

In 2016 the ABA presented Malin with the Arvid Anderson Award for lifetime contributions to public sector labor law. Malin has been a member of Chicago-Kent’s faculty since 1980. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University and received his J.D. from George Washington University.

About the Institute for Law and the Workplace

The Institute for Law and the Workplace at Chicago-Kent College of Law is a national center for research, training, dialogue, and reflection on the law that governs the workplace. Founded in 1996, the institute serves as an intellectual home for the labor and employment law community, both in the Chicago area and nationwide. It pools the resources of leading academic scholars and the practicing professional community to train students and professionals, monitor policies and trends, and reflect upon issues confronting the labor and employment law community in a neutral setting. ILW publishes the Employee Rights and Employment Policy Journal, which is the only faculty-edited, peer-reviewed employment law journal in the country focused on legal issues related to the workplace.

About Chicago-Kent College of Law

Founded in 1888, Chicago-Kent College of Law is the law school of Illinois Institute of Technology, also known as Illinois Tech, a private, technology-focused research university offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering, science, architecture, business, design, human sciences, applied technology, and law. For more information, visit www.kentlaw.iit.edu.

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