Bonnie Mayfield to Serve as Featured Speaker at the 2015 IADC Midyear Meeting

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2.03.15

Dykema, a leading national law firm, is proud to announce that Bonnie Mayfield, Bloomfield Hills-based Member of Dykema’s Litigation and Labor & Employment practices, will be a featured speaker at the upcoming, International Association of Defense Counsel (IADC) 2015 Midyear Meeting in February 2015.

Mayfield, who serves as Vice Chair of Diversity Initiatives for the IADC Diversity Committee, will be a co-presenter during two separate programs. The first, titled “The Impact of Misclassification of Workers,” will focus on the potential claims and issues created by the misclassification of workers. Specifically, the program will discuss employment claims for wage and hour violations, insurance coverage and indemnification, preemption, borrowed servant doctrines, multiple employee status, respondeat superior liability, and motor carrier classification. Presenters will explain litigation trends, claims related to emerging doctrines, and efforts to change the traditional classification of employees.

The second program, titled “Microinequities and Potential Crash and Burn: Are You at Risk?”, will discuss how legal organizations can protect themselves from microinequities by covering how to recognize and effectively deal with messages of exclusion, which detract from success in the workplace. The session will also discuss how ineffectively addressing micromessaging can create harmful effects resulting in hostile work environments, discrimination and other legal issues. As Vice Chair, Mayfield proposed the program sparked by her longstanding work and research in the field of mircromessaging.

Mayfield, who is a successful trial and appellate lawyer, has won an impressive series of victories for various clients. She represents clients in labor and employment, product liability, and commercial matters. Mayfield also is a member of Dykema’s National Trial Team, a group of experienced trial lawyers who have taken more than 650 cases, in all areas of legal practice, to verdict.

A go-to resource and well regarded leader, Mayfield is a sought after speaker on topics including how to obtain sustainable change through diversity and inclusion. Mayfield co-authored the internationally read article—“Tangible Results Speak Louder Than Well-Intentioned Inclusion Word”—with Thomas Sager, the former General Counsel of DuPont Co. The August, 2014 article was published by the Defense Research Institute and discusses research revealing that women and women of color still have uphill challenges in the field of law. While progress in this area has been incremental at best, the article points out that there is still reason for optimism and shares strategies to help include women and women of color through sustained and positive outcomes.

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