Fireside Chat Program (continued) – Best Practices for Litigating Discrimination Cases under Title VII and the ADA (Presented by the Federal Bar Association’s Labor & Employment Law, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Civil Rights Law Sections & Judiciary Division)

David A. Michel, Esq., Partner | Sherin and Lodgen LLP

David A. Michel is a litigation partner at Sherin and Lodgen LLP in Boston, where he assists clients in resolving complex employment, business, and real estate disputes. His practice covers a broad range of civil and commercial matters in federal and state courts and through alternative dispute resolution, with particular focus on employment matters involving restrictive covenants, discrimination, wrongful termination, and wage and hour litigation, as well as commercial and real estate disputes including adverse possession, breach of contract, brokerage, and zoning. He is Chair of the Federal Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Section and previously served as 1st Circuit Representative on the Board of the FBA’s Younger Lawyers Division. Prior to Sherin and Lodgen, David served as a Staff Attorney for the Committee for Public Counsel Services’ Public Defender Division, where he represented indigent defendants in criminal matters. He holds a B.A. from The George Washington University and a J.D. from Boston University School of Law, where he graduated with Honors in the Litigation and ADR Concentration.

• Education & Credentials

David holds a Bachelor of Arts from The George Washington University and a Juris Doctor from Boston University School of Law, where he earned Honors in the Litigation and Alternative Dispute Resolution Concentration — a distinction that reflects his academic grounding in the areas that now define his practice. During law school, he served as Submissions Editor of the Boston University Public Interest Law Journal. His prior service as a Staff Attorney with the Committee for Public Counsel Services, where he represented indigent defendants through trial, supplemented his academic credentials with direct courtroom experience before he joined Sherin and Lodgen.

• Recognition & Leadership

David serves as Chair of the Federal Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Section — a national leadership role that reflects his engagement with and standing in the federal labor and employment law community. He previously served as 1st Circuit Representative on the Board of the FBA’s Younger Lawyers Division, demonstrating sustained FBA leadership across career stages. His elevation to partner at Sherin and Lodgen, a firm recognized by Chambers USA for Labor and Employment and by U.S. News Best Law Firms for Employment Law, reflects consistent peer and client recognition of his litigation quality and professional judgment.

• Professional Involvement

David is Chair of the FBA’s Labor and Employment Section and a former board member of the FBA’s Younger Lawyers Division (1st Circuit Representative). At Sherin and Lodgen, he is a member of the Litigation Department, contributing to a practice recognized by Chambers USA for Labor and Employment and listed in the Best Lawyers Best Law Firms rankings. He has presented at the FBA’s Labor and Employment Law Washington DC Roadshow and regularly contributes to the firm’s employment and real estate litigation practice.

• Experience

David Michel has built a litigation practice at Sherin and Lodgen that spans two demanding and distinct areas — employment law and commercial/real estate disputes — while maintaining an active role in the Federal Bar Association’s national labor and employment leadership. His BU Law Honors in Litigation and ADR, his public defender experience representing indigent defendants through trial, and his decade-plus at Sherin and Lodgen representing both companies and individuals in complex federal and state court proceedings reflect a litigator whose courtroom and ADR experience is matched by substantive breadth across the employment and real estate practice areas he now leads as a partner.

The Honorable Anna White Howard, United States Magistrate Judge | U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia

The Honorable Anna White Howard serves as a United States Magistrate Judge for the Northern District of Georgia, appointed to the federal bench in April 2025. Before joining the judiciary, Judge Howard was on faculty at the University of Georgia School of Law, where she taught legal writing, served as the school’s judicial liaison, and practiced in the school’s Appellate Litigation Clinic — supervising students representing indigent clients before federal circuits, the Supreme Court of Georgia, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court. Prior to her teaching role, she was an associate at Butler Wooten & Peak, where she litigated False Claims Act qui tam, product liability, and catastrophic personal injury cases. She also served as a career law clerk for Judge Leigh Martin May and a term law clerk for Judge Richard W. Story, both of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Within the FBA, Judge Howard serves as Chair of the Judiciary Division’s Magistrate Judges Committee and was the FY25 President of the Atlanta FBA Chapter.

• Education & Credentials

Judge Howard’s legal career began with two federal district court clerkships in the Northern District of Georgia — a term clerkship with Judge Richard W. Story and a career clerkship with Judge Leigh Martin May — providing deep immersion in federal judicial practice before she entered private litigation. Her subsequent faculty position at the University of Georgia School of Law, where she taught legal writing and directed the Appellate Litigation Clinic, reflects both academic credentials and a commitment to training the next generation of federal court advocates. Her teaching, clerkship, litigation, and now judicial experience together represent one of the most comprehensive accumulations of federal court exposure on the Northern District of Georgia bench.

• Recognition & Leadership

Judge Howard’s appointment to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia as a Magistrate Judge in 2025 reflects the confidence of the federal judiciary in her legal ability, judgment, and professional standing. She serves as Chair of the FBA Judiciary Division’s Magistrate Judges Committee — a national leadership role reflecting her standing in the federal judicial and bar community — and served as FY25 President of the Atlanta FBA Chapter, the FBA’s largest and most active chapters. Her prior roles as FBA Membership Committee Chair and FBA Younger Lawyers Division Chair further reflect sustained national leadership in the organization.

• Professional Involvement

Judge Howard serves as Chair of the FBA Judiciary Division’s Magistrate Judges Committee and was the FY25 President of the Atlanta FBA Chapter. She has previously served as Chair of the FBA Membership Committee and Chair of the FBA Younger Lawyers Division. Her prior UGA Law Appellate Litigation Clinic work — supervising student advocates before federal circuits, the Georgia Supreme Court, the BIA, and the U.S. Supreme Court — reflects a professional commitment to access to justice and appellate advocacy training that continues to inform her judicial perspective.

• Experience

Judge Howard’s path to the federal bench combines a rare depth of Northern District of Georgia exposure: two federal clerkships in that court, several years litigating complex False Claims Act, product liability, and catastrophic injury cases at Butler Wooten & Peak, law school faculty service directing an appellate clinic with real federal court dockets, and now judicial service on the very court where she clerked and before which her clinic students appeared. Her FBA national leadership — as Magistrate Judges Committee Chair, Atlanta Chapter President, Membership Committee Chair, and Younger Lawyers Division Chair — reflects a practitioner who has been as invested in the health and development of the federal bar as in her own career. Her April 2025 appointment brings all of that experience to bear on a Northern District docket that will benefit from her uniquely comprehensive view of the court from every angle.

David I. Brody, Esq., Partner | Sherin and Lodgen LLP

David I. Brody is a Partner in Sherin and Lodgen’s award-winning Employment Department, where he represents individuals in a wide range of employment matters including contract negotiation and enforcement, wage and hour issues, wrongful termination, discrimination, retaliation, and whistleblowing. He is a member of the firm’s Executive Advocacy Team and an experienced employment litigator who has represented clients at trial in state and federal court and in public hearings before the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination and the Civil Service Commission. In addition to his litigation practice, David advises executives and professionals on employment agreements, non-competition and other restrictive covenants, change of control agreements, equity and deferred compensation vehicles, and transition agreements. He is the immediate past president of the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Employment Lawyers Association and a former co-chair of the Boston Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Section. He holds a J.D. from Suffolk University Law School (2009).

• Education & Credentials

David holds a Juris Doctor from Suffolk University Law School (2009) and has been admitted to practice in Massachusetts since 2009. He is a member of the firm’s Executive Advocacy Team at Sherin and Lodgen, a firm whose Employment Department has been ranked by Chambers USA for Labor and Employment: Mainly Plaintiff’s Representation in Massachusetts, by U.S. News Best Law Firms for Employment Law: Individuals and Litigation: Labor and Employment, and whose attorneys have been recognized in the 2025 Lawdragon 500 Leading Civil Rights & Plaintiff Employment Lawyers guide.

• Recognition & Leadership

David has been selected to Massachusetts Super Lawyers every year from 2022 through 2025 and was selected to the Rising Stars list from 2015 through 2019. He was recognized in the 2025 Lawdragon 500 Leading Civil Rights & Plaintiff Employment Lawyers guide alongside firm colleagues, and was named a 2022 Go-To Thought Leader by the National Law Review for his coverage of remote work and employment law in Massachusetts. He was elected President of the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Employment Lawyers Association for the 2022–2023 term, reflecting peer recognition of his leadership and advocacy on behalf of employee rights. He has been quoted in Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly and regularly publishes employment law commentary in the National Law Review.

• Professional Involvement

David is the immediate past president of the Massachusetts Employment Lawyers Association (MELA) — the Massachusetts chapter of the National Employment Lawyers Association — and a former co-chair of the Boston Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Steering Committee. He currently serves on the Joint Bar Committee on Judicial Appointments. He is a regular presenter at Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education programs on employment law topics, including wage and hour issues, restrictive covenants, and changes in employment law, and has presented at the Boston Bar Association on U.S. Supreme Court labor and employment decisions. He publishes frequently in the National Law Review on employment law developments in Massachusetts.

• Experience

David Brody has built an employee-side employment practice at Sherin and Lodgen that is recognized by Chambers USA, Lawdragon, Super Lawyers, and the National Law Review as among the leading plaintiff employment practices in Massachusetts. His trial and hearing experience — in state and federal court, before the MCAD, and before the Civil Service Commission — gives his advisory work on executive employment agreements, restrictive covenants, and equity arrangements a litigation-grounded credibility that clients and opposing counsel recognize. His MELA presidency, his Boston Bar Association committee leadership, and his Joint Bar Committee on Judicial Appointments service reflect a practitioner who is as invested in the institutional health of the Massachusetts employment bar as in his own client practice. His Lawdragon 500 recognition, Super Lawyers listing, and NLR Thought Leader designation collectively define a career of consistent excellence on behalf of individual employees.

The Honorable Mimi Tsankov (Ret.), Mediator, Arbitrator & Neutral | Neutral Strategy

The Honorable Mimi Tsankov (Ret.) is a certified mediator and arbitrator in New York City, currently serving on the JAMS Labor Panel, the American Arbitration Association Labor Panel, and a range of New York State judicial district mediation panels. For nearly two decades, she served as a judge in the federal administrative judiciary, and her career also includes prosecuting cases on behalf of the U.S. Department of Justice and the Peace Corps, as well as over ten years in private law practice. A nationally and internationally recognized leader in the legal community, she has held elected and appointed roles for decades in the ABA, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers Judicial Council 2, the Federal Bar Association, and the National Association of Women Judges. She has received multiple ABA Presidential Appointments as a UN Representative to the Department of Global Communications and currently serves as Immediate Past Chair of the ABA Judicial Division’s National Conference of the Administrative Law Judiciary. She is on the adjunct law faculty at Fordham Law School and has been on the faculty of Colorado Law School and Sturm College of Law. She completed her J.D. at the University of Virginia School of Law and earned an M.A. in International Relations from the University of Virginia Graduate School of Politics.

• Education & Credentials

Judge Tsankov holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law and a Master of Arts in International Relations from the University of Virginia Graduate School of Politics. She is on the adjunct law faculty at Fordham Law School in New York and has been on the faculty of the University of Colorado Law School and the Sturm College of Law in Denver, Colorado. Her teaching across three law schools, combined with her nearly two decades on the federal administrative bench, reflects a career of sustained academic and judicial engagement with labor law, administrative law, and immigration issues.

• Recognition & Leadership

Judge Tsankov has received multiple ABA Presidential Appointments as a UN Representative to the Department of Global Communications, reflecting recognition at the highest levels of the ABA of her expertise and leadership in the international legal community. She is Immediate Past Chair of the ABA Judicial Division’s National Conference of the Administrative Law Judiciary and a Board Member of the New York City Bar Association’s Commercial Law Section and an Affiliate Board Member of its ADR Section. She has received multiple honors and citations from the U.S. Department of Justice, the ABA, and the FBA throughout her career, and has testified before both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House Judiciary Committees on labor-related matters — a form of professional recognition reserved for the most authoritative voices in a field.

• Professional Involvement

Judge Tsankov is a member of the JAMS Labor Panel, the AAA Labor Panel, and multiple New York State judicial district mediation panels. She holds elected and appointed roles in the ABA, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers Judicial Council 2 (AFL-CIO), the Federal Bar Association, and the National Association of Women Judges. She is a member of multiple chapters of the Labor and Employment Relations Association and has testified before both the Senate and House Judiciary Committees. She has published numerous articles in legal periodicals and law journals, served on panels in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, spoken with members of all major media outlets, produced podcast stories, and provided expert background for film, museum, and theater productions on the nuances of labor issues in the immigration context.

• Experience

Judge Tsankov’s career spans private practice, federal prosecution on behalf of the DOJ and the Peace Corps, nearly two decades as a federal administrative judge presiding over cases in New York, Colorado, Texas, Nevada, Florida, and California, and now a full-time neutral practice serving major ADR panels. Her international engagement — through ABA Presidential UN appointments, cross-border speaking in Canada and Europe, international legal organization leadership, and expert media and cultural commentary on labor and immigration issues — reflects a scope of professional reach that is rare among labor law practitioners. Her combination of judicial experience, academic engagement, labor expertise, and international recognition makes her one of the most comprehensively credentialed neutrals in the labor ADR field.

SESSION 1 – The Judicial Landscape | 2:00pm – 2:10pm

Attorneys will examine recent Supreme Court and appellate decisions reshaping Title VII and ADA standards. This session focuses on evolving definitions of “adverse action” and “undue hardship” and their direct impact on litigation strategy and case outcomes.

SESSION 2 – Strategic Case Theory | 2:10pm – 2:20pm

Attendees will apply current case law to build compelling litigation themes in workplace discrimination matters. The session covers framing “regarded as” disability claims and intersectional discrimination arguments in today’s rapidly shifting legal and judicial environment.

SESSION 3 – Evidence & The Investigation | 2:20pm – 2:30pm

This session equips attorneys with best practices for identifying and securing critical electronic communications and internal HR records. Practitioners will also learn how to navigate the complexities of documenting workplace harassment without compromising evidentiary integrity or privilege protections.

SESSION 4 – Mastering Witness Prep | 2:30pm – 2:40pm

Attorneys will gain practical tools for preparing both plaintiffs and supervisors for depositions in reasonable accommodation disputes. The session emphasizes mastering the interactive process narrative and effectively assessing witness credibility before and during high-stakes deposition testimony.

SESSION 5 – Ethics in the Discovery Trenches | 2:40pm – 2:50pm

This session addresses critical ethical challenges arising during discovery, including social media investigation boundaries, inadvertent disclosure of privileged ESI, and evidence preservation obligations. Attorneys will leave with actionable guidance for maintaining professional responsibility compliance throughout complex employment litigation.

SESSION 6 – Closing Insights & Rapid-Fire Q&A | 2:50pm – 3:00pm

Presenters will synthesize key procedural pitfalls to avoid throughout the discovery process, offering concrete takeaways attorneys can immediately apply. An open Q&A allows attendees to address specific challenges and refine strategies discussed throughout the program.