Created in 1996, the Institute for Law and the Workplace is housed at Illinois Institute of Technology's Chicago-Kent College of Law. The Institute is a national center for research, training, dialogue, and reflection on the law that governs the workplace.
The annual Kenneth M. Piper Memorial Lecture in Labor Law brings together leading scholars, policymakers and leaders from labor and management to debate current issues in the workplace. It is presented by the Kenneth M. Piper Endowment, which was established by a gift from Mrs. Kenneth M. Piper in memory of her husband. Mr. Piper was a distinguished executive with Motorola Inc. and Bausch & Lomb Inc., who made important contributions in human resources and labor relations for more than two decades. The Distinguished Labor Leader Lecture Series was inaugurated in 1998 by IIT Chicago-Kent's Institute for Law and the Workplace and the Chicago Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, as a public service to offer forums on critical workplace issues.
2016 Lectures
Changing the Rules to Create Shared Prosperity - 11th Distinguished Labor Leader Lecture, Tefere Gebre
2015 Lectures
Does Work Law Have a Future if the Labor Market Does Not? - The 37th Annual Kenneth M. Piper Lecture, Noah D. Zatz
2014 Lectures
The Post-Recession Economy: A Return To...What? - The 36th Annual Kenneth M. Piper Lecture, Jared Bernstein
10th Distinguished Labor Leader Lecture, Randi Weingarten
2013 Lectures
Redistributing Health and Retirement Risks - The 35th Annual Kenneth M. Piper Lecture, Amy B. Monahan, Ronald Meisburg, and Stephen R. Sleigh
2012 Lectures
Workers on the Run: Recession and the Pressure on Workplace Rights - The 34th Annual Kenneth M. Piper Lecture, Katherine S. Newman, Martin J. Mulloy, and Gwynne A. Wilcox
2011 Lectures
Privacy, Loyalty and Free Speech: Pushing the Boundaries of the Modern Employment Relationship - The 33rd Annual Kenneth M. Piper Lecture, Pauline T. Kim, Lisa R. Callaway, and Arnold H. Pedowitz
2010 Lectures
Family Responsibilities Discrimination in the Great Recession - The 32nd Annual Kenneth M. Piper Lecture, Joan C. Williams, Deidra L. Byrd, and Stephen B. Moldof
2009 Lectures
Return of the Public: Why Market Fundamentalism Failed and What Labor Can Do About It to Save the World - The 31st Annual Kenneth M. Piper Lecture, Richard B. Freeman
2008 Lectures
Corporate Self-Regulation and the Future of Workplace Governance - The 30th Annual Kenneth M. Piper Lecture, Cynthia Estlund, Marshall B. Babson, and Ron A. Bloom
2006 Lectures
The Future of Collective Bargaining - The 28th Annual Kenneth M. Piper Lecture, Kenneth G. Dau-Schmidt, Allison Beck, Nicholas W. Clark, and Michael A. Rodriguez
7th Distinguished Labor Leader Lecture, Terence M. O'Sullivan
2005 Lectures
The Aging of the American Workforce - The 27th Annual Kenneth M. Piper Lecture, Sara E. Rix, David D. Kadue, and Shaun O'Brien
2004 Lectures
Knowledge Workers in the New Economy: From Cliché to Contract - The 26th Annual Kenneth M. Piper Lecture, Catherine L. Fisk, Greg W. Castle, and Julia A. Clark
6th Distinguished Labor Leader Lecture, Bruce S. Raynor
2003 Lectures
The Case for Sweeping Reforms of Employee Benefits: What We Should Demand of Employees, Unions and Government - The 25th Annual Kenneth M. Piper Lecture, Maria O'Brien Hilton, James D. English, David R. Levin, and Mary Ellen Signorille
Hospitality Begins with a Quality Union Contract: The Union's Role in Reviving the Industry - 5th Distinguished Labor Leader Lecture, John W. Wilhelm
2002 Lectures
NLRA and Justice for Janitors: New Models in Service Sector Organizing - 4th Distinguished Labor Leader Lecture, Thomas Balanoff
The Transformation of the Professional Workforce - The 24th Annual Kenneth M. Piper Lecture, Marion G. Crain, Peter J. Hurtgen, Dean L. Manheimer, and Robert M. Tobias
2000 Lectures
The Labor Movement and Our Children's Future - 2nd Distinguished Labor Leader Lecture, Sandra Feldman
Labor Relations in the Rapidly Changing Workplace of the New Millennium - The 22nd Annual Kenneth M. Piper Lecture, Jonathan Hiatt, William Hobgood, and Katherine Stone