The College of Labor and Employment Lawyers Announces the Election of Donica Thomas Varner as Fellow

The College of Labor and Employment Lawyers has announced the election of Donica Thomas Varner as a new fellow. Varner has served as vice president, general counsel, and secretary at Oberlin since 2017. She will become Cornell University’s next vice president and general counsel in July. Election as a fellow is the highest recognition by ones colleagues of sustained outstanding performance in the profession, exemplifying integrity, dedication, and excellence.

The twenty-sixth installation of fellows is scheduled for November 13, 2021 in Beverly Hills, California. The annual induction dinner is traditionally held coincident with the American Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Law Section’s Continuing Legal Education Conference. With the current installation, the college is represented by more than sixteen hundred members in forty-six states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico and eight Canadian Provinces.

The college was the vision of a number of the fellows. The idea was to further establish the profession in all its aspects as one uniquely important to the world of labor and employment law, individual rights, collective bargaining, and dispute resolution. The college was established in 1995 through an initiative of the Council of The Section of Labor and Employment Law of the American Bar Association. It operates as a free-standing organization in recognizing those who, by long and outstanding service, have distinguished themselves as leaders in the field.