Morgan, Brown & Joy Partners Present at Hunter College National Center’s 53rd Annual Conference
Morgan, Brown & Joy partners Damien M. DiGiovanni, Nicholas DiGiovanni, and Joseph P. McConnell will present at the Hunter College National Center’s 53rd Annual Conference on March 22-24, 2026 in New York City. The conference, themed “Uniting for Workplace and Political Democracy,” features three days of educational programming and interactive workshops focused on higher education labor relations and collective bargaining. To learn more and register, visit here.
Nicholas DiGiovanni will present on the research panel, “Report on Negotiated Academic Freedom Clauses in Collective Bargaining Agreements,” on Sunday, March 22. He brings 50+ years of experience to his diverse clientele and has handled cases and issues in virtually all aspects of labor and employment law. Over the course of his illustrious career, he developed a particular niche in labor and employment matters affecting colleges and universities, focusing especially on collective bargaining with faculty, staff and graduate student unions, proceedings before state and federal labor board agencies, arbitration cases, advice on union organizing, and management training.
McConnell will present at the interactive workshop, “Negotiating over Academic Freedom Clauses,” on Monday, March 23. He is an experienced litigator and negotiator defending management on employment and labor law matters. McConnell also adeptly guides clients through all labor law matters — during union organizing campaigns, in collective bargaining, and throughout the grievance and arbitration processes. McConnell’s clients hail from many industries, in particular from higher education, retail, financial services, insurance and traditional manufacturing settings. McConnell advocates on their behalf before the Federal and State courts, arbitrators, and administrative agencies, including the EEOC, NLRB, MCAD, Department of Labor and the Attorney General’s office.
Damien DiGiovanni will present on the panel, “Annual Legal Update (CLE),” focusing on updates at the NLRB and the impact on higher education, on Tuesday, March 24. He represents public and private sector clients in various industries, including higher education, transportation, retail, public utilities, municipalities and health care, both in Massachusetts and across the country. His labor law practice includes day-to-day counseling to clients regarding contract administration and compliance with various state and federal labor laws, representing employers in collective bargaining, grievance arbitration, and in proceedings before the National Labor Relations Board, the Massachusetts Department of Labor Relations, and state and federal courts.
The National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions (National Center) is a national labor-management research center housed in and supported by Hunter College, City University of New York. The organization is comprised of labor and management professionals, practitioners, and scholars interested in studying contemporary and historical labor-management issues, best practices in collective bargaining, legal and legislative developments, and public support for higher education. It provides a clearinghouse and forum for scholarly research and ideas concerning labor relations, collective bargaining, labor history, and labor law issues.
About Morgan, Brown & Joy, LLP
For over 100 years, Morgan, Brown & Joy has been among the largest management-side labor and employment law firms in New England, representing a wide range of Fortune 100 corporations, educational and health care institutions and small businesses across all sectors of the economy. The firm’s attorneys are known for anticipating and finding solutions to the ever-expanding range of employment-related legal issues in order to avoid the time and cost of litigation. When litigation becomes necessary, the firm aggressively defends its clients and has a proven record of success.
