Employer Vaccination Mandates for Covid-19

Professor Mark A. Rothstein | University of Louisville, School of Medicine

Mark A. Rothstein holds the Herbert F. Boehl Chair of Law and Medicine and is the Founding Director of the Institute for Bioethics, Health Policy and Law at the University of Louisville School of Medicine. He is also Professor of Law at the Louis D. Brandeis School of Law of the University of Louisville. He received his B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh and his J.D. from Georgetown University.

Professor Rothstein has concentrated his research on bioethics, employment law, genetics, health privacy, occupational safety and health law, and public health law. He is the author or editor of 19 books and over 300 book chapters and articles. He has served as an advisor to CDC on coronavirus policy and from 2011-2019 he was Associate Editor for Public Health Ethics and Law of the American Journal of Public Health. He has written widely on public health policy, including Covid-19.

His employment law publications include the following:
•  Occupational Safety and Health Law (Thomson Reuters 2021)
•  Employment Law Treatise with Craver, Hebert, Lobel, Malloy, McCormick & Sperino (2 vols.) (Thomson Reuters, 6th ed. 2019)
•  Cases and Materials on Employment Law with Liebman, Yuracko & Garden (Foundation Press, 9th ed. 2020)

Darra James Coleman | Nexsen Pruet

Darra James Coleman is Special Counsel in Nexsen Pruet’s Columbia, South Carolina office, where she practices Health Care law. Darra has more than 20 years of diverse experience serving both public and private sector clients. Prior to joining Nexsen Pruet in March of 2020, Darra served as Chief Advice Counsel and policy counsel for the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation for almost 8 years. In that capacity, she managed the legal team that provides in-house legal services to 42 professional and occupational licensing boards and offered guidance in the development of policies relating to the opioid epidemic, telehealth, and interdisciplinary cooperation amongst regulated professions.

COVID-19 has afforded opportunities for Darra to help her clients creatively respond to novel regulatory compliance challenges, while assisting others with more traditional disciplinary issues before administrative agencies. Darra enjoys drawing upon her experience in both the private and public sectors to help clients navigate emerging issues. Darra is a certified family and circuit court mediator and offers litigation experience on behalf of diverse clients including insurance carriers, governmental entities, personal injury claimants, small businesses, construction contractors, school districts, and licensed professionals, including health care workers, construction industry professionals, and attorneys.

Session I – Employer Vaccination Mandates for Covid-19 | 2:00pm – 3:00pm
I. The role of vaccination in maintaining a healthy workforce | 2:00pm – 2:12pm
II. Legal considerations in encouraging vaccination or penalizing non-vaccination | 2:12pm – 2:24pm
III. Reasonable accommodations for employees medically unable to be vaccinated or with religious objections to vaccination | 2:24pm – 2:36pm
IV. Legality of mask requirements and other mitigation strategies | 2:36pm – 2:48pm
V. Employers’ role in ending the pandemic | 2:48pm – 3:00pm

Break | 3:00pm – 3:10pm

Session II – Disparities between the state and federal approaches to mandatory vaccination policies | 3:10pm – 4:10pm
I. Utilization of a state budget proviso to prevent public schools from imposing masking mandates: South Carolina Supreme Court’s review | 3:10pm – 3:30pm
II. The intersection of the State’s rejection of a mandatory masking policy and the statewide low vaccination rate in the public school | 3:30pm – 3:50pm
III. Examples of different policies, including incentive programs: public and private sector employers | 3:50pm – 4:10pm