What Labor & Employment Attorneys Should Understand About Human Resources!

Depending on the local government, the Human Resources Department may entail a variety of areas that need sound and practical advice from a Labor & Employment Attorney and knowing how to handle when the advice is not followed.  In local government, Human Resources has to perform a balancing act – balancing what the City Manager/Mayor wants for the organization and being fair to the employees.  There are other parties such as the elected officials (politicians) and the unions which bring another wrinkle on how Human Resources manages any situation.  Remember HR is seen as both the good and the bad…hires and fires….and much more.

Speaker: Elsa I. Jaramillo-Velez & Roberta “Robin” Cross

Elsa I. Jaramillo-Velez has been working in the public sector for over 20 years. Currently, Mrs. Jaramillo-Velez is an Assistant City Attorney at the City of Hialeah Law Department specializing in labor and employment. Her prior positions include City of Miami Assistant City Attorney and Interim Director/Deputy Director of the Department of Employee Relations, City of Coral Gables Human Resources Director and City of North Miami Beach Human Resources & Risk Management Director.

In her capacity as an Attorney and Human Resources professional, she works closely with the Mayor or City Manager regarding all aspects of labor and employment/personnel matters. She serves as the City’s representative before the Civil Service Board and before arbitrators handling employment disciplines and grievances. She has also served as counsel for various boards/committees, including the Coral Gables Retirement/Pension Board and the City of Miami Coconut Grove Business Improvement Committee, the Historic Environmental Preservation Board, the Plat & Street Committee and the Urban Development & Review Board.

Mrs. Jaramillo-Velez has a law degree from the University of Florida, College of Law, and a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Florida International University. She is a member in good standing of the Florida Bar.  She also served from 2013-2019 as an adjunct professor at Florida International University (FIU), teaching Human Resources Management & Policy in the MPA Program as well as Collective Bargaining in the Public Sector in the EMPA Program. Currently, Mrs. Jaramillo-Velez is a member of IMLA and serves as a member of the FIU MPA Advisory Board.

Roberta “Robin” Cross currently works as the Township Attorney for The Woodlands Township, Texas. She has over eighteen years’ experience working for local governments and was recognized as an IMLA Fellow in 2013. She has also worked as in-house counsel for a police labor union and for the EEOC, as a trial attorney. She is licensed to practice in Texas and admitted all of its federal courts, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court. She has been Board-certified in Labor and Employment Law since 1992 by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. She was appointed as Vice-President of IMLA’s Personnel Section in the fall of 2015. She enjoys employment law, among other things, because “you can’t make this stuff up.”