Chicago-Kent College of Law has officially renamed the Institute for Law and the Workplace (ILW) after founder and professor emeritus Martin H. Malin. 

A virtual celebration of the Martin H. Malin Institute for Law and the Workplace was held on March 10, 2022. ILW raised more than $1 million in endowment commitments to rename the institute, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2021.

“I am overwhelmed and humbled by this incredible honor,” Malin says. “The institute is much larger than me and would not be a success without the support of the community. I hope when people think of the Malin Institute, they will remember that it represents the passion, hard work, and dedication of dozens of past and present Chicago-Kent faculty, staff, and students, and the workplace law community. Together we have shown that the supposed divide between the academic and practicing professional communities is a myth.”

Malin led a team of faculty and staff to establish ILW in 1996 as a national center for research, training, dialogue, and reflection on the law that governs the workplace. The institute serves as an intellectual home for the labor and employment law community, both in the Chicago area and nationwide. 

“Marty Malin’s impact on our students and contributions to the U.S. labor and employment legal community are incredible,” says Chicago-Kent Dean Anita K. Krug. “The renaming of the institute is a tribute to his commitment to building an intellectual home for workplace law that welcomes academics, policymakers, and practitioners on both the union and management sides of the bargaining table. Chicago-Kent looks forward to continuing this mission as the Martin H. Malin Institute for Law and the Workplace.”

ILW publishes the Employee Rights and Employment Policy Journal, which is the only faculty-edited, peer-reviewed employment law journal in the country focused on legal issues related to the workplace. The institute also publishes the Illinois Public Employee Relations Report, which provides current, non-adversarial information to those involved or interested in employer-employee relations in public employment. The report is published jointly with the University of Illinois School of Labor and Employment Relations. 

The institute founded and hosts a few different annual conferences. The Federal Sector Labor Relations and Labor Law Conference is the largest annual conference on federal sector and postal labor relations and labor law held outside of Washington, D.C. ILW created the Illinois Public Sector Labor Law Conference, which has become the state’s largest conference on public sector labor law, drawing upwards of 600 lawyers and labor relations professionals to the law school each year. ILW also hosts the bi-annual Hot Topics in Contemporary Labor Relations Law conference, which is presented in partnership with the Chicago regional office of the National Labor Relations Board.  

Under Malin’s leadership, ILW established four endowments and several student scholarships. In 2019, preLaw Magazine ranked ILW the #1 employment law program in the country.

“Marty is highly respected in the labor and employment community, and it’s reflected in the fantastic outpouring of support we received for the endowment campaign,” says Chrissy Brown, assistant dean of advancement for Chicago-Kent. “We are so grateful for the gifts from more than 150 individuals, law firms, unions, and many other labor and employment groups to support the renaming of ILW after Marty. These gifts will help Chicago-Kent continue to be the go-to law school for aspiring labor and employment lawyers and continue ILW’s mission of serving the workplace law community at-large.”

In August 2021, President Joseph R. Biden appointed Malin chair of the Federal Labor Relations Authority Federal Service Impasses Panel (FSIP), which resolves impasses in collective bargaining between federal agencies and unions that represent the agencies’ employees. He was previously appointed to the panel under former President Barack Obama in 2009. Malin was re-appointed in 2014 and served until 2017.

Malin is a former national chair of the Section on Labor Relations and Employment Law of the Association of American Law Schools, served as secretary of the American Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Law Section, former member of the Board of Governors of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, and is a former member of the board of governors and vice president of the National Academy of Arbitrators. During 1984 and 1985, Malin served as consultant to the Illinois state, local, and educational labor relations boards and drafted the boards’ regulations implementing the newly enacted Illinois Public Labor Relations Act and the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act. From 2003 to 2008, he served as reporter to the Association of Labor Relations Agencies’ Neutrality Project, which produced a restatement-like mini-treatise on labor board and mediation agency impartiality.

In 2016, the ABA presented Malin with the Arvid Anderson Award for lifetime contributions to public sector labor law. Malin has been a member of Chicago-Kent’s faculty since 1980. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University and received his J.D. from George Washington University.

Additional gifts to support the Martin H. Malin Institute for Law and the Workplace can be made through the Chicago-Kent College of Law, Office of Institutional Advancement.

The Martin H. Malin Institute for Law and the Workplace at Chicago-Kent College of Law is a national center for research, training, dialogue, and reflection on the law that governs the workplace. Founded in 1996, the Institute serves as an intellectual home for the labor and employment law community, both in the Chicago area and nationwide. It pools the resources of leading academic scholars and the practicing professional community to train students and professionals, monitor policies and trends, and reflect upon issues confronting the labor and employment law community in a neutral setting. ILW publishes the Employee Rights and Employment Policy Journal, which is the only faculty-edited, peer-reviewed employment law journal in the country focused on legal issues related to the workplace.

Founded in 1888, Chicago-Kent College of Law is the law school of Illinois Institute of Technology, also known as Illinois Tech, a private, technology-focused, research university offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering, science, architecture, business, design, human sciences, applied technology, and law.