Global Labor & Employment Environment: Discovering the Perfect Roadmap for Multijurisdictional Companies

JoHannah Harrington serves as Atlas’ chief legal officer reporting to CEO Rick Hammell. JoHannah leads the Legal & Compliance Department, including commercial law, employment law and legal strategy. She also oversees the company’s legal strategy, aligned with Atlas’ business goals and mission, and provides regular counsel to Atlas’ executive team.
JoHannah has extensive experience in analyzing, structuring, negotiating and closing sophisticated commercial transactions. She formulates risk mitigation strategies that protect corporate capital and profitability.
Previously, JoHannah served as co-founder of the world's first venture-as-a-service platform where she led the day-to-day management and public sector consulting practices. She has managed corporate compliance and governance for a leading international development and management consulting firm, where she was handpicked to serve as a regional legal expert and compliance lead for matters across 40 countries and 20 states.
JoHannah earned both a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and a law degree from Marquette University. She also holds a master’s in Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She serves on the board of the Good Samaritan Society Foundation and is a member of Chief, the only private membership network focused on connecting and supporting women executive leaders.

Miriam has extensive experience representing employers and management in all facets of the employment relationship. Miriam works with a broad array of clients, from early-stage startup founders to large multinational public companies, spanning a variety of industries, including life sciences, technology, venture capital and insurance. Her practice focuses on assisting clients with their comprehensive employment needs, including crisis and routine counseling, litigation and transactional needs.

Michelle is an employment lawyer at Yelp Inc., and is based in the Chicago area. In her role, Michelle manages Yelp's international employment issues, primarily in Europe and Canada. As an in house lawyer, Michelle combines legal advice with practical business sense to help her multi-jurisdictional employer clients navigate tricky employment issues. Michelle has experience with all aspects of employment law, including discrimination and harassment claims, wage and hour issues, workforce reductions, employment and executive contracts and separation agreements, workplace policies, due diligence, investigations, EEOC and state agency claims, and litigation.

Sheila Frederick is Associate General Counsel, Labor and Employment Law at United Airlines, Inc. In this role, she provides legal advice in all aspects of labor and employment law for United’s approximately 65,000 domestic employees. She also manages a team that is responsible for consulting, training, managing litigation and compliance on all aspects of labor and employment law.

Prior to working at United, Sheila spent six years at Winston & Strawn LLP in the Labor and Employment practice group. Prior to attending law school, she worked at Abbott Laboratories in the Human Resources Professional Development Program.

Sheila earned both her Juris Doctor and her undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois.

Shauna Fulbright-Paxton is the Senior Counsel at Abbott.

Looking back on her career, it was her time at Mayer Brown that laid the groundwork for alumna Shauna Fulbright-Paxton’s interest in labor and employment law.

“I was doing a lot of investigations work. This naturally seemed to lead to an interest in labor and employment, because much of the work focused on people’s jobs and their roles and responsibilities,” she explains. “I have always enjoyed the problem-solving aspect of being a lawyer and as an in-house labor and employment lawyer, I get vast exposure to different parts of the business.”

After joining Abbott in 2018, Shauna was promoted to senior counsel at the end of 2020. “It’s been a natural transition with regards to the work I’m doing, but I am now looking to expand the ways in which I can help the organization further,” she explains. “The longer I’m here, the more I learn about the business and the more I develop in my role.”

Abbott, a global health care company, has been working relentlessly to develop important tests to help battle COVID-19, and Shauna has aided these efforts by supporting the company from a legal perspective. “It’s been great working for a company that I know is doing all it possibly can to help others throughout this pandemic,” she says.