Shane B. Kawka, Labor & Employment Counsel

Shane B. Kawka is the labor and employment counsel for the National Chamber Litigation Center (NCLC), the public policy law firm for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Since joining NCLC in April 2006, Ms. Kawka has initiated litigation and filed friend-of-the-court briefs on labor and employment issues of national concern to the business community. She is an expert on Title VII, FMLA, ADA, wage and hour litigation, and labor relations, among other labor and employment law issues. Ms. Kawka represented the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as the lead party in the Supreme Court cases Chamber of Commerce v. Brown (2008), a preemption challenge to a California labor law, and Chamber of Commerce v. Whiting (2011), a preemption challenge to an Arizona immigration law.

Prior to NCLC, Ms. Kawka served as assistant general counsel at US Airways located in Arlington, Virginia, responsible for labor and employment matters for 27,000 employees. Ms. Kawka also served as senior corporate counsel at Interstate Hotels & Resorts, an independent hotel management company in Arlington, Virginia, where she handled employment and litigation matters for the company's 32,000 employees.

Before serving as corporate counsel, Ms. Kawka was a labor and employment associate at the law firm Seyfarth Shaw in Washington, DC, and also served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Richard S. Salzman in the District of Columbia Superior Court. She graduated cum laude from American University law school and received her B.A., with honors, from The George Washington University.