Legal Aspects of COVID-19 (Webinar)

11:30am – 12:00pm virtual networking session, presentation to follow.

Speakers: Mark Lies, Steve Yokich, and William Mills.

Mark Lies, Partner
Seyfarth Shaw, Chicago

Mark has been practicing occupational safety and health law with Seyfarth since 1974. He has represented clients across the country, as well as in US territories. His practice involves virtually every industry and has handled responses to a variety of workplace incidents, including catastrophic fires, explosions, and accidents.

Mark has represented clients in federal and state courts, on matters which have been landmark OSHA cases involving definitions of willful citations, search warrants, confined spaces, firefighting, heat illness, and others. He has also been invited to be a member of the industry associations that actually write industry safety standards, including the American National Standards Industry (ANSI) and the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA).

Stephen A. Yokich, Partner
Dowd, Bloch, Bennett, Cervone, Auerbach & Yokich, Chicago

Stephen A. Yokich is a partner in the union-side labor law firm of Dowd, Bloch, Bennett, Cervone, Auerbach  & Yokich. Yokich represents private and public sector labor unions in cases before state and federal labor relations boards and in state and federal trial and appellate courts.  He represents unions in cases with the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration and with State occupational safety and health agencies. From 2001 to 2003 and from 2010-2014 he was the union-side co-chair of the Occupational Safety and Health Law subcommittee of the American Bar Association  His clients on occupational safety and health matters have included the International Union, UAW, the United Steelworkers, the Illinois Federation of Teachers and Council 31 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

William Mills, Ph.D., M.Sc.,CIH, C.Chem.
Associate Professor, Northern Illinois University

Dr. William Mills is an Associate Professor in the Department of Engineering Technology , College of Engineering & Engineering Technology at Northern Illinois University. He teaches the Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) Program and is the ASSP Student Section Faculty Advisor. Dr. Mills has 35+ years of professional experience in EHS. In May 2020 Dr. Mills was appointed by the IL Governor’s office to the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE) Reopening Committee to develop statewide guidelines for Institutes of Higher Education. He has been actively involved in Covid-19 health & safety issues, most notably at K-12 and Higher Education.