The National Employment Law Council is the product of a lunch meeting of four practitioners who met to discuss their common interests in the field of labor and employment law. Three of the attendees were the heads of minority-owned firms and the fourth was an in-house counsel who had retained each of the firms to provide services for his company. The general consensus was that there was a need for an organization to facilitate the enrichment of the minority bar in the practice of representing management in labor and employment issues. As an initial step, this body concluded that they would each identify minority attorneys who either represented management as outside or in-house counsel. This listing would constitute the commencement of the establishment of the organization's membership. In recognizing the need to reflect both the outside and in-house counsel perspectives, members were identified to serve as part of a planning commitee. Hence, the National Employment Law Council.