The Rafael E. Medina In-House Scholarship

Dear Counsel:

Two years ago, the National Employment Law Council launched The Rafael E. Medina In-House Scholarship.  As a result, we have set successive records of in-house attendees at the NELC 2017 and 2018 annual conferences. As you know, Rafael has been Managing Counsel-Employment at McDonald’s Corporation for many years, serves on our NELC Board and its Executive Committee, and has been a true champion for the NELC, its members, and legal diversity.  

Many of our members have directly and materially benefitted from Rafael’s steadfast commitment to the NELC and its mission.  Many of us represent McDonald’s Corporation because Rafael gave us the opportunity to do so.  Many of our NELC Academy Fellows have relied on Rafael for a recommendation to the Academy, timely career advice, or a well-timed introduction.  Many of our in-house members were personally recruited by Rafael to join the NELC and have benefitted from his wisdom and expertise. 

All NELC members have benefitted from Rafael’s passion for our organization and the advancement of lawyers of color in our chosen field. One reason our annual conference continues to improve is that Rafael has been so successful at obtaining major sponsorship dollars.  Through the Rafael E.  Medina In-House Scholarship, we can both honor Rafael and multiply his impact by defraying the cost for in-house counsel who otherwise would be unable to get the budget authority for upcoming conference, April 24 – 26, 2019, in San Diego, CA.  Here is a partial list of the law departments represented at the 2018 Conference in New Orleans:  ASRC Federal Holding Company, Deloitte, Dollar General Corporation, Dropbox, Facebook, FMC Corp., Google LLC, Graphic Packaging International, LLC, GSK, Hospital Corporation of America, Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, McDonald’s Corporation, Morton Salt, Inc., NBCUniversal, Pandora Media, PepsiCo, Salesforce, STREAM, The Fresh Market, Inc., UBER Technologies and Walgreens.