Michael G. Congiu has a distinct international and U.S.-based domestic practice.
Internationally, Michael is a recognized authority on international labor standards who has repeatedly been part of the U.S. employer delegation to the International Labour Conference (ILC) in Geneva, Switzerland, serving in the esteemed Committee on the Application of Standards and as the global employer spokesperson for cases assessing state compliance with certain ILO Conventions. Michael has advised the United Nations, and regularly advises multinational corporations and other business enterprises, on business and human rights and international labor issues.
He has also repeatedly testified at the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Open-ended Intergovernmental Working Group (OEIGWG), that continues to explore a Legally Binding Instrument to Regulate the Activities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises. He also has been one of a small handful of technical advisors to the United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights’ work on developing best practices for state legislation and practice as it relates to effective legal remedy, known as the Accountability and Remedy Project.
Michael has also represented employers before the OECD National Contact Points in the United States and in other countries and regularly advises on the following:
- The United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights
- The International Labor Organization and its Committee on Freedom of Association
- The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and National Contact Points
- The United Nations Global Compact
- The Canadian Ombudsman for Responsible Enterprise
- Other international labor standard-setting or regulatory organizations
Domestically, Michael has a broad transactional, advisory and litigation practice that includes a specific focus on benefits issues and multiemployer pension plans. He regularly counsels and represents employers with issues involving the interplay between collective bargaining, multiemployer pension plan obligations, and withdrawal liability touching on the following laws:
- The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA)
- The Taft-Hartley Act
- The Pension Protection Act
- The Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act
Michael serves as the Minnesota coordinator and liaison for Littler’s Workplace Policy Institute (WPI). Michael focuses on Minnesota state legislative and regulatory developments in employment and labor law, as well as municipal ordinances and regulation of the workplace. He assists the employer community in understanding and impacting Minnesota legislation before it becomes law.
While in law school, Michael served as a judicial extern to the Hon. Joan Gottschall of the U. S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and as a legal extern for Hon. Margaret Lee Herbert, supervisory administrative law judge at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He served as notes and comments editor for the Chicago-Kent Law Review and was a member of the Moot Court Honor Society. In college, he was captain of the University of Wisconsin-Madison's men's soccer team.