Michele C. Meyer-Shipp
General Counsel
Effective May 6, 2009, Michele Meyer-Shipp became the General Counsel of the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor. In this capacity, she is the head legal advisor for the Commission. She advises the Commission on a wide variety of legal matters, and assists the Commission in fulfilling its statutory mission.
Previously, Michele spent four years at Merrill Lynch as a Vice President. For three of those years, she provided legal advice and counsel to the Firm on a wide range of employment-related topics. She also provided legal advice on issues relating to federal and state anti-discrimination laws, the FMLA, ADA, ADEA, FLSA, and WARN Act. Ms. Meyer-Shipp partnered with human resources staff on development, implementation, and interpretation of the company’s employment and compliance policies, procedures and programs. Finally, she participated in mediations and conducted training on a regular basis. During her last year at the Firm, she served as Diversity Manager in the Global Wealth Management business. In this role, she supported over 150 branch offices and more than 4,500 financial advisors on the East Coast. Her overall responsibilities involved the development and implementation of recruitment and retention policies and procedures.
Prior to joining Merrill Lynch, Ms. Meyer-Shipp served as Director of the State of New Jersey’s Division of Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action (“EEO/AA”). She was appointed to this position by Governor McGreevey in April 2004. In this capacity, she was responsible for developing, implementing and administering equal employment policies and procedures, and affirmative action programs for more than 80,000 state employees. This included monitoring each state agency to ensure compliance with the various laws, rules and regulations pertaining to EEO/AA. She was also responsible for overseeing and managing the Equal Employment Opportunity Officers who worked in the various state agencies.
Prior to her appointment as Director, Ms. Meyer-Shipp served as the Equal Employment Opportunity Officer for the New Jersey Department of Labor. Before joining the ranks of public service, Ms. Meyer-Shipp was associated with the law firm of Collier, Jacob & Mills, P.C. where she spent five years representing management in employment and labor matters. She also served, and continues to serve, as a frequent lecturer on issues such as compliance with the FMLA, ADA, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination. Before joining Collier, Jacob & Mills, she was associated with the law firm of Lowenstein, Sandler, P.C. in Roseland, N.J., and served as an Adjunct Professor at Seton Hall University School of Law.
Ms. Meyer-Shipp graduated from Seton Hall University School of Law in 1995. Thereafter, she served as Law Clerk to the Honorable James H. Coleman, Jr. of the New Jersey Supreme Court.