Howard Tarkow Honored with Twin Cities Cardozo Society's 2016 Sidney Barrows Lifetime Commitment Award

Howard Tarkow, partner in Maslon's Labor & Employment Group, was honored with the 2016 Sidney Barrows Lifetime Commitment Award by the Twin Cities Cardozo Society, during its Seventeenth Annual Dinner on November 2, 2016. The award was created in 2000 in memory of Sidney Barrows, one of the founding chairs of the Cardozo Society, and is given annually to a senior attorney or judge in the Twin Cities who exemplifies excellence in his/her practice, community service in the Jewish and general community, and life-long learning. Past honorees include Marvin Borman, our late partner and founder—the very first recipient of the Award in 2000—as well as Maslon Partner Bill Pentelovitch in 2014.

Howard's law practice focuses on representing employers on their workplace issues and concerns. For more than 30 years, Howard has advised Maslon's business and nonprofit clients to help them maintain positive employee relations, solve both easy and tough employment and labor problems, and minimize the risk of expensive and disruptive legal claims. He provides timely, service-oriented, cost-effective, and practical advice and counsel. Howard's practice includes representing employers in discrimination, wage & hour, and other administrative proceedings as well as before arbitrators and in court. He also represents employers in matters involving unions, including at the collective bargaining table, in grievance and arbitration cases, in matters at the National Labor Relations Board, and in labor campaigns.

Howard is an active member of the Jewish and general communities. His leadership, integrity, and commitment to the community are qualities we hold dear at Maslon. He has served on boards and committees of the Sabes Jewish Community Center, Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, Jewish Family and Children's Service of Minneapolis, and the Minneapolis Jewish Federation. Howard has also dedicated countless hours of advice and counsel in the Jewish community at synagogues, agencies, and schools, and to rabbis for respectful contract discussions with lay leaders.

Howard chairs the Hennepin County Bar Association's Bar Memorial Committee, which organizes the annual special session of the Hennepin County District Court that remembers, honors, and celebrates the lives of members of the profession who passed away during the previous year or so. Additionally, he chairs the Law, Equity & Social Justice track of the University of St. Thomas Forum on Workplace Inclusion, the nationally recognized conference that annually brings together thought leaders, practitioners, and business professionals to the Twin Cities to convene around issues of Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) in the workplace.