2025 Recent Developments in Vaccine Law — What Employers Need to Know

Why Attend?

• Learn about the most recent legal developments impacting workplace vaccination mandates, including new state legislation, federal regulatory actions, and court decisions.
• Navigate practical issues surrounding vaccine policies in the workplace—particularly as employers balance safety, employee rights, and evolving public health guidelines.
• Discover best practices for drafting or updating your clients’ vaccination policies, accommodating exemptions, and minimizing litigation risks.

This course provides the latest updates on vaccine law, from Brian Dean Abramson, Adjunct Professor of Vaccine Law at the Florida International University College of Law and the University of Houston Law Center, member of the Board of Directors of the National Vaccine Law Association, and author of the first legal treatise comprehensively addressing all major aspects of the law governing vaccines.

New developments in vaccine law continue to evolve at an historic pace, with the past several years seeing the first United States Supreme Court opinions addressing vaccination mandates in nearly a century. U.S. Court of Appeals decisions around the country have shaped other areas, including increasing state efforts to limit or otherwise configure private employer vaccination mandates, and courts have increasingly awarded damages against employers sued for imposing faulty vaccination mandates. Considering this legal environment, this course is designed to guide counsel through the surprising array of legal issues that can arise within the context of vaccination in the context of employer/employee relationships, from responses to vaccination mandates to legal compensation for vaccine-related injuries.

Vaccination has been ubiquitous in our society for decades. Many of our most important areas of law—education, labor, privacy, tort—have special exceptions carved out for the purpose of promoting or even mandating vaccination of the population. Legal issues have arisen out of many of these policies. Private sector employees, particularly in the healthcare industry, face vaccination mandates both from their employers and as directed by federal and state actions, and these employees may wish to know what their rights are with respect to such rules. In particular, employers, agencies, and potential vaccine recipients need to be aware of the outcomes of cases challenging new statutory and regulatory regimes invoked by the emergency measures with respect to COVID-19 vaccination. In addition to in-depth coverage of employer mandates, this course covers the legal framework for alternative efforts such as encouragement, incentivization, and facilitation of employee vaccination.

Topics covered include:

• Employer vaccination mandates, exemptions, and accommodations
• Legal fallout of the U.S. Supreme Court decisions regarding OSHA and CMS mandates
• Court rulings on state efforts to limit or otherwise shape employer vaccination mandates
• Encouragement, incentivization, and facilitation of voluntary vaccination
• Post-vaccination requirements
• Communication of vaccination policy

Registration Deadlines:

Cancellation Policy: Cancellation/transfer requests will be honored until 5:00 p.m. the day preceding the seminar. You will, however, be charged $40 if you cancel or transfer your registration to a different seminar after the link to the materials has been e-mailed by Virginia CLE^®.

Full refunds or transfers are available up to two days after a webcast in the unlikely event that you experience technical difficulties.

Dietary Restrictions: If you have dietary restrictions and are attending the seminar in person, please email tfitzgerald@vacle.org.

Inclement Weather Policy and Updates

MCLE Credit Caveat: The MCLE Board measures credits by the time you spend in attendance. If you enter a seminar late or leave it early, or both, you must reflect those adjustments accurately in the credits you report on your credit reporting form. A code will be given at the end of the seminar, which must be written on your MCLE form.

Private recording of this program is prohibited.

Can’t Attend?

E-mail distance_ed@vacle.org to be notified when/if this program is made available as an online or USB seminar.
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Course Schedule

• Q&A will be handled via chat room for Webcast attendees.
• Q&A will be handled via e-mail for telephone seminar attendees.

About the Speaker

Brian Dean Abramson, Esq., LL.M. / Falls Church

Brian Dean Abramson is the lead author of Vaccine, Vaccination, and Immunization Law, the first legal treatise comprehensively addressing all aspects of the law governing vaccines, published by Bloomberg Law, and cosponsored by the American Health Lawyers Association. The second edition was published in February 2022. Since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, he has completed numerous articles and presentations on the implications of a potential COVID-19 vaccine. Since 2022, he has been chair of the National Vaccine Law Conference.

Mr. Abramson has practiced intellectual property law and previously authored the vaccine injury claims chapter of Bloomberg Law’s Court of Federal Claims: Jurisdiction, Practice, and Procedure.

Mr. Abramson was a law clerk for the Honorable Pauline Newman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, where his work included reviews of both vaccine-related patent cases and vaccine injury claims.

Mr. Abramson received his J.D. from the Florida International University College of Law, and his LL.M. in intellectual property law from the George Washington University Law School.