Labor and Employment

Corporate Attorneys Who Excel in Employment Law

The firm's Labor Law & Employment Litigation Practice Group represents management on behalf of a diverse range of clients from industries such as: pharmaceutical, healthcare, financial, insurance, legal, real estate, communications, hospitality, construction, transportation, manufacturing and retail, among others.

We have extensive counseling and litigation experience in virtually every aspect of the employer/employee relationship, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Section 1981, the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), the Equal Pay Act (EPA), the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) (e. g., overtime, minimum wage, and employee classification issues, etc.), and numerous other federal and state laws regarding workers’ rights and employer obligations.

Our trial attorneys have been particularly successful in representing employers in state and federal courts throughout the country under state and federal law legal theories such as: wrongful termination, defamation, misappropriation of trade secrets, violations of restrictive covenants, tortious interferences, breaches of fiduciary duty and other misconduct. We also represent employers in proceedings before, and audits and investigations by, federal and state agencies such as the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Department of Labor (DOL), and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

The Labor Law & Employment Litigation Practice Group also represents employers in matters under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), including union organizing efforts, elections, collective bargaining, unfair labor practice trials and arbitrations. In fact, the Group’s practice leader obtained a favorable ruling from the the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that certain nurses in the healthcare industry were supervisors under the NLRA and thus ineligible to join a union.

Outside the Courtroom: Workplace Consulting, Training and Investigations

One of the most important functions of the firm’s Labor Law & Employment Litigation Practice does not involve litigation at all. Rather, it is assisting clients with routine, yet complicated issues that arise daily in the workplace, such as employee discipline or discharge decisions. Just like the old expression that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” sometimes the best advice is that which helps a client avoid litigation in the first place.

As a result, our attorneys frequently serve as outside resources to clients’ human resource or legal departments, providing counsel and advice regarding day-to-day HR, labor relations, and wage-hour issues. We regularly prepare employee handbooks and policies and procedures, including those pertaining to drug testing, sexual harassment, and the FMLA and immigration law compliance. The practice also has assisted clients in establishing federal contractor affirmative action plans, preparing employment agreements, and negotiating and drafting separation agreements for individual terminations, mass layoffs or plant closings.

In addition, we provide proactive guidance to clients through training, mentoring and counseling. Attorneys in this practice have provided diversity training, legally-mandated harassment prevention training, and supervisory training throughout the country. We have seminars and materials on a wide variety of issues of interest from a legal or HR perspective, and would be happy to work with you to develop a specialized training course that accomplishes your goals. As Henry Ford once said, “The only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave is not training them and having them stay.”

Finally, we conduct, assist, and advise clients regarding workplace investigations into allegations of harassment, discrimination or retaliation; employee theft or other criminal conduct; workplace violence; and violations of wage-hour law or corporate codes of ethics. A prompt, thorough, and impartial investigation not only helps an employer respond to, identify, and correct potential problem areas in the workplace, but also may limit or even eliminate legal exposure in certain situations. It seems like there is another news story about a company that failed to respond appropriately to allegations of wrongdoing practically every week. Let our Labor Law & Employment Litigation Practice help your organization avoid similar missteps.

• Successfully argued and won appeals in the Fifth, Sixth and Eleventh Circuit Federal Courts of Appeals alleging violations of Title VII, the ADEA, the FLSA and the ADA.
• Successfully petitioned the NLRB over whether registered nurses are supervisors for purposes of the NLRA.
• Retained six weeks before jury trial to defend class action independent contractor misclassification lawsuit.
• Successfully tried a class-action lawsuit in Mississippi alleging claims of racial discrimination in hiring, promotion and termination.
• Won a seminal decision from the Georgia Court of Appeals involving libel and slander claims in the private sector.
• Litigated the enforceability of non-compete and similar restrictive covenants in Georgia, Florida, Nevada, Alabama, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas.
• Successfully defended a national pharmacy chain in a wage-hour dispute concerning whether pharmacists are exempt from overtime compensation requirements under the FLSA.
• Obtained summary judgment dismissing over 80 employment lawsuits throughout the United States.