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Employment & Employee Relations

Our national Employment & Employee Relations Practice Group (the Group) provides consulting and litigation services to employers and management in all aspects of employment law. The Group’s attorneys have actively litigated employment suits nationally as lead trial counsel, in numerous states including Nebraska, Colorado, Missouri, Ohio, Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia. In addition to their representation of clients before state and federal courts and state and federal administrative agencies, the Group’s attorneys regularly provide consulting and risk management services with regard to a broad spectrum of workplace matters.

Counsel & Representation

Our attorneys provide advice, counsel and representation to employers in all aspects of employment law including issues relating to and claims brought pursuant to the following statutes:

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended by the Civil Rights Act of 1991
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA)
The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and state family leave statutes
The Equal Pay Act
The Rehabilitation Act
Civil rights statutes including 42 U.S.C. §§1981, 1983 and 1985
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA)
The Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA)
The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA)
The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN)
The Pennsylvania Human Relations Act and other state human relations statutes
The Pennsylvania Wage Payment and Collection Law, the Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act, and other state wage and hour laws
The Pennsylvania Whistleblower Law and other state whistleblower laws
The Pennsylvania Equal Pay Act
Pennsylvania Uniform Trade Secrets Act and other state trade secrets laws

In addition to defending federal and state statutory claims, along with employment-related tort and contract claims in state and federal courts, our employment law attorneys also represent employers before administrative agencies in the following contexts:

Before the EEOC and various state and local human relations commissions
Before state unemployment compensation authorities

Employment & Employee Relations

In terms of employment and employee relations, the attorneys in our Employment & Employee Relations Practice Group regularly provide advice, counsel and representation on a range of employment, employee, litigation and compliance related issues, including the following:

The drafting and interpretation of employee handbooks/manuals
Formulating, drafting and interpreting human resources policies and procedures
Employee privacy/individual employee rights issues
Federal and state statutory/regulatory compliance
Conducting internal investigations/responding to complaints of discrimination, including the investigation of and response to complaints of harassment including sexual harassment
Conducting training concerning discrimination, sexual harassment, harassment generally and retaliation, as well as labor relations, including union avoidance
Employee disciplinary, compensation and termination issues
Drafting appropriate releases and separation agreements in connection with employee departures
Drug testing
Wage and hour issues
Reductions in force and downsizing issues
Drafting, interpreting, and litigating employment contracts, covenants not-to-compete, and confidentiality and non-solicitation agreements
Litigating claims arising from the theft or threatened theft of trade secrets
Providing advice and counsel regarding the interplay of the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and state workers' compensation laws
Providing advice and counsel with respect to employee return to work issues
Responding to requests for references and handling prospective employer inquiries
Maintenance, retention and access to personnel and medical files and records

Representative Matters:

Summary judgment granted and affirmed for employer in case involving claims for sex-based discriminatory discharge under Title VII and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act (PHRA).
Successful bench trial on behalf of large regional employer in federal wage and hour litigation. Employee asserted that he was misclassified as exempt from overtime pay.
Summary judgment granted in senior manager’s age discrimination claim against national health care provider. Employee had claimed that 20+ years of success demonstrated that employer’s basis for termination was discriminatory.
Summary judgment granted in a case involving a plaintiff’s claim of a sex-based discriminatory discharge under Title VII and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act (PHRA) against employer. Plaintiff had a history of conflicts with his employer that he attributed to gender based preferential treatment for female employees. Case was not appealed
Secured summary judgment on all claims in a case involving a former employee’s allegations of race discrimination, a racially hostile work environment and retaliation. The court found that plaintiff failed to establish a prima facie case as to her claims of race discrimination and a racially hostile work environment. While finding that plaintiff had stated a prima facie case of retaliation, the court found that plaintiff could not create an issue of fact for trial as to whether she was terminated as a pretext for unlawful retaliation. Plaintiff had made a complaint of race discrimination two days prior to her termination. This decision was not appealed by plaintiff.
Client dismissed from case involving plaintiffs who filed putative collective action complaint in federal court for two subclasses of employees seeking back wages for unpaid overtime work and other remedies under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) — specifically, a subclass comprised of all non-exempt employees who worked more than a de minimis amount of time during unpaid meal breaks without compensation and a subclass comprised of all non-exempt employees who worked more than a de minimis amount of time maintaining their uniforms without compensation.
Summary judgment for employer in FMLA and ADA claim where employee was terminated after she failed to follow employer’s call-off policy during leave of absence.
Summary judgment granted and affirmed following oral argument in Court of Appeals on age discrimination claim. Long-term employee claimed that new management team discriminated against her by escalating demands for performance.

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