The Labor and Employment practice group at Lewis, Rice & Fingersh, L.C. represents management in employment-related litigation in federal and state courts in actions involving Title VII, the ADA, the ADEA, ERISA, the FMLA, the PDA, state anti-discrimination statutes, and various state law theories, such as wrongful discharge claims and non-competition disputes. Our representation includes defending against individual and class actions in various courts throughout the country. We also represent employers before administrative agencies, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as well as state and local civil rights agencies, the Department of Labor, the National Labor Relations Board, and the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

We have a broad experience base in representing and advising employers in all aspects of labor relations, including collective bargaining negotiations, union avoidance, unfair labor practice charges, unlawful union activities, and labor arbitrations. Our labor and employment attorneys provide consultation to clients on various day-to-day employment issues, and we also conduct on-site seminars for clients on relevant employment topics. Our clients include large and small manufacturers, banks, hospitals, insurance companies, universities, newspapers, television studios, and a number of other businesses. We also provide services to businesses and individuals on immigration-related matters.

The primary areas of our practice include:

Employment Discrimination/Wrongful Discharge Counseling and Litigation

We defend employers in federal and state courts throughout the country in litigation involving employment discrimination claims under state and federal civil rights statutes. We have extensive experience litigating claims based on race, sex, age, disability, religion, national origin, and pregnancy, including harassment claims. Over the years, our practice has expanded to include the defense of class action discrimination claims. Our litigation experience also includes actions against employers under the Family Medical Leave Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act. In addition to our representation of clients in litigation, we also represent clients before administrative agencies on employment-related disputes.

We defend employers in wrongful discharge lawsuits alleging various theories such as, discharges in violation of employment contracts and/or public policy, retaliatory discharges (based on whistle blowing, safety-related activities, or exercising rights under workers’ compensation laws, etc.), interference with employment contracts, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Our practice also includes working with employers to take proactive steps to avoid litigation by assisting clients in drafting and modifying employee handbooks and personnel policies, evaluating workforce reduction programs for compliance with EEO requirements and other statutory obligations, such as the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act and the Older Worker Benefit Protection Act. We assist federal contractor clients with drafting and maintaining affirmative action programs, as required by Executive Order 11246.

Non-Competition and Non-Solicitation Disputes and Protection of Trade Secrets

Our practice includes litigating disputes arising under non-competition and non-solicitation provisions in employment and other contracts. These cases involve specific contractual prohibitions on competition, prohibitions on solicitation of customers or current employees, prohibitions against using trade secrets and also unfair competition principles. Our attorneys routinely seek or defend applications for injunctions and other extraordinary remedies in handling these matters.
Our attorneys are experienced in both drafting contractual provisions governing trade secrets, non-solicitation, and non-competition and providing ongoing consultation to employers and employees concerning their rights and obligations with respect to customers, suppliers, and trade secrets under existing contracts.

Wage and Hour

We provide advice to clients in connection with investigations and audits conducted by the Department of Labor, Wage/Hour Division. We also provide consultation and assistance in formulating payroll policies to conform with wage-and-hour laws. We have successfully defended clients in wage/hour class action litigation.

Union Organizing/Negotiations

We regularly counsel employers (private and public sector) regarding union avoidance programs, including assisting management in union organizing campaigns, elections, and union decertification proceedings. We counsel employers in connection with strikes, picketing, hand billing, work stoppages, and other disputes arising during the collective bargaining process. We have  represented employers who are targets of a union corporate campaign and take proactive measures to combat such tactics by coordinating strategies on the part of the employer and when necessary, utilizing litigation to end a campaign and seek damages from the union. We also have extensive experience in representing employers against unfair labor practice charges and organizing campaigns before the National Labor Relations Board, including appeals to the National Labor Relations Board in Washington and before the U.S. Court of Appeals in enforcement matters.

We have a wide range of experience in collective bargaining negotiations in multiple industries including: healthcare and hospitals, social agency and nonprofit or tax exempt organizations, broadcast and media, janitorial, maintenance, construction, manufacturing, municipalities and governments, and other service industries.

Our attorneys have also defended employers in hundreds of arbitration hearings and grievance matters on issues such as discharge, discipline, and contract interpretation.

Employee Retirement Income Security Act

Our labor group handles a substantial amount of ERISA litigation. In this regard, we defend clients in disputes involving denial of long-term disability claims, alleged failure to make contributions to multi-employer pension and other benefit plans; we also have experience in defending suits brought by the Department of Labor against pension plans and individual trustees for alleged wrongdoings in connection with the administration of multi-employer benefits plans and alleged fiduciary breaches. We also handle ERISA claims arising out of employee discharge situations.

Occupational Safety and Health Act

Our labor and employment attorneys also represent employers in all areas of safety and health, including advising employers in connection with federal and state agency inspections and investigations, including criminal investigations, defending employers at the administrative level, formulating policies and compliance programs under OSHA, and litigation of safety matters.

Immigration

We offer a full range of services to businesses and individuals with respect to immigration-related matters, including securing temporary and permanent work visas, green cards based on family relationships, J-1 visa waivers, student visas, visitor visas, and citizenship. We also advise employers with respect to I-9 audits and investigations.