Barclay Damon provides comprehensive, practical, and effective advice on a full spectrum of labor and employment matters. Our clients are public- and private-sector employers located throughout the United States, including multi-national companies, emerging companies, small businesses, governmental and quasi-governmental agencies, and not-for-profits. These organizations span industries that include, among numerous others, energy, health care, and higher education. Chambers & Partners ranks Barclay Damon's Labor & Employment Practice Area among top labor and employment practices, and quotes a client who said, "Barclay Damon is my recommendation for any and all matters, from the little items to the major and extremely complex ones” and "The attorneys are very accessible and understand our business needs."
Our team has extensive experience in all areas of law required by employers, including the following:
Employment Law
- Discrimination, sexual harassment, and civil rights claims: prevention and defense
- Employee discipline issues
- Employee policies and handbooks
- Executive contracts and employment agreements, including confidentiality, noncompetition, nonsolicitation, and invention-assignment
- Plant closings and the Worker Adjustment And Retraining Notification Act and other issues related to layoffs and restructuring
- Privacy and cybersecurity issues related to employees, employee data, and employment
- Regulations for federal contractors, including from the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs
- Severance agreements and issues related to discharge
- Wage and hour laws, including worker classification, minimum wage, equal pay, and overtime pay issues
- Whistle-blower, retaliation charges, and internal investigations
- Workplace health and safety
- All state and federal laws and regulations affecting employers
Labor Law
Barclay Damon's extensive knowledge of labor unions throughout the United States and our deep understanding of the specific issues within our diverse client base are invaluable to clients seeking to create positive and productive labor management relations. As a result, we skillfully represent our clients before the National Labor Relations Board, Public Employment Relations Board (PERB), and other labor relations agencies. We conduct investigations and provide litigation support for grievances and unfair labor and improper practice charges. We provide representation in discipline and discharge cases and in arbitration proceedings, and we support our clients during strikes. Our representation includes advising clients on elections and jurisdictional disputes. We frequently serve as chief negotiators and strategists during collective bargaining and assist employers in analyzing and interpreting collective bargaining agreements.
Labor and Employment Litigation Defense
Avoiding costly litigation is always our goal. We do this by providing practical advice and counseling on a day-to-day basis with our clients as well as delivering customized training programs for management and supervisors––including human resources and legal staff––to assess and prevent potential risks and legal exposure before disputes arise. We also help employers craft policies and practices to best avoid conflict. When necessary, we are well prepared to provide a powerful defense to employers against employment-related claims of any nature. We have decades of experience representing employers before federal, state, and local agencies and in state and federal trial and appellate courts as well as in alternative dispute resolution forums such as mediation and arbitration.
We aggressively defend against claims brought under state and federal laws and regulations, including the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, Americans With Disabilities Act, Equal Pay Act, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, and state human rights laws. We also defend employers in class-action suits.
Other Critical Areas for Employers
OSHA compliance. Barclay Damon attorneys advise employers on compliance with the complex federal Occupational Safety & Health Act (OSHA) and state health and safety laws. We develop written safety and health manuals and training programs, assist employers in government audits, and contest citations and penalties.
Trade secret protection. Through litigation, counseling, and transactional work, our labor and employment and intellectual property attorneys work together to protect some of our clients’ most valuable assets—the ideas, customer information, data, and processes essential to operating their businesses. Our litigators regularly seek injunctions in US federal and state courts to prevent the disclosure and misuse of trade secrets and other confidential information. We also represent parties whose trade secrets have been misappropriated or who are accused of misappropriating the trade secrets of others. We routinely protect financial, technical, scientific, economic, and operational information in electronic and other formats for clients in a wide number of industries under the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act, related state laws, and common law.