Assisting clients with the complexities of today’s employment climate.
With new regulations constantly changing the workplace, companies are presented with more challenging decisions than ever before regarding their workforces. In today’s employment climate, building a relationship with a legal team that can help companies make thoughtful, informed decisions and avoid costly litigation.
Labor and Employment Counseling
Our labor and employment lawyers work closely with clients around the country and in the UK and Europe to provide comprehensive employment counseling, often serving as an extension of their in-house human resources and legal departments. We advise executives and public and private employers of all sizes, boards of directors, compensation committees across a wide spectrum of industries, from start-ups to large corporations to not-for-profit organizations, from art galleries, non-profits, and manufacturing facilities to insurance brokerage firms, international banks, wealth management firms, national retail stores, national healthcare facilities and providers, pharmaceutical companies and manufacturers.
As our clients’ right hands regarding labor and employment issues, we address the full range of employment issues, and provide day-to-day counsel on:
- Drafting, negotiating and advising on executive and other employment agreements, severance agreements, restrictive covenants, and inventions and confidentiality agreements in order to protect trade secrets and proprietary information
- Employee discipline and discharge, including under collective bargaining agreements
- Delicate internal workplace investigations
- Negotiating collective bargaining agreements and advising and representing companies facing union organizing, strikes/picketing, and other union activity as well as providing advice on withdrawal liability matters
- Developing and preparing employee handbooks, and training and policy manuals
- Developing and conducting employee training programs, including sexual harassment and positive employee relations
- Evaluating requests made under the Family Medical Leave Act and Americans with Disabilities Act, state workers’ compensation and disability laws
- Minimizing and prevention of risk associated with corporate transactions, corporate restructuring and reductions in force
- Wage-and-hour practices and audits
- Blending of workforces including transactions, mergers, relocations, and closures of unionized facilities
Employment Discrimination
We counsel clients regarding issues related to the federal discrimination statutes, such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Family Medical Leave Act, the National Labor Relations Act, and their comparable state statutes. We regularly advocate for our clients before the state and federal agencies and courts around the country that administer those laws.
Employment Litigation
While our goal as New York employment lawyers is litigation avoidance, there are times when disputes arise that must be resolved in the courts, the state and federal agencies, or through arbitration or mediation. When this occurs, our employment litigation attorneys aggressively represent our clients interests, including prosecuting and defending restrictive covenants and trade secret claims, defending employers against claims filed by former and current employees, litigating disputes related to employment and vendor contracts, defending wage-and-hour claims arising from the Fair Labor Standards Act and its state and city counterparts.
Employment Litigation, Arbitration, and Agency Matters
- Secured summary judgment in federal court in race discrimination, retaliation, and whistleblower case brought by former employee against national senior living company.
- Reached favorable settlement on behalf international bank in discrimination, retaliation, and First Amendment claims brought by terminated employee in federal court; initiated breach of contract and indemnification claim against third-party to recover damages from underlying action.
- Obtained partial motion to dismiss on behalf of regional assisted living provider in whistleblower and FMLA interference in state court litigation; negotiated favorable settlement after key count was dismissed.
- Negotiated favorable settlement for healthcare client on FMLA interference and disability discrimination claims after obtaining partial summary judgment at Southern District.
- Enforced arbitration agreement on behalf of financial services company against terminated in-house counsel who brought disability retaliation and failure to accommodate claims in state court; after compelling arbitration, prevailed on all counts.
- Prevailed in arbitrations brought by former union employees at manufacturing facilities, entertainment center, and hospital.
- Represented numerous employers before the National Labor Relations Board litigating issues related to scope and appropriateness of bargaining unit, employee terminations, strikes and picketing, union information requests, and alleged bad faith bargaining; represented employers on appeal and in enforcement actions at the Second, Sixth, and D.C. Circuit Courts of Appeals.
- Defended pregnancy, sexual orientation, sex (including sexual harassment), race, color, national origin, disability, and age discrimination complaints in state and federal court in New York and Connecticut and claims brought at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, New York State and New York City Divisions on Human Rights, and Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities.
- Successfully arbitrated a MPPAA withdrawal liability matter involving a national security guard company.
Other Representative Matters
- Negotiated collective bargaining agreements on behalf of clients in healthcare, engineering, higher education, the arts, real estate, and various non-profits fields.
- Counseled employers on ramifications of merger or sale on management team’s employment agreements, vesting of equity awards, and federal or state WARN Act issues.
- Performed harassment, positive employee relations, Title VII/discrimination, and union avoidance training for local and national companies.
- Obtained favorable findings on classification issues for companies with wage hour audits at New York and Connecticut Departments of Labor.
- Advised multi-state clients of potential labor and employment issues in closing and/or consolidating facilities or acquiring additional union or non-union companies.
- Performed vulnerability assessments and management training for national and international companies faced with corporate campaign pressure from organized labor.
- Represented Quinpario Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq:QPAC) (Nasdaq:QPACU) (Nasdaq:QPACW) in its definitive agreement to acquire Jason Incorporated from Saw Mill Capital LLC, Falcon Investment Advisors, LLC and other investors. The purchase price of $538.65 million will be funded by the cash proceeds from QPAC's initial public offering, new debt and rollover equity invested by the current owners and management of Jason.
- Represented Point Blank Enterprises, an international leader in the design and manufacture of body armor, in obtaining a broad injunction enjoining former Point Blank employees from starting up a competing body armor business. A Florida judge agreed with Olshan and Florida counsel, Berger Singerman LLP, that the ex-employees had misappropriated Point Blank’s confidential information and breached their non-compete and non-solicitation agreements and should be sidelined for 4½ months. The court further held that the former employees would be prohibited from soliciting Point Blank’s customers and employees for 16½ months.
- Represented CERTPOINT Systems Inc., a provider of SaaS-based learning management software (LMS) and learning content management software (LCMS), in a merger with Infor Inc., a leading global provider of business application software serving more than 70,000 customers.
