Overview

Mayer Brown’s employment practice has extensive experience in all aspects of employment, labor law and litigation including reorganizations of personnel, restructuring and redundancy measures and outsourcing projects. Our clients are among the largest businesses in the world. Members of the Fortune 100, FTSE 100, DAX and Hang Seng repeatedly seek our counsel to design and implement their employment law and litigation strategies across numerous regulatory environments.

Experience

Mayer Brown’s Employment Litigation & Counseling practice has extensive experience representing clients in the United States, Europe and Asia in all aspects of employment law. We have included a representative sampling of our work worldwide below.

Americas

United States

Mayer Brown’s Employment and ERISA Litigation practice in the United States represents employers in a broad range of employment-related issues, including complex, high-profile actions on matters of regional, national and international significance. A significant number of our litigation matters are class actions.

We litigate employment cases for our clients in all areas of employment law, including cases under discrimination laws that protect employees on the basis of their age, race, gender and disability (e.g., FEHA, ADEA, Title VII, ADA), the Fair Labor Standards Act and California state wage and hour laws, the Family and Medical Leave Act, CFRA, and Sarbanes-Oxley Act “whistleblower” claims. We also litigate cases involving reductions in force and disputes with departing executives, including restrictive covenants.

We are very well equipped to litigate ERISA cases for our clients in a rapidly changing legal environment which bring new challenges every day. These cases include fiduciary breach claims and benefit claims.  Our clients include plan sponsors, plan administrators, fiduciary committees, trustees, investment managers and other service providers to ERISA plans.

A representative sampling of our experience includes:

  • Employment Litigation - Extensive labor and employment litigation experience in federal and state trial and appeals courts, including class actions, employment discrimination actions of all types, wrongful discharge actions, and cases alleging defamation and other torts. Our litigation team includes members of the firm’s top-ranked Supreme Court and appellate practice.
  • Employment Advice - Representation of employers with respect to federal and state anti-discrimination laws, OSHA, practice before the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, United States Department of Labor and analogous state agencies; assist clients who have government contracts in the preparation of affirmative action plans in compliance with Executive Order 11246 and related executive orders; and representation of employers before the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs; and experience in matters arising under the Railway Labor Act. Through counseling, we assist clients in such matters as review of personnel practices and procedures, employee manuals, drug testing programs, and advice on anticipated employee terminations.
  • FLSA and Wage and Hour Litigation - Representation of employers in collective and class actions under the wage and hour laws in multiple industries. We also have extensive experience in representing employers in investigations by the US Department of Labor and state agencies.
  • Sales, Mergers and Acquisitions; Plant Closings and Work Transfer - Counseling on the many labor and personnel issues which arise with respect to both organized and unorganized employees on transfers of corporate ownership; counseling on plant closings and transfer of work.
  • Restrictive Covenant/Trade Secret - We prosecute and defend actions in state and federal courts, and before arbitration panels, relating to the enforcement of covenants-not-to-compete and the protection of trade secrets. We have pursued former employees or defended the new corporate employer in numerous states.

Employment Counseling

In addition to representing our clients in litigation, we regularly provide counseling and advice to clients on the full range of employment matters, including employee discipline and discharge matters, leave of absence matters and termination of employees on leave of absence, reasonable accommodation for disabled employees and managing compliance with the wide variety of overlapping employment laws that apply to any particular employee relations challenge. We advise employers, in both individual and reduction-in-force situations, with the objective of accomplishing business goals, including the smooth separation of employees and executives, while minimizing employment law liabilities. We also advise clients on the legal enforceability of HR policies, including advice on how to reduce legal risk associated with such policies.

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