Parker Hudson Recognized in the Diversity & Flexibility Alliance 2023 New Partner Report
Nov 15, 2023
Overview
Employment-related litigation comprises the greatest volume of cases filed in federal court. Parker Hudson meets this significant demand by providing the knowledge, experience, and necessary skill set to defend employers and insurers. With deep knowledge of the statutes, regulations, procedures, and current case law and agency decisions, we consistently help our clients manage trouble areas prior to litigation as well as throughout all phases and kinds of employment litigation. We do this by emphasizing a practical approach that always puts your business interests front and center.
We fully understand that, while employees are central to your business, having employees can be full of complications and leaves your business vulnerable to a lawsuit. We also understand that your company must have a legal team that is intimately familiar with the entire employment legal landscape. Our team has a deep bench of experience in every aspect of employment law across a wide range of industries.
For most clients, we are on the front end preventing brewing issues from becoming litigation. But we are also prepared to fight. From the earliest stages of a claim through the trial itself, Parker Hudson attorneys consistently craft creative solutions to litigation—solutions which always have the best, most practical, real-world outcomes as a primary goal. Further, when warranted, our attorneys can switch easily into an aggressive defense posture to secure a trial success.
To ensure the best employment litigation and counseling outcome, our employment law attorneys have extensive business litigation experience. We understand your entire business enterprise, not just employment issues. Our attorneys also provide day-to-day consultation with clients, covering such issues as wage-and-hour disputes, Title VII discrimination and retaliation, age and disability discrimination and retaliation, FMLA leave, employee discipline, termination issues, staff reductions, and various employee agreements and policies. At Parker Hudson, we go beyond the traditional ways of practicing law by looking at new ways, new solutions, and client services that truly Go Beyond.
Our approach includes:
- Studying each issue in search of creative, outside-the-box solutions that could represent a better outcome for your business
- Getting to know the ins and outs of your company and industry, so that our judgment calls and advice are always made shrewdly and in context
- Communicating with ease between our most experienced attorneys and your most senior business officers, cutting through the legalese and getting to the heart of what the situation demands
- Consulting freely with the veteran attorneys in Parker Hudson’s many other practice groups, including our Employment Benefits and Transactional Counseling group, as well as the firm’s tax attorneys, and more
- Offering flexibility and discretion in our pricing, resulting in the same bench depth and veteran experience as “Big Law” litigation defense, but with transparent and cost-effective billing, and fee arrangements that provide more value to the client
Experience
- Defend national clinical lab testing company against claims of race, age, color, sex, national origin, and disability discrimination and retaliation brought by senior level current employee. Following dismissal of some claims, we were able to resolve remaining claims through lower-cost settlement.
- Defend restaurant franchisor in joint employer-based claims of sexual harassment and gender discrimination and retaliation in connection with one former general manager and one server. The employment agreements between the two employees and the franchisee required arbitration in New York. One has been resolved, the other is pending arbitration.
- Represent large car part manufacturing facility in response to OSHA investigation of press operator injury and possible product liability issues.
- Defend major regional healthcare facility in disability discrimination and FMLA leave claims by lab tech with chronic attendance issues. The court permitted the FMLA claims to go to the jury, and we obtained a complete defense verdict.
- Represent veterans organization in connection with tort claims asserted by a female VA employee whose advances had been rebuffed by client's male employee. The plaintiff claimed that client's employee defamed her when he submitted a report to the VA that she had been coming to his workplace and harassing him, which resulted in the termination of her employment with the VA. We filed a motion to dismiss her claims against our client and its employee, and all claims were dismissed in their entirety.
- Conduct overtime audit for large regional healthcare system to address and simplify overtime pay codes and ensure compliance with wage-and-hour regulations.
- Defend hospital system in race discrimination and breach of contract suit by former physician who had her clinical privileges revoked. Plaintiff claimed that she was being denied constitutional due process after she failed to timely request a hearing. We successfully obtained a dismissal of her claims by the lower court, her appeal is pending in the Georgia Court of Appeals.
- Defend hospital system against fired doctor's claims of national origin and religious discrimination and a Section 1981 claim. We received a full dismissal based on our motion to dismiss all claims.
- Defend national clinical lab testing company against claims of race, age, color (including eye color), sex, and national origin discrimination and retaliation brought by employee who did not receive desired promotion. The court permitted some of the claims to survive a motion to dismiss but then granted summary judgment on all claims.
- Following extensive document discovery and a full deposition of the plaintiff, we were able to secure an extremely favorable, less-than-nuisance-value settlement in response to age, gender, and multiple disability discrimination claims brought by a plaintiff who had been terminated for excessive unscheduled absences.
- Represent services provider against allegations of employee misclassification and a demand for unpaid overtime wages by employee who had resigned.
- Defend publicized U.S. Department of Justice suit against the Austin Fire Department's hiring process for fire cadets. Represent client with Lee Crawford on consent decree compliance issues.
- Defend suit by 19 plaintiffs claiming violation of constitutional and privacy rights. Address resolution compliance issues.
- National employment testing and validation counsel on all relevant matters for EEI and its participating members in this national trade association for investor-owned electric utilities.
- The firm served as lead trial counsel in the largest class action employment claim tried to date. Decision affirmed en banc by the Ninth Circuit, which held state teacher certification test subject to Title VII regulation, but, because it tested basic skills, sufficiently related to teaching to withstand disparate impact claims. AMAE v. State of California, et al. (9th Cir. 2000) (en banc)
key contacts
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Jared C. Miller
Partner