Practice Strengths

Numerous federal and state employment laws impose complex and sometimes conflicting legal obligations on employers and subject them to serious risks. Even routine terminations may lead to costly, high-risk and protracted litigation.  Whether you're facing a discrimination suit, a wage and hour collective action, or any workplace litigation, we will not hesitate to use our litigation experience to convey the strength of our case or to defeat them in court.

Our employment litigators have a proven track record, with more than a dozen successful cases tried to verdict during the past year alone. We are veterans in defending complex multiparty employment disputes, class actions, government suits and the full scope of individual private-plaintiff actions in state and federal courts and agencies nationwide. Please see our Employment Class Action description for more information on our employment class action practice.

Our lawyers represent clients in litigation involving discrimination, wage and hour, breach of contract, wrongful discharge, defamation, ERISA, OSHA, covenants not to compete, trade secret, executive compensation and whistleblower-related claims, including whistleblower provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Our cumulative experience includes every aspect of judicial and administrative procedure, with numerous successful jury and bench trials and appeals at all levels.

Although we try a large number of cases every year, the majority of our cases are won at the summary judgment stage, or we achieve an early settlement that is in our client's best interest. Our priority always remains the same—achieving the best results for our client.

Recognizing that involving the court system is not always in our clients' best interest, we often utilize our extensive experience in alternative dispute resolution procedures to achieve early and cost-effective resolutions in litigated matters. We also frequently arbitrate executive-level disputes pursuant to contractual arbitration procedures. In fact, several of our lawyers themselves serve as mediators and arbitrators and are familiar with both sides of the table.

In addition, an important part of our practice involves helping our clients avoid employment litigation by implementing up-to-date workplace policies and practices, and training management to ensure these policies are communicated effectively and applied fairly. We counsel clients on daily workplace issues to help avoid potential liability, including ensuring compliance with wage and hour laws, managing downsizings and employee restructurings, plant closings and incentive and buyout programs. We also provide regular updates to clients on changing workplace laws that affect their business. In addition, we are frequently asked to direct internal corporate investigations regarding serious employee misconduct.

We help keep employers out of court, yet fight vigorously on their behalf if litigation is necessary.

 

Recognition

• Eleven employment partners listed are in The Best Lawyers in America.
• Our employment and labor practice is ranked among the leading practices in Ohio and Florida (Chambers USA, 2011).
• Chambers USA 2011 lists a total of nine Florida and Ohio employment partners as leaders in the field.
• Chambers USA 2011 highlights the firm's strength in wage and hour class actions and notes that the team is “Among the very best for this area of law – a superlative firm."
• Employment lawyers have received special regional recognition in Florida Trend's “Legal Elite" publication.

Leadership in Action

Employment Litigation: Putting the EEOC on the Defense

Client: FORTUNE 100 Technology Company

Type of Matter: The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) brought a lawsuit challenging the inclusion of a pregnant employee in a workforce reduction.

Our Client's Challenge: Overcoming the emotional testimony (and solid performance reviews) of the terminated employee.

The Goal: Successfully defend our client in a federal jury trial in Detroit.

Our Strategy: We carefully explained the legitimate business reasons for the employee’s inclusion in the reduction (relatively weak technical skill set) and focused on the EEOC’s aggressive treatment of company witnesses at trial. We ultimately succeeded in portraying the EEOC as oppressive and overreaching in attacking the character of reasonable people who honestly made the difficult business decision of whom to include in a workforce reduction.

Results: The jury found for our client in less than two hours.

Employment Litigation Experience

• Obtained a defense verdict for an energy client after a two-week trial in the case of two original putative class representatives.
• Successfully defended a manufacturing client during eight-day trial on gender discrimination claim when a defense verdict was reached in just 20 minutes.
• Obtained summary judgment for a national insurer in a wage-and-hour case that is frequently cited by the U.S. Department of Labor and other courts, and that was worth hundreds of millions of dollars to our client.
• Successfully defended the largest hospital in Jacksonville, Florida, in a complex case where the plaintiff, a former department director, made a whistleblower claim under Florida law. After a lengthy trial, the jury rejected all of the plaintiff's claims and returned a verdict for our client.
• Won a jury verdict in retaliatory discharge case in Southern Texas court where the plaintiff was terminated 10 days after filing a workers' compensation claim.
• Successfully defended a banking client against a former executive's $5 million lawsuit over the outsourcing of her responsibilities. We showed that the company's action was based on sound industry practice and prevailed after a 17-day jury trial in a court where the plaintiff's husband was a judge.
• Successfully defended a FORTUNE 500 client in a week-long bench trial in a case alleging tortious interference with a consulting agreement, where the plaintiff was alleging $35 million in damages.
• In what defense lawyers say is a first, we helped our client receive a favorable settlement with the EEOC because not enough claimants had qualified to be paid out of the settlement fund.
• Won a unanimous jury verdict after a week-long trial for our client, a national newspaper publisher. The case involved allegations of ADA violations, the Tennessee Human Rights Act, the Tennessee Handicap Act and the Tennessee Whistleblower statute.
• Won a unanimous jury verdict in favor of our client, a national insurer, in a wrongful discharge case brought under Ohio law. The jury was out less than one hour.
• After an eight-day trial in federal court in Buffalo, New York, we won a jury verdict for our client, a global leader in the information services industry, in a case that was initiated over 10 years ago as a sex discrimination class action seeking a class of several hundred current and former female employees.
• Won a unanimous jury verdict for a FORTUNE 100 client after a week-long race discrimination trial in federal court in Ohio.
• In a six-plaintiff race discrimination lawsuit, we achieved a significant sanctions award for our client after convincing the court that the plaintiffs' action was so meritless that sanctions were warranted.
• Convinced federal court that there is no right to jury trial in whistleblower cases brought under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
• Won summary judgment for a major airline in a frequently cited Sixth Circuit decision that is a leading case defining constructive discharge.

About Our Employment Team
Ranked among the Top Employment Law Firms by Workforce Management Magazine, Baker Hostetler counsels many of the nation's leading companies on all aspects of employment law. With more than 100 lawyers coast-to-coast, Baker Hostetler's Employment and Labor Group represents numerous FORTUNE 500 companies, and for many of these companies, we serve as their national employment and labor counsel. Our comprehensive employment practice is comparable in size and depth to top employment law boutiques, but we offer the broader resources of a leading, full-service firm.
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