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Tracey L. Ellerson

Tracey Ellerson has worked in every aspect of employment law, from advising both in-house counsel and human resource professionals on a wide variety of human resource issues and conducting employment-related due diligence in connection with stock and asset acquisitions, to litigating before state and federal courts and equal employment practice agencies. Ms. Ellerson also is a member of the firm’s E-Discovery and Technology Team and has extensive experience handling matters involving the preservation, collection and production of large scale electronic data.

Ms. Ellerson focuses her practice on class and collective action litigation involving employment and employment-related matters, including those under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act. She understands the intricacies of large case litigation and the unique challenges clients face when confronted with such actions, ranging from potential substantial liability to sensitive publicity and employee-relations concerns. Working with clients in myriad industries, Ms. Ellerson has employed sophisticated strategies that have proven effective at addressing each of these challenges. Her most notable litigation work includes:

• Currently defending a nationwide trucking company against claims of racial discrimination and harassment in two class actions. Among other things, this litigation has called for the extensive gathering, production and use of electronic discovery.
• Successfully represented an airplane manufacturer in a 19-plaintiff racial discrimination and racial harassment dispute. Summary judgments were obtained by the company against many of the plaintiffs, all of which were upheld on appeal by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. The remainder of the case was resolved on very favorable terms for the company.
• Successfully defended a nationwide financial institution in three separate FLSA matters in Florida. In the first of these matters, the company secured an Arbitrator’s Award that required the plaintiff to pay it $8,000. After the plaintiff appealed the award, the client reached a settlement on favorable terms in this and the second matter. In the third matter, three plaintiffs claimed that they were denied overtime compensation for their off-the-clock work. This, they claimed, gave rise to causes of action under the FLSA and ERISA and warranted both nationwide collective and class action certification. In a matter of first impression in Florida, the federal court dismissed the ERISA claims with prejudice.
• Successfully represented a mortgage lender in twenty-two collective action cases, defeating several attempts at nationwide certification. The mortgage lender also obtained a sanctions order, forcing plaintiffs’ counsel to cease a misleading letter writing campaign and to remove any reference to litigation from its website.
• Successfully defended the first claim brought under Florida’s “Guns at Work” law.

Ms. Ellerson is a frequent lecturer on a variety of topics of interest to employers, including reductions in force, Family and Medical Leave Act compliance, Fair Labor Standards Act compliance, document retention policies and electronic discovery and sexual and racial harassment. She also is active in the community, serving on the Board of Directors for the Coalition for the Homeless and volunteering with Legal Aid’s Guardian Ad Litem Program. Ms. Ellerson was named by Florida Trend magazine as a member of Florida’s “Legal Elite” in 2009 and has been recognized by the Legal Aid Society of the Orange County Bar Association for her pro bono Guardian Ad Litem activities in 2004, 2005 and 2006.