LABOR & EMPLOYMENT

Our department’s 26 attorneys spend 100 percent of their time as full-service management-side employment counsel, providing both traditional labor law and employment law services. Our comprehensive knowledge of the extensively regulated employment relationship fosters practical advice in planning, compliance, and human resources problem solving.

In addition to representing clients in state and federal courts, in collective bargaining, and before a wide variety of administrative agencies, our labor and employment attorneys assist clients in anticipating and resolving issues arising in mergers and acquisitions and related business transactions.

CORE SERVICES

Labor Law
Union Avoidance: Hearings before the NLRB on union elections and guidance throughout the entire election process.

Managing Union Relations: Advice on corporate structures to promote corporate labor strategies, responding to and defending NLRB unfair labor practice charges, handling labor grievances and conducting labor arbitrations.

Collective Bargaining: Serving as chief spokesperson in collective bargaining negotiations and/or providing advice regarding the negotiation process.

Labor Litigation: Defend actions arising under the Labor Management Relations Act and other federal labor laws.

Managing Labor Disputes: Guiding clients through strikes and other labor disputes, including seeking injunctions in court.

Managing Corporate Change: Advice on labor law issues in connection with mergers, acquisitions, and restructuring in union-represented workplaces.
 

Employment Law
Litigation: Represent employers in single plaintiff, multi-plaintiff and class action lawsuits, in both state and federal court, including employment discrimination, harassment, retaliation, failure to accommodate, leave of absence, wage and hour (including misclassification, meal and rest period, recordkeeping and related claims), wrongful termination, breach of contract, trade secret, unfair competition, tort and other employment claims.

Advice, Drafting and Training: Advise employers regarding legal compliance, reorganizations, discipline and discharge, workplace safety and other difficult human resource issues. Conduct training on all areas of employment law, including sexual harassment avoidance, discrimination law, legal compliance, leave of absence administration and best practices. Draft executive employment agreements, personnel policies and procedures, arbitration, confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements and other employment documents.

Alternative Dispute Resolution: Guidance and counsel, both at the prelitigation stage and as a method of resolving pending litigation when such methods are in the client’s best interest.
 

Representative Labor Law Matters Expand

Representative Employment Law Matters Expand

News

MS&K Alerts

  • Just When You Thought It Was Safe To Go Back In The Water… NLRB’s Decision In D.R. Horton, Inc. Sinks Employer’s Hopes Of Stopping The Class Action Flood, Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp Labor & Employment Alert (February 2012)

    by Taylor S. Ball
    In April 2011, when the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, the employer community was cautiously optimistic that the holding could provide legal support for upholding class action waivers in employee arbitration agreements, which in turn could have potentially put an end to wage and hour and other class actions against employers that included such waivers in their arbitration agreements.

  • U.S. Employers Should Prepare for On-Site Visits by USCIS, Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp Immigration Alert (February 2012)

    By Frida P. Glucoft and Janice K. Luo
    The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has increased its antifraud staff with contractor inspectors to perform thousands of on-site visits to U.S. companies that employ H-1B and L-1 foreign workers.  These on-site inspections illustrate the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s new attitude and enforcement efforts focusing on employer prosecution for noncompliance with U.S. immigration laws.  These visits are performed by the USCIS Fraud Detection and National Security (FDNS) unit funded by the mandatory antifraud fee of $500 that U.S. Employers must pay the USCIS when filing H-1B and L-1 visa petitions for temporary foreign workers.  These ongoing USCIS visits to H-1B and L-1 employer sites occur regardless of whether the employers are large well-known corporations and nonprofit institutions or smaller companies.

  • DLSE Issues Revised FAQs Regarding Required Wage Notice, Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp Labor & Employment Alert (January 2012)

    by Anthony J. Amendola and Jorja A. Cirigliana
    The California Wage Theft Prevention Act (WTPA), which became effective on January 1, 2012, requires private-sector employers to provide a written wage notice “at the time of hiring” to nonexempt employees (excluding most employees who are covered by a collective bargaining agreement.).  The notice must contain specific information identified by the legislature, as well as other information deemed “material and necessary” by the Labor Commissioner (DLSE).