Biography

Anita J. Barksdale's national and international labor and employment practice focuses on a variety of labor and employment matters, with an emphasis on technology, privacy, and data security and Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) matters.  Whether she is advising clients on compliance with international data privacy laws, advocating to protect her client's confidential information, trade secrets, or data, or advising on the latest ways to avoid or prepare during wage and hour litigation,  Ms. Barksdale focuses on excellent client service and superior legal acumen. 

Ms. Barksdale's previous work experience at Goldman Sachs, Accenture, and KPMG L.L.P. gives her an edge in understanding her clients' organizations and providing solutions to business and legal problems. Her experience as a Senior Information Technology Auditor with KPMG L.L.P. gives her deep insight into her clients' technology, privacy, and data security needs; and her experience in system implementation at Accenture helps her to understand her client's technology needs and weaknesses. The unique perspective Ms. Barksdale gained working in Fortune 500 companies enhances her representation of diverse clients in Title VII, Section 1981, Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), Railway Labor Act (RLA), Title VII, Texas Commission on Human Rights Act (TCHRA), National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) matters.

Ms. Barksdale has experience representing employers, executives, and wealthy individuals. She provides preventative counseling to help clients avoid litigation and also defends clients involved in litigation, helping them to strategize and resolve the litigation in an effective and efficient manner.

Ms. Barksdale's preventative labor and employment practice includes providing her clients with advice, training, and assistance in navigating employee matters to minimize the risk of potential lawsuits. Her litigation experience includes advice and counsel, researching legal issues, drafting and arguing motions, and mediating cases, as well as taking over 10 cases to jury trial. Ms. Barksdale has served as second and third chair on multi-plaintiff discrimination cases, FLSA collective actions, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) reasonable accommodation and discrimination cases, and trade secret and confidential information cases. She has served as first chair for discrimination cases, including housing and employment cases. In all of her cases, Ms. Barksdale sets a goal of researching and implementing the best strategy that is effective, efficient, and focused on the client's needs and wants.

In her spare time, Ms. Barksdale enjoys spending time with family, singing in the Jackson Walker band and in her church choir, and volunteering for public service through the American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division and the Texas Young Lawyers Association.

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Representative Matters

• Employment, Executive and General Litigation


• Counseling health care clients, educational institutions, technology companies, non-profit organizations, energy clients, and consumer product clients on harassment investigations, avoiding retaliation claims, and agreements with executives, independent contractors and staffing agencies


• Assisting a health care client in a "whistle-blowing" retaliation jury trial


• Counseling and representing an educational institution regarding termination of tenured professors


• Counseling and representing clients in sexual harassment, race discrimination, religious discrimination, whistleblowing and age discrimination claims


• Representing a health care client to dispute ERISA discrimination claims


• Representing the City of Houston in over ten trials that reached jury verdict


• Advising clients on lawful FMLA benefits and representing clients in FMLA lawsuits, including retaliation for leave


• Preventative Labor and Employment Counsel, Advice and Training


• Conducting preventative training for clients and organizations, including training on social media in the workplace, sexual orientation in the workplace, workplace privacy, sexual harassment, discrimination and sensitivity


• Creating, reviewing, and helping with the implementation of handbooks, policies and contracts for clients


• Advising and handling on-site investigation of various employment matters including, misuse of technology resources, discrimination, harassment and workplace violence


• Wage and Hour Litigation


• Advising clients, including technology companies and non-profits, on classification of employees to avoid future misclassification lawsuits


• Interviewing representatives from clients in order to prepare for potential ligation over overtime and breaks


• Trade Secrets, Non-Compete Agreements and Non-Solicitation Agreements


• Drafting and evaluating agreements with former employees, current employees and future employees that relate to trade secrets, non-compete agreements and non-solicitation agreements


• Creating policies regarding trade secrets, non-compete agreements and non-solicitation agreements


• Representing health care employer in litigation enforcing non-compete agreement with former doctor


• Data Privacy and Protection


• Advising clients on compliance with data security laws such as the European Union Data Protection Directive, the Federal Trade Commission Act, the Texas Business and Commerce Code, and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act


• Advising and counseling engineering client on how to address and minimize an attack on their information technology environment


• Labor Law Matters


• Representing a railroad in a Railway Labor Act organizing campaign


• Advising non-unionized employers on avoiding charges under the NLRA due to employees' use of social media


• Advising clients on requirements under the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act

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Organization Membership

In the past few years, Ms. Barksdale has made an impact through her service to the Houston community, as well as on a state and national level, through her leadership role in organizations including the following:

Houston Lawyers Association (HLA)

• Served on the board
• Co-chaired the 2010 and 2012 Annual Scholarship Fundraising Galas to raise money for high school and law school students
• Chaired the HLA Martin Luther King, Jr. Drum Major for Justice Scholarship Committee to execute the award of scholarship monies to local Houston seniors. Under her leadership, two of HLA's winners went on to place at the Regional and National levels

• Served on the board
• Chaired the HYLA R U Safe committee. During Ms. Barksdale's tenure, the R U Safe committee worked in conjunction with the Houston Bar Association and rolled out the Texas Young Lawyer's Association's R U Safe Video to nearly 600 public schools in 18 school districts in Harris County and 34 private and charter schools. The committee hosted presentations at eight different schools and presented a workshop for children with social integration difficulties. The committee also provided materials to the KPRC TV Channel 2 Anti-Bully Boot Camp and helped integrate the curriculum into HBA's Communities in Schools program. Ms. Barksdale received HYLA's Outstanding Committee Chair of the Year for her service
• Served on HYLA's Early College Awareness Project committee and HYLA's Barbara Jordan Project

• Served on HBA's Law Day Committee from 2010 until 2012 and worked diligently as part of the team that implemented Law Day Workshops at Houston's Forge for Families and Centros Familiares de la Comunidad to allow lower income students the opportunity to participate in the Law Day Competition

• Serves as the District 25 Representative (South/Central Texas) to the ABA Young Lawyers Division Council, advocating for policies that will impact lawyers in Texas and across the country
• Coordinates disaster legal services for South/Central Texas and helped Texas lawyers mobilize and assist the public with legal issues resulting from the 2011 wildfires
• Serves on the ABA Young Lawyers Division Leadership Advisory Board, where she helps to set the tone and strategy for the Council and the Division

• Serves as a liaison to the board of TYLA as the District Representative of the ABA Young Lawyers Division
• Serves as co-chair for TYLA's Marketing and Technology committees and as vice-chair for TYLA's National Trial Competition (NTC), which is co-sponsored by the American College of Trial Lawyers. Ms. Barksdale has served on the NTC committee since 2008 and will serve as the 2012 coordinator for sponsorship

• National Bar Association
• State Bar of Texas
• Society of Human Resources Management
• International Association of Privacy Professionals

Community Involvement

Ms. Barksdale is a United Way Young Leader and a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. In the past, Ms. Barksdale served her sorority in various capacities, including serving on the Delta Leadership Southwest Task Force, National Social Action Commission, National Executive Board, and Long Range Strategic Planning Task Force. She served as the Eastern Regional Representative for the Sorority from 2001 until 2013 representing and advocating for collegiate members in CT, DE, MD, NJ, NY, PA, DC, MA, NH, RI, U.S. Virgin Islands and Germany.

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Peer Recognition

In 2011, Ms. Barksdale was named Outstanding Committee Chair by the Houston Young Lawyers Association.  In 2011, she was honored with the State Bar of Texas' "Texas Young Lawyers Association President's Award of Merit."  At KPMG, Ms. Barksdale was an Encore Award Winner for Team Leader (2005), Team Member (2004), and Recruiting (2005).  She was awarded the KPMG Washington, DC Chairman’s (Community Service) Award in 2004.  She was also a member of the KPMG Training Task Force, Mid Atlantic Risk Advisory Services, from 2003 until 2005.  She also served as a member of the KPMG Performance Management Work Group from 2003-2004 in the Washington, DC office.

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Speeches / Publications

Ms. Barksdale has expertise in the intersection of technology, privacy, data security, and employment. Her presentations and speeches have focused on this topic, as well as traditional labor and employment topics. She has also addressed emerging legal issues, including how to handle sexual orientation issues in the workplace. Ms. Barksdale's presentations have included the following:

Speeches

• "Collective and Class Action Issues in Fair Labor Standards Act Cases," Bridgeport Continuing Education, Dallas, Texas, February 2013
• "General Patraeus vs. Lance Armstrong: Whose Was the Biggest Betrayal," American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division Fellows Debate, February 2013
• "Employment Uncensored: Freedom of Speech and Privacy Rights in the Employment Relationship;" 2012 Thurgood Marshall Law Review Civil Rights Symposium, Houston, Texas, November 2012
• "Harassment: Know It, End It;" 25th Annual South Texas CLE Employment Law Conference, Houston, Texas, July 2012
• "Collective and Class Action Issues in Fair Labor Standards Act Cases," Bridgeport Continuing Education, Houston, Texas, June 2012
• "Employment Uncensored: Evolving Privacy Concerns with Employee Data," Fulbright Labor and Employment Law Update, Houston, Texas, October 2011
• "Social Media and HR - When TMI Leads to SOL," 80th Annual Human Resources & Training Conference, San Antonio, Texas, August 2011
• "Arbitration in Texas: Valid or Invalid," South Texas College of Law 24th Employment Law Conference, Houston, Texas, July 2011
• "Lessons From the Trenches: Bad Management + Bad Leadership = Costly Litigation," Gulf Coast Symposium on Human Resources Issues, Houston, Texas, May 2011
• "Sexual Orientation Discrimination: 2011's Top Civil Rights Issue?," Fulbright Labor and Employment Law Update, Houston, Texas, January 2011
• "Social Media and HR - Catch the Wave," Houston Chapter of the National Association of African Americans in Human Resources, Houston, Texas, September 2010
• "The Transitioning Workplace: Navigating Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights in the Workplace," Gulf Coast Symposium on Human Resource Issues, Houston, Texas, May 2010
• "Employment Eligibility Verification," Fulbright Labor and Employment Law Update, Houston, Texas, October 2009
• "Sensitivity Training for Employees," American Red Cross, General Houston Area Chapter, Houston, Texas, October 2009
• "Documentation and Recordkeeping - A Best Practices Approach to Properly Documenting Employment Issues and Retaining Records," Lorman Education Services Seminar, Houston, Texas, March 2009
• "Preventing Harassment," Sexual Harassment Training for Supervisors, American Red Cross, General Houston Area Chapter, Houston, Texas, February 2009
• "Preventing Harassment," Sexual Harassment Training for Employees, American Red Cross, General Houston Area Chapter, Houston, Texas, February 2009
• "Workplace Privacy," Lorman Education Services Seminar, Austin, Texas, January 2009
• "Computer Fraud & E-Security," National Association of Black Accountants National Convention, June 2005

Publications:

• Author, "Social Media and the Rebirth of Labor," ABA TIPS Empl. Law & Lit. Comm. News, Summer 2012, at 1, 8-9
• Author, "Arbitration in Texas: Valid or Invalid?," 30 Corp. Counsel Rev. 247, 2011
• Co-author, "Texas Supreme Court Eases Standard for Enforcement of Non-Compete Agreements," Fulbright Alert, June 27, 2011
• Co-author, "New OFCCP Activity - Proposed Revisions To Regulations To Address Increasing Number Of Veterans," Fulbright Briefing, May 19, 2011
• "EEOC Issues Final Rule on Genetic Information," Fulbright Briefing, November 16, 2010
• "Social Networking Etiquette: What Is and Is Not Appropriate," American Bar Association Section of Litigation - Technology for the Litigator Newsletter, Spring, 2009

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Latest News

• Anita Barksdale Speaks on FLSA Law
• Jackson Walker Represents Pernix Therapeutics in $25 Million Acquisition Deal
• Jackson Walker Represents Zachry Holdings in Acquisition of JV Industrial

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