Labor & Employment
We are labor and employment lawyers who try labor and employment lawsuits, counsel our clients on increasingly complex workplace laws and regulations, and represent our clients before federal, state, and local labor and employment agencies, such as the NLRB, the EEOC, and OSHA.
Our litigation practice includes complex executive compensation matters, class/collective actions, trade secret/unfair competition cases, breach of fiduciary duty and executive malfeasance cases. Our vast labor and employment litigation experience is the platform from which we provide advice and counsel to help our clients solve workplace challenges covering the entire range of employment issues. We focus both on traditional labor issues–including elections, contract negotiations, arbitration, strikes and lockouts–to employment law areas, such as discrimination, disability, Family and Medical Leave Act, workplace safety, and wage and hour issues.
We practice employment law backed by the resources of a full service firm in corporate, tax, bankruptcy, intellectual property, securities, employee benefits, oil and gas, media, complex litigation, cybersecurity, and all the areas offered by Jackson Walker’s over 300 attorneys. By blending our labor/employment subject matter experience with practitioners from these areas, we offer a unique blend of labor/employment subject matter know-how to handle complex litigation cases that cross disciplines, counsel clients on high level executive compensation matters, and offer practical solutions for business issues from a multi-disciplinary perspective. We empower our clients with this multi-disciplinary knowledge and experience, in the courtroom and the boardroom.
Our clients include international Fortune 100 companies, privately held companies of all shapes and sizes in media, retail, oil and gas, alternative energy, technology, entertainment and hospitality, trucking and delivery, financial and insurance, and manufacturers. Our cases range the full spectrum from “bet the company” cases to single plaintiff labor/employment lawsuits.
We are Texas lawyers, with all of our lawyers and offices in Texas. This gives us unparalleled knowledge of the Texas legal landscape, from county to county. It also drives our national practice because our clients regularly hire us to handle matters in other states. Our unique position also results in opportunities to represent international companies that find themselves faced with significant employment matters that require the resources of a full-service firm.
Within only the last two years, we have enjoyed the following successes for our clients:
- We tried a complex executive fraud/breach of fiduciary duty case,with significant counter claims against our client, to a jury for nearly four weeks. After we tried the rest of the case to the court, we ultimately prevailed with a $1.7 M judgment against the former executive, settling the case after that on extremely favorable terms.
- We decertified a 100-plus plaintiff collective action FLSA overtime case, and then tried the first group of those plaintiffs to a jury, resulting in a settlement during jury deliberations with which our client was very pleased.
- We tried a case against a labor union that was seeking millions of dollars in allegedly unpaid benefits and won so emphatically that the union did not appeal.
- We filed a computer fraud and abuse act against a former executive of a large, publicly traded company, and brought such force to bear in the case, using a team led by our labor/employment lawyers but including bankruptcy and e-discovery lawyers, that it settled very favorably 6 weeks after we filed it, with the executive losing millions of dollars in benefits as a result of a “cause” termination.
- We decertified an FLSA collective action that would have had nearly 100 plaintiffs, leaving it with only 7 named plaintiffs, against whom we ultimately won summary judgment.
March 30, 2022
Newsletters
Labor & Employment Dispatch: April 2022
View the April 2022 edition of the Labor & Employment Dispatch.
March 30, 2022
Insights
Avoiding “Single Event” Hostile Work Environment Claims
By Lionel M. Schooler | In Woods v. Cantrell, the Fifth Circuit recently approved a rare “single event” claim of hostile work environment situation which portends potential hazards for employers.
March 22, 2022
Attorney News
Jackson Walker Congratulates Its 2022 Texas Rising Stars
Jackson Walker is pleased to announce the selection of 51 attorneys to Thomson Reuters’ 2022 “Super Lawyers – Rising Stars” list, which recognizes only 2.5% of Texas attorneys who either are 40 years of age or younger or have been in practice for 10 years or less.
March 22, 2022
Attorney News
Seven Jackson Walker Litigators Named to “Up-and-Coming 100: 2022 Texas Rising Stars” List
Jackson Walker proudly announces the selection of Chris Bankler, Amanda Crouch, Josh Flores, Noah Galton, Joel Glover, Reagan Marble, and David Schlottman to the “Up-and-Coming 100: 2022 Texas Rising Stars” list, with Amanda recognized among the list of the top 50 highest-rated women.
February 17, 2022
Attorney News
Lonnie Schooler Serves as Board Member of Chartered Institute of Arbitrators North America Branch
Lionel M. Schooler has been selected to serve on the board of the North America Branch of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb), an international arbitration credentialing group.
February 14, 2022
Attorney News
Jay Rutherford Elevated to Office Managing Partner, and Jesse S. Lotay and Christian Triantaphyllis Named Firmwide Practice Leaders
Congratulations to Jay Rutherford on his appointment as managing partner of the Fort Worth office. In addition, Jesse S. Lotay and Christian Triantaphyllis now serve as firmwide chairs of the Energy and Business Immigration & Compliance practices, respectively.
February 1, 2022
Mentions
Amid Latest Surge, Essential Workers Weigh Financial, Health Aspects of Staying on the Job | The Dallas Morning News
Jamila Brinson was quoted in The Dallas Morning News discussing employment laws and whether an employer can require workers to come in or be forced to compensate workers for time missed as a result of COVID-19.
February 1, 2022
Insights
Guidelines for Evaluating Claims for Religious Exemptions From Vaccine Mandates
By Scott McElhaney | Although OSHA has withdrawn its COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard, a significant number of employers—either voluntarily or in response to some other governmental obligation—have adopted a requirement that their employees be vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus.
February 1, 2022
Newsletters
Labor & Employment Dispatch: February 2022
View the February 2022 edition of the Labor & Employment Dispatch.
January 27, 2022
Attorney News
Jackson Walker Welcomes Immigration Partner Kelly Cobb to Houston
Jackson Walker is pleased to announce the addition of Kelly D. Cobb as a partner in the Houston office. Kelly focuses on U.S. immigration law, specifically corporate immigration, family-based immigration, and the compliant manning of offshore personnel.
The Labor & Employment Dispatch newsletter from Jackson Walker provides news and insights in labor and employment law.
