Labor & Employment
We are labor and employment lawyers who counsel employers on complex workplace laws and regulations, and represent them 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 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.
With a deep bench of experienced lawyers, Jackson Walker’s employment practice has unparalleled knowledge of the Texas and national labor and employment landscape.
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.
Jackson Walker Represents Cambridgeport Capital in Sale of Integrity Assessment Group
Jackson Walker represented JRGO, LLC d/b/a Integrity Assessment Group (“IAG”), a leading provider of pipeline integrity and other testing services for the energy industry, and its controlling equityholder, Cambridgeport Capital, in a sale transaction with XCEL NDT, a portfolio company of Greycliff Partners. The transaction closed on September 8, 2025, for an undisclosed amount.
Client Results • October 27, 2025
Jackson Walker Advises CEC Facilities Group in $505M Sale to Sterling Infrastructure, Inc.
Jackson Walker represented CEC Facilities Group, LLC, a leading specialty electrical and mechanical contractor, in its $505 million sale of assets to Sterling Infrastructure, Inc. (Nasdaq: STRL). The transaction included $450 million in cash and $55 million in Sterling common stock, with an additional earn-out opportunity based on future operating income targets.
Client Results • September 23, 2025
Jackson Walker Advises $17B Investment Management Firm Crestline in Sale to Rithm Capital Corp.
Jackson Walker is advising Fort Worth-based Crestline Management in connection with its entry into a definitive agreement to sell to Rithm Capital Corp. (NYSE: RITM), a global alternative asset manager. The transaction is expected to close during the fourth quarter of 2025, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.
Client Results • September 9, 2025
Jackson Walker Represents Surge Private Equity in $50M+ Investment in White Plains Linen
Jackson Walker advised Surge Private Equity in connection with a majority investment in White Plains Linen, a New York-based provider of commercial laundry and textile rental services. The transaction, which closed on August 1, 2025, was valued in excess of $50 million and was supported by senior debt financing from Capital Southwest Corporation.
Client Results • August 25, 2025
Concentra Expands Occupational Health Services With Acquisition of Nova Medical Centers
Jackson Walker represented Concentra Group Holdings Parent, Inc. in its acquisition of U.S. Occmed Holdings, the parent company of Nova Medical Centers. The transaction marks a significant milestone in Concentra’s strategic expansion in the occupational health services sector.
Client Results • April 2, 2025
German Client OKE Group Acquires Plastics Manufacturer for Automotive Industry
Germany-based OKE Group GmbH and its United States subsidiary, OKE USA Holding, Inc., has acquired Polymerica Limited Company d/b/a Global Enterprises. With this acquisition, OKE has secured a footprint in North America and more capacities in eastern Europe.
Client Results • July 24, 2024
Jackson Walker Represents Deep Blue in Successful Acquisition of Lagoon’s Midland Basin Water Business
Jackson Walker represented Deep Blue Midland Basin LLC in the purchase of the Midland Basin operating affiliate of Lagoon Water Solutions. Deep Blue is a joint venture between Diamondback Energy, Inc. and Five Point Energy, LLC, and provides midstream water transportation, disposal, sourcing, recycling, enhanced evaporation and desalination services to Midland Basin producers.
Client Results • June 3, 2024
Jackson Walker Represents Novaria Group in Completing Six Acquisitions in Seven Months
Novaria Group, a leading manufacturer of specialty hardware, components, and coatings for the aerospace and defense industries, recently completed its acquisition of STROCO Manufacturing, Inc. This deal marks the sixth acquisition Novaria has announced from December of 2021 through July of 2022, taking place after its successful acquisitions of FMi Chemical, Hohman Plating, Advanced Coating, Hydro Fitting, and GK Mechanical Systems.
Client Results • September 27, 2022
Dawn Holiday Leads Representation of German Client in Employment Arbitration Win
Dawn Holiday led the representation of a German manufacturer of mobile electrification products as the respondent with a counterclaim in an employment arbitration tribunal by the American Arbitration Association.
Client Results • June 13, 2022
Sara Harris Presents on “2026 ELA Year in Review: US Employment Law” Webinar
Jackson Walker partner Sara K. Harris participated in a panel discussion for Employment Law Alliance addressing the evolving US employment law landscape in response to the current administration’s heightened enforcement. The session covered methods for employers to protect themselves against regulatory challenges while remaining compliant and competitive in business.
Speaking Engagements • January 29, 2026
Jackson Walker Partner Jackie Staple to Lead “Up in Smoke” Webinar for Justia Connect
Jackson Walker partner Jackie Staple will lead a webinar CLE course hosted by Justia Connect titled “Up in Smoke: Drug Testing and Marijuana in Today’s Workplace,” to be held on February 10th at 1:00 p.m.
Speaking Engagements • January 21, 2026
The Spizzirri Dilemma: Supreme Court Review of The Tangled Web of Federal Court Jurisdiction to Review Arbitration Awards | Chartered Institute of Arbitrators
In this article featured in Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, Lionel M. Schooler examines the Supreme Court’s grant of certiorari in Adrian Jules v. Andre Balazs Properties, which directly presents whether a federal court that properly exercised jurisdiction and stayed a case pending arbitration retains authority to hear post-award applications to confirm or vacate under FAA §§ 9 or 10.
Insights • December 18, 2025
David Schlottman to Speak at TexasBarCLE’s Employment Law Courses
Jackson Walker partner David Schlottman will be a speaker at the Employment Law 101 and Advanced Employment Law Courses, hosted by the TexasBarCLE. The event will take place at the Hilton Plano/Dallas Granite Park in Plano on January 7-9, 2026. The Advanced Employment Law course is cosponsored by the Labor and Employment Law Section of the State Bar of Texas.
Speaking Engagements • December 2, 2025
Jackson Walker Partner Diana PĂ©rez Gomez to Speak at HBA Professionalism Committee Fall Ethics Program
Jackson Walker partner Diana Pérez Gomez will join a panel of fellow attorneys at the Houston Bar Association (HBA) Professionalism Committee’s Fall Ethics Program, on Tuesday, December 2, 2025, at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP in Houston, Texas.
Speaking Engagements • November 21, 2025
Jackson Walker Earns 27 National and 142 Metropolitan Rankings in 2026 Edition of “Best Law Firms”
Jackson Walker proudly announces its inclusion in the 2026 edition of Best Law Firms® by Best Lawyers. This year, Jackson Walker observed notable improvements in the rankings, including the addition of Construction Law as National Tier 3 and the advancement and additions of 14 practice areas in the metropolitan rankings.
Spotlight • November 6, 2025
Second Circuit Clarifies When DEI/Implicit Bias Training Can Create a Hostile Work Environment—And What Texas Employers Should Do
By Jamila M. Brinson, Dawn S. Holiday, and Ariel Perez
On September 25, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued a significant decision in Chislett v. New York City Department of Education et al, partially reversing summary judgment and allowing a hostile work environment claim to proceed to trial.
Insights • October 20, 2025
Jackson Walker Again Named Among Top Firms for Employment Litigation in BTI’s 2026 Rankings
Jackson Walker announces its continued recognition by BTI Consulting Group as one of the nation’s top law firms for employment litigation. In the newly released BTI Litigation Outlook 2026, the firm is recognized as one of “The BTI Employment Litigation Leaders,” marking a second consecutive year of distinction.
Spotlight • October 16, 2025
