Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher has one of the country's premier labor and employment practices, with approximately 70 lawyers nationwide assisting corporations with their most sensitive and challenging matters. In Europe, our London, Munich and Paris offices represent local and international clients on a range of labor law issues.
We help national corporations develop company-wide policies that affect tens of thousands of employees; represent mid-size companies in matters involving a single employee or work site; and litigate disputes large and small before courts, agencies, and arbitrators in jurisdictions throughout the country. Our practice covers the full range of labor and employment matters. Recent representations include some of the most prominent labor-relations matters in the country; high-stakes wage-and-hour class actions in Florida, California, and Boston; prevailing in the U.S. Supreme Court in an ERISA case arising out of Washington State; in San Francisco, trying one of the most significant Americans with Disabilities Act cases brought by the EEOC to date; and providing aggressive advocacy on OSHA issues in Washington State, California, and Washington, D.C.
We have labor and employment lawyers in Los Angeles, Orange County, San Francisco, Palo Alto, Denver, Dallas, Washington, D.C., London, Munich and Paris.
Our London office advises U.S., UK and European clients on both contentious and non-contentious UK labor and employment matters, as well as matters involving consultants and directors. In addition to advising clients on day-to-day employment issues, our London office has deep experience in corporate governance matters, boardroom appointments and removals, employment issues facing private equity companies, cross-border employment issues, whistle-blowing and discrimination claims, enforcing and resisting post-employment restrictive covenants, protecting confidential information, employee consultation, collective labor and industrial disputes, redundancies and workforce restructurings, TUPE, the employment aspects of public and private mergers and acquisitions and outsourcing arrangements.
Our Paris office represents corporations in developing and negotiating executive and employment agreements and in the management of their contractual and labor law issues. Our Munich office represents mid to large-sized companies before German labor courts, as well as in all kinds of restructurings including negotiations with work councils and unions.
For decades, American businesses have sought our assistance when the stakes are high and the law unexplored and undeveloped. We pride ourselves on being on the leading edge of labor and employment law.
Leading-Edge Representations
Gibson Dunn labor and employment lawyers are regularly retained to address novel and challenging legal issues in order to resolve our clients' most pressing problems. For example:
Wage-Hour Litigation. In 2000, more class actions were filed in federal court alleging wage-and-hour violations than alleging violations of the discrimination laws. Gibson Dunn has been a leader in representing employers in this burgeoning litigation. In California, for instance, wage-hour litigation has been particularly intense not only in federal court but in state courts as well, and there have been relatively few cases in which employers defeated class certification--yet Gibson Dunn has a remarkable record of success. See, for example, Earley, et al. v. Washington Mutual Bank (Los Angeles Superior Court 1999). Now, as the Department of Labor implements the most important revisions to federal wage-hour law in 50 years, Gibson Dunn is again uniquely positioned, as long-time counsel to the Fair Labor Standards Act Reform Coalition and home to two former Solicitors of the U.S. Department of Labor, with responsibility for all Labor Department wage-hour litigation and ERISA and OSHA litigation as well.
Labor-Management Relations. Two of the most closely-watched matters involving labor-relations in recent times were the work stoppage on the West Coast ports, and efforts by airlines to return to profitability by controlling labor costs. Gibson Dunn was involved in both matters: representing the Pacific Maritime Association at the White House, the Labor Department, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation ("PBGC"), and in Congress in the dispute that culminated in the first successful Taft-Hartley emergency injunction in 30 years; and representing Delta Air Lines in successful negotiations with the pilots' union and the PBGC.
ERISA and Employee Benefits. Gibson Dunn has attorneys engaged in employee benefits planning, counseling, and litigation in New York, Dallas, Denver, Orange County, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. These attorneys include a founding member of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel and two charter members of the College. We have handled cutting-edge ERISA cases throughout the country and are currently representing several clients in high-profile lawsuits alleging fiduciary breaches in connection with the administration of 401(k) plans, particularly the investment of plan assets in company stock. We appear frequently on ERISA matters before the U.S. Supreme Court, the Department of Labor and courts throughout the country.
Occupational Safety and Health. Gibson Dunn was the leading law firm nationwide in one of the most contentious labor and employment issues of the last 20 years: ergonomics. We played a key role in the ergonomics rulemakings in Washington, D.C., California, and Washington State, representing more than 100 industry associations in the federal ergonomics rulemaking alone. And when the rulemakings were complete, we played a leading role representing industry in litigation in all three jurisdictions. See, for example, Pulaski v. California Occupational Safety & Health Standards Board, 75 Cal. App. 4th 1315; 90 Cal. Rptr. 2d 54 (Cal. Ct. App. 1999). Our ergonomics representations exemplified our ability to work effectively across offices. Lawyers from Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles joined forces in the California litigation and lawyers from San Francisco and Denver assisted in Washington State, ensuring not just that our clients had adequate resources, but that we were drawing on the best expertise available.
Discrimination Law. Now more than ten years old, the Americans with Disabilities Act is presenting an increasing number of difficult questions for employers and the courts. When the U.S. Supreme Court made an important foray to clarify the ADA in 1999--resolving three landmark ADA cases in a single Term--Gibson Dunn was again at the forefront, successfully arguing to the Court that "mitigating measures" such as medication should be taken into account when determining whether an individual is disabled. Murphy v. United Parcel Service, Inc., 527 U.S. 516 (1999).
Non-Compete Agreements and Trade Secrets. Disputes involving non-compete and non-solicitation agreements and trade secrets raise issues of critical importance for employers. With expertise in both employment and intellectual property law, Gibson Dunn attorneys are actively involved in counseling clients on the protection of trade secrets, confidential information, and human capital, as well as in litigating high-profile disputes involving the movement of key employees between competitors. We are often called upon by companies seeking to prevent critical harm by former employees who have breached non-compete agreements or who threaten to disclose trade secrets to competitors. We are also frequently called upon to defend former employees and their new employers against these kinds of claims. Recently, we have been involved in a number of matters involving both foreign and domestic companies in which bet-the-company trade secrets were at risk, as well as in the defense and prosecution of high-stakes non-compete disputes in federal and state courts throughout the country.
Reductions-in-Force. Our attorneys have extensive experience counseling employers on the design and implementation of reductions-in-force (including restructurings, plant closings, layoffs, etc.) and in litigating related class, multi-plaintiff and individual discrimination, ERISA and wrongful discharge claims. We frequently provide advice regarding the WARN Act and other state and local notice requirements and we assist in crafting legally-compliant separation agreements and releases under the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act and other laws, and we defend related litigation. We also frequently counsel employers regarding disparate impact statistical analyses. Recent representative matters include providing reduction-in-force advice or representing clients in related litigation in, for example, the financial services industry, manufacturing, food services, maritime, and the software and life sciences industries.
Appeals. Gibson Dunn's appellate practice is one of the most admired in the country. In 2002, The American Lawyer cited Gibson Dunn's "powerhouse appellate practice" in naming our litigation department one of the top five in the nation. "Because of its appellate strength, the firm is often called in as a corporate fire brigade," the magazine said. Our labor and employment lawyers, many of whom are members of the Firm's appellate group, are accustomed to helping clients with difficult cases in post-trial motions and on appeal, often working closely with local counsel to preserve issues for appeal and to craft a brief that will capture the attention of appeals court judges.
A National Practice
Gibson Dunn lawyers appear regularly in courts across the country, handling a broad variety of labor and employment matters. Our lawyers are admitted in dozens of state and federal courts, including virtually every federal appellate court. In addition to handling matters in the states in which the Firm has offices, we regularly appear in other courts pro hac vice, working closely with lawyers from other firms whom we know well or with whom our client has a pre-existing relationship. Matters we have handled recently include an NLRB case in Maine, an age discrimination case in Colorado, a sexual harassment case in Arizona, a wrongful termination case in Maryland, and a sex discrimination case currently pending in Wyoming. We have handled ERISA matters in Ohio, North Carolina, Rhode Island, and the Southern District of New York; litigated wage-hour cases in Pennsylvania and Florida; handled dozens of related lawsuits arising out of an important labor dispute in Illinois; and litigated employment disputes in Alabama and Virginia.
Preeminent Lawyers
Our labor and employment lawyers are among the most respected in the country. The College of Labor and Employment Lawyers was co-founded by a Gibson Dunn partner. So was the American Employment Law Council, the leading forum for in-house counsel and management lawyers to review annual developments in the law. Our lawyers have held top leadership positions in the American Bar Association and other legal associations. We serve as editors and authors for journals on labor and employment law and present management's perspective on 60 Minutes, NPR, the Lehrer Report, Fox News, and in other forums. Our lawyers are listed in current and past editions of The Best Lawyers in America and have earned numerous distinctions and awards.
Coordination Among Offices and Practice Groups
We have employment lawyers in Los Angeles, Orange County, San Francisco, Palo Alto, Denver, Dallas, Washington, D.C., London, Munich and Paris, and pride ourselves on our ability to work effectively across offices. Because our Firm has grown at a moderate rate without significant mergers, we are a cohesive group who know each other well and have worked together for years. In appropriate cases, such as nationwide class actions or matters calling for special expertise, lawyers from our various offices work together, seamlessly and efficiently. We also work in close collaboration with lawyers in other practice groups--including Corporate, Litigation, Intellectual Property, and Emerging Technologies to bring the Firm's full expertise to bear on clients' matters. Additionally, we are pioneers in using technology to exploit the Firm's size and scope and serve clients more efficiently.
Commitment to the Client
We recognize that our challenging legal practice is due entirely to clients willing to trust us with their most troubling and sensitive matters. Our job each day is to handle every matter in a way that justifies that client trust, and builds upon it. We know that sometimes a client is best served by comprehensively vigorous litigation; and that at other times, a client needs a frank, early assessment that a difficult legal problem may be best addressed through a mutually-acceptable resolution and more sophisticated employment planning in the future.
We are litigators, counselors, and planners interested in helping America's leading businesses flexibly manage all aspects of the employment relationship.
Further Information
To learn more about our Labor and Employment Practice Group, please contact Practice Group Chair Eugene Scalia in our Washington, D.C. office at (202) 955-8206.