Examples of Our Labor Law Experience

• Recently, a well-known, aggressive union began recognitional picketing of one of Goldberg Kohn's clients and, in an effort to pressure that client to recognize the union, one of its most important customers. Two of Goldberg Kohn's labor and employment attorneys stopped the illegal picketing by, among other things, obtaining an expedited election to prove that the employees did not wish to be represented by the union and by filing an unfair labor practice charge on behalf of the employer with the NLRB. After the NLRB investigator found merit to the charge, our attorneys assisted a lawyer from the NLRB in obtaining a federal court injunction against further unlawful picketing by the union. Goldberg Kohn's client remains union free; the picketing has stopped; and the union has settled the unfair labor practice charge by agreeing not to engage in such unlawful picketing in the future.

• In 2003, we counseled a manufacturing client with several plants to a successful election result, despite the company's need to lay off employees in the midst of the union's organization campaign.
  
  
• Recently, our Labor & Employment Group obtained the dismissal of an unfair labor practice allegation based on a rarely used jurisdictional argument. The employer remains union-free and is no longer being harassed by the union.
  
  
• An attorney in our Labor & Employment Group obtained an agreement to broaden the scope of a union's chosen bargaining unit to include two additional employees not sought by the union's representational petition. The client won the election by two votes. After this result, the union filed unfair labor practice charges, challenges and objections contesting this result. Following litigation and a full evidentiary hearing before the NLRB, all allegations were dismissed, and the employer remains union-free today.
  
  
• A construction client faced unlawful picketing that shut down its work on a job site at a high-profile retail location. A principal in the Labor & Employment Group advised the client to file an unfair labor practice charge against the union and, to the union's surprise, simultaneously filed a petition on the employer's behalf for an expedited election at the NRLB. The union was blindsided and, in less than three weeks, lost the election even before the NRLB made a final determination on the underlying picketing allegations. The construction project was completed without any further unlawful union activity.
  
  
• A union on the East Coast withdrew a representation petition for employees at one of an employer's several branch offices after being convinced by a letter drafted by our attorney that the bargaining unit sought was legally flawed. The petition has never been re-filed. The employer remains union-free and avoided spending significant resources to defend itself against the union's organizational campaign.
  
  
• A large, international company that purchased a local subsidiary with multiple unions relied upon one of our principals to help the purchaser alter burdensome contract obligations that had been agreed to by the seller. Even though the union contract contained "successor" obligations, our attorney helped the client complete the deal with significant changes in the union employees' terms and conditions.

Examples of Our Employment Litigation Experience

• We defended a public financial services company in a major race discrimination case. After discovery, we obtained a summary judgment for our client, and the judgment was affirmed by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
  
  
• We represented a large local company that, in connection with a reduction in force, experienced eight contemporaneous charges of race and age discrimination before the EEOC, with a substantial risk of a action. By negotiations with the plaintiffs and splitting the cases up through different procedural channels, six of the charges were mediated or settled for an aggregate amount of less than $3,000. The two other cases were subsequently dismissed.
  

• We defended a public company's financial services operations in California against class-wide allegations of wage and hour violations involving 600 current and former employees. Attorneys in our Labor & Employment Group interviewed more than 250 employees and conducted extensive legal research on the action issues and the merits, which enabled us to obtain a very favorable result for the client in mediation.
  

• We defended a national air freight company in a sexual harassment suit alleging repeated sexual misconduct by a co-worker of the plaintiff, and claiming several hundred thousand dollars in damages. After we took the plaintiff's deposition and established multiple discrepancies in her testimony, the suit was settled for nuisance value.
  
  
• We represented a large public company in a breach of contract case brought by a former executive of the company, seeking $1 million in annuity payments, stock options and back pay. We established through careful discovery and depositions that the plaintiff had misrepresented material facts. We suggested to our client that we explore the plaintiff's activity prior to termination and found that he had not only established a competing company but also had solicited other employees to leave. As a result of this discovery, the case settled for $20,000, saving the client at least three times as much in ongoing discovery and trial costs if the litigation had continued.
  
  
• We represented a locally prominent not-for-profit corporation in two related suits alleging a variety of employment discrimination, civil rights and state law claims. After successfully moving to dismiss nearly all of the plaintiffs' claims, the cases settled without any payment of money.
  
  
• We represented a large regional banking institution in a several-hundred-thousand-dollar suit alleging breach of an employment agreement. After we brought a recent court decision to the attention of opposing counsel and asserted that the case was dispositive on the main issue in the case, the suit settled for $500.
  
  
• We represented a large financial services and insurance brokerage firm, and enforced non-compete and non-solicitation agreements against a former senior corporate officer and two former key employees. After conducting an intensive investigation, delivering an eight-count complaint to the former employees and their new employer, and holding a series of high-level negotiations with the threat of litigation on the table, we were able to negotiate a multi-million dollar settlement for our client without having to incur the costs of litigation.
  
  
• We represented a public company seeking to enforce a covenant-not-to-solicit customers or employees against a former corporate officer and his new employer. We retained a forensic expert to analyze the former officer's laptop computer, and we determined that he had been working for his new employer while still employed by our client, that he had prepared a resumé for another existing employee listing him as a principal of the competitor, and that he had solicited a major customer of our client. After initiating litigation and arbitration against the former officer and his new company, we successfully negotiated a six-figure settlement for our client as well as an extension of the restrictive covenants.
  
  
• We defended two former employees and a start-up company against a former employer who had sued for breach of non-compete and confidentiality agreements, as well as for breach of fiduciary duty, for tortious interference with contract, and for violation of the Illinois Trade Secrets Act. After analyzing the relevant agreements, we determined that they should not be enforceable against our clients. We then defeated the plaintiff's motion for a temporary restraining order, and after extensive discovery, succeeded in obtaining summary judgment in our clients' favor on all counts of the complaint.
  
  
• We defended a public company in a collective action brought under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). After conducting initial discovery on the scope of the prospective class, we defeated the plaintiffs' motion for nationwide notice to more than 200 employees at 35 locations in over 20 states. We then settled the case with the three plaintiffs, saving the client hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Examples of Our Employment Counseling Experience

• We guided a corporate client through a very extensive sexual harassment investigation in which there could have been numerous sexual harassment suits, and none were filed. We led company management through the investigative process, showing them how to deal with the allegations in a common-sense fashion, so that on close examination, even the employees' lawyer concluded that the company's response was beyond reproach.
  
  
• When an international corporate client had an internal sexual harassment complaint brought against a senior corporate officer by an employee represented by counsel, we immediately brought in an outside investigator and simultaneously conducted our own investigation. Even though the employee filed an EEOC charge and threatened to file a civil complaint and criminal charges during the investigation, we were able to obtain a settlement under which our corporate client did not make a monetary payment.
  
  
• We counseled a large financial services firm that purchased another company which was subject to an EEOC consent judgment. We negotiated with the EEOC in connection with the purchase and advised the client with respect to ongoing compliance with the consent judgment.
  

• We evaluated various employment law issues relating to the adoption of a corporate code of ethics for a publicly held banking institution, including review of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the USA PATRIOT Act and the privacy laws of 36 states.
  
  
• We assisted a medium-sized private company in reviewing and revising job descriptions for all its employees to minimize risk under the FLSA and the ADA. We advised our client on whether its job positions were exempt or not exempt under the FLSA and made numerous suggestions to support exempt determinations. We also provided advice with respect to the essential functions of various jobs. To date, no related claims have been filed by the client's employees or by state or federal labor agencies.
  
  
• We represented a regional company going through a mass layoff in multiple locations and states. We guided the client through complex WARN Act issues, and drafted severance and release agreements after analyzing the proper disclosure requirements under OWBPA considering the multiple positions, divisions and plants affected by the layoff. When a former employee filed an EEOC charge of age discrimination, we were able to convincingly present the legitimate, non-discriminatory basis on which the layoff decision was made, and the EEOC dismissed the charge of discrimination.
  
  
• We have drafted and advised clients on harassment prevention policies. We have also conducted training sessions on harassment issues for supervisors, senior managers, general counsel and other employees.
  
  
• We conducted a seminar on the Family and Medical Leave Act for an NYSE-listed company's top 40 human resources managers.
  
  
• We have drafted and reviewed numerous policies concerning employee Internet and e-mail communications and usage.