Labor, Employment and Employee Benefits

Every day employers are confronted with new, varied and frequently thorny employment and benefit plan challenges. There is a seemingly endless flow of issues, complaints, charges, investigations, lawsuits and changes in the law. Our team of experienced lawyers represents clients nationwide, across many industries. Saul Ewing offers its clients the sophisticated counsel of a labor and employment specialty firm, the personal attention of a boutique and the added resources of a full service law firm.

If Your Problem Involves Employees, We Can Help

When your business or organization has an employment, labor or employee benefits legal question, it is likely Saul Ewing previously has handled the issue and counseled our clients in crafting an effective solution or resolving a dispute. Our knowledge, experience, depth and creativity allow us to assist clients in responding to new and novel issues. We help employers solve employment law issues—every day. Here is a sample of what we do.

Employment Counseling and Litigation

We have significant experience counseling executives, general counsel and human resources departments on compliance with the vast array and ever-changing federal and state employment, labor and employee benefits laws. Our counseling practice covers many aspects of employment, from lawful recruitment and hiring practices through terminations, and virtually everything in between.

We work with you to protect your business from unfair competition, beginning with the development of a proactive and customized strategic plan to secure your proprietary information and customer relationships; to the drafting of comprehensive, workable and enforceable non-competition, non-solicitation, non-disclosure and other restrictive covenant agreements; to the enforcement of compliance with employee contractual obligations, common law duties, and statutory business protections, through both court action and other effective legal means.

Our litigation experience is national in scope. We regularly appear on behalf of our clients in federal and state trial and appellate courts, arbitration, administrative hearings and other forums. We represent businesses and other organizations in a wide range of employment-related matters, such as discrimination and harassment, retaliation, wrongful discharge, SOX and other whistle-blowing claims, restrictive covenant and trade secrets enforcement, and wage and hour, wage payment and FMLA compliance.

Regulatory

Our attorneys handle a broad array of matters before federal and state agencies throughout the United States. Typical matters range from a single employee discrimination charge, to wage-hour audits, to nationwide pattern and practice lawsuits. We appear regularly before many federal agencies, and their state counterparts, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, National Labor Relations Board, U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Education Office of Civil Rights, Internal Revenue Service, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Mine Safety and Health Administration and Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

Our Washington, D.C. office allows us to readily assist clients with federal regulatory and legislative issues. We monitor Congressional, state legislative, and federal and state agency action so that we are cognizant of legislative and regulatory changes that may impact our clients.

Labor Relations

For decades, Saul Ewing's skilled labor attorneys have handled union-management relationships, issues and disputes, in both the private and public sector. We represent employers with unionized workforces and help non-unionized employers stay that way. We have extensive experience in union elections, negotiating collective bargaining agreements, handling grievances and arbitrations, and trying unfair labor practice and representation cases before the National Labor Relations Board and public sector labor boards.

Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation

Our attorneys advise and represent employers, service providers and plans in all aspects of ERISA and tax code compliance, including the periodic updates of retirement, health and other employee benefit plans needed to conform with new laws and amendments. We work with employers to develop and design effective executive compensation arrangements to meet the business's particular needs. We assist clients in understanding and complying with Health Reform, as well as HIPAA privacy and HITECH. Our ERISA litigators handle an extensive variety of cases, including benefit disputes, breach of fiduciary duty, insurer coverage/eligibility, multi-employer withdrawal liability and changes in corporate ownership.

If Your Problem Involves Discrimination, We Can Help

Our experience goes beyond workplace discrimination disputes. We advise and represent businesses on public accommodation claims from customers or agencies under the ADA Title II and III, Title VI and state laws; colleges and universities in complaints brought by students or agencies under Title IX, the ADA and Section 504; residential housing developments, assisted living facilities, and property management companies in federal and state fair housing actions; claims under Section 1981 and 1983; and other discrimination or retaliation actions based upon protected status or conduct.

National Reach, Industry Depth

Because many of our clients have operations around the United States and much of our work involves federal law, our experience is national in scope. Our lawyers represent businesses of all sizes, as well as tax-exempt organizations, governmental entities, employee benefit plans and service providers. We have significant experience in most major industries, including retail, manufacturing, healthcare, technology, law, accounting and other professional firms, government contracting, insurance, hospitality, education, colleges and universities, construction, maritime, financial and many others.

Personal Commitment to Our Clients

We know employers have a choice when it comes to selecting the lawyer and law firm who will represent them. At Saul Ewing, we are committed to long-lasting relationships with our clients, and take pride in the fact that many of our clients have relied upon the same attorneys for decades. We make it a priority to understand our clients' operations and industries. For members of our Labor, Employment and Employee Benefits Practice, nurturing and maintaining lasting client relationships is simply the way we do business.

Accolades

Our labor, employment and employee benefit attorneys are nationally recognized for their outstanding service. These accolades include:

• Three Fellows of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers
• One Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers
• One Charter Fellow of the American College of Employee Benefit Lawyers
• Three selected as "America's Leading Lawyers in Labor and Employment Law" by Chambers USA
• Three named to the "Best Lawyers in America" list
• Seven designated as "Super Lawyers" by Law & Politics magazine
• One named as one of the Nation's Top 100 Most Powerful Management Employment Lawyers
• One selected as a "Future Star" by Benchmark Litigation
• One named as Maryland's "20 in their Twenties" by The Daily Record