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Bruce Steen

Bruce M. Steen Partner & General Counsel

Charlotte T +1 704 353 6244 F fax +1 704 353 6200
London T +44 20 7632 1716 F fax +44 20 7632 1638
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Bruce serves as the firm’s general counsel and as the RFL London Governing Partner. He leads the firm’s Office of General Counsel, which provides legal guidance to lawyers and business professionals and manages compliance, loss prevention and risk management efforts. As RFL London Governing Partner, he assists in the management and strategic direction of the London office.

With more than three decades of experience, Bruce formerly led McGuireWoods labor and employment practice and litigated wage and hour collective and class actions throughout the United States. He also counseled employers and tried cases under the full panoply of federal and state employment statutes and, on behalf of ERISA pension and welfare plans and plan sponsors, he litigated pension, disability and severance claims in federal courts across the country.

Bruce served as an adjunct professor at his alma mater, the University of Virginia School of Law, for 20 years.

Experience
  • Litigated and tried on behalf of employers wage and hour class and collective actions alleging misclassification claims, off-the-clock overtime and minimum wage violations, meal and rest period violations, and related claims.
  • Litigated and tried on behalf of employers employment claims alleging wrongful termination, discrimination, unlawful harassment, actionable retaliation, breach of noncompete agreements, and misappropriation of trade secrets under myriad federal and state laws.
  • Defended federal contractors against administrative complaints filed by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs pursuant to Executive Order 11246, including pattern and practice claims of alleged discriminatory hiring, and constitutional issues regarding the OFCCP’s ability to access contractor facilities for compliance review.
  • Defended ERISA welfare and pension benefit plans in single and multi-plaintiff disputes involving pension benefits, long-term and short-term disability claims, and health benefit and severance claims.

Events

Insights

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  • Selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America, Commercial Litigation, Employee Benefits/ERISA Law, Employment Law-Management, Labor Law-Management, Litigation-ERISA, Labor and Employment Litigation, 2010-2026
  • Named to “500 Leading U.S. Corporate Employment Lawyers,” Lawdragon, 2021, 2022, 2023
  • Selected for inclusion in America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, Labor & Employment, North Carolina, Band 4, Chambers USA, 2013-2022
  • Named “Lawyer of the Year,” Charlotte, Litigation – ERISA, 2014; Employee Benefits (ERISA) Law, 2022, Best Lawyers in America
  • Named to “North Carolina Super Lawyers,” Employment & Labor, Super Lawyers, Thomson Reuters, 2017-2021
  • Selected for inclusion in “Client Service All Stars,” Employment Litigation, BTI Consulting Group, 2013

I try to live by my father’s credo that “each of us is precious but none of us is indispensable.” It means we should strive to treat each other with respect and dignity, and none of us should misapprehend that we are more important than any other team member to the collective enterprise or the achievement of its goals.
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