Employment Litigation
Our team has an outstanding record of success in each stage of litigation on behalf of employer clients — across industries and sizes — including in cases alleging discrimination; sex and other harassment and hostile work environment; retaliation and whistleblower violations; failure to accommodate disability and religion; wrongful discharge; noncompete or solicit and other restrictive covenant violations; wage and hour violations; and ERISA violations, among others.
We defend clients in single plaintiff, multiplaintiff, and high-stakes, bet-the-company systemic and class and collective action litigation. Lawyers prioritize clients’ business and legal goals when developing innovative legal strategies for litigation, whether those goals involve aggressive litigation through summary judgment, a jury trial or a favorable, early resolution in lieu of protracted litigation.
How We Help
We represent clients in every aspect of employment litigation, including:
- age, race, sex, religious, national origin, sexual orientation, disability and other prohibited discrimination;
- reverse discrimination;
- defamation;
- disability access and accommodation;
- ERISA and employee benefits;
- invasion of privacy;
- FMLA interference and retaliation;
- wrongful discharge;
- retaliation;
- whistleblower;
- sexual and other harassment;
- noncompete and trade secret enforcement; and defense;
- OSHA/workplace safety;
- workers’ compensation retaliation;
- malicious prosecution/abuse of process; and
- wage and hour.
Representative Experience
- Client in the defense of claims of systemic age discrimination brought by the EEOC on behalf of thousands of applicants;
- Financial services client in a complaint filed on behalf of a class of financial advisers alleging race discrimination claims in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1981 and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 under disparate treatment and disparate impact theories;
- Technology company in the defense of a reverse race discrimination claim challenging the company’s diversity initiatives;
- Financial services client in a class action brought by mortgage sales consultants alleging claims of race discrimination in pay practices;
- Retailer in litigation of nationwide class claims of pregnancy discrimination challenging the retailer’s policy of restricting light-duty assignments to employees injured on the job;
- Home improvement retailer in a nationwide class and collective action suit alleging the client’s decision to end a legacy compensation program had a disparate impact in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act;
- Financial institution in the defense of thousands of individual mass arbitration proceedings pending before AAA and JAMS; and
- Client in defense of whistleblower claims under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, and the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) related to the plaintiff’s purported reports of BSA and anti-money laundering deficiencies.
McGuireWoods’ Employment Litigation Practice Group includes seasoned litigators and trial lawyers with experience in every form of employment claim in state and federal courts and in arbitral forums such as AAA, JAMS and FINRA.
Nationwide and North Carolina, Virginia, Illinois, California and Georgia rankings for labor and employment.
– CHAMBERS USA
Nationwide ranking for labor and employment disputes – defense.
– THE LEGAL 500 U.S.
