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Employment & Labor Litigation
The claim has arrived. What you do in the first two weeks shapes the next two years.
What Employment Litigation Covers
Employment and labor litigation is the resolution of disputes between employers and employees or former employees, through an agency such as the EEOC, through arbitration, or in court. The claims commonly include discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wrongful and retaliatory discharge, wage and hour disputes, and the enforcement or defense of non-compete and non-solicitation agreements.
These cases are unusual in that they are largely decided by documents created long before anyone contemplated a lawsuit: the handbook, the performance file, the email someone sent at eleven at night. By the time a charge arrives, most of the evidence already exists and cannot be improved.
Which is why the first two weeks matter so much. They are about not making it worse.
Claims We Defend
Discrimination and harassment
Race, sex, age, disability, religion, and national origin claims, in agency proceedings and in court.
EEOC charges
Position statements, agency investigations, mediation, and what follows a right-to-sue letter.
Retaliation and retaliatory discharge
Including retaliatory discharge claims under Alabama workers' compensation law.
Wrongful termination
Contract, policy, and public-policy based claims against an at-will defense.
Wage and hour
Classification, overtime, and FLSA exposure (frequently the claims with the widest reach, because they rarely affect only one employee).
Restrictive covenants
Enforcing non-competes and non-solicitation terms against departing employees, and defending employees' new employers against them.
Workers' compensation ›
Defense of employers, carriers, and third-party administrators, see Workers' Compensation.
Workplace investigations
Run properly and early, so the findings hold up if they are later tested.
Not sure where your situation fits?
How We Defend These
Assess honestly, early
The first question is not how to win. It is what the exposure actually is. Some claims should be resolved quickly and cheaply. Knowing which ones saves considerably more than fighting them well.
Build from the documents
The handbook, the performance file, the investigation, the communications. We work out what the record actually shows before deciding what the case is.
Fix the cause, not only the case
Because we also do the advisory work, a defended claim usually ends with the policy or process that caused it corrected, so the second one does not arrive.
Who Does This Work
William R. Lancaster
Forty years defending employment claims, discrimination, retaliatory discharge, and workers' compensation, with more than a hundred cases tried to judgment. Best Lawyers 2025 "Lawyer of the Year," Workers' Compensation Law (Employers).
Jordan W Gerheim
Employment litigation alongside the outside general counsel work, so the defense and the underlying policy problem are handled by the same firm.
An EEOC Charge Just Arrived. What Now?
1. Do not contact the employee
Any contact after a charge can be characterized as retaliation, which is frequently easier to prove than the underlying claim and often worth more.
2. Preserve everything
Personnel file, emails, texts, messaging apps, scheduling and access records. Issue a litigation hold and suspend any routine deletion.
3. Do not alter the file
Adding documentation after the fact is the single most damaging thing an employer can do, and it is usually discoverable.
4. Get counsel before the position statement
It is your first and most binding account of what happened. Written well it can end the matter; written badly it becomes the exhibit.
5. Investigate (properly)
If the underlying facts have not been examined, they need to be, by someone who is not the person the complaint concerns.
How These Matters Are Billed
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Frequently Asked Questions
We are an at-will employer. Doesn't that protect us?
Partly. At-will means employment can end at any time for any lawful reason, but "lawful" carries the weight. You still cannot terminate for a protected reason, in retaliation for protected activity, or in a way that breaches a contract or a policy you created. At-will is a defense, not immunity, and it does not help much when the file suggests a different reason than the one given.
How long do we have to respond to an EEOC charge?
Short, and the specific deadline is stated in the notice you received. Extensions are sometimes available but should not be assumed. The more useful point is that the position statement is your first formal account of events and is very difficult to revise later, so it is worth doing properly rather than quickly.
Should we settle or fight?
It depends on exposure, on what the documents show, and on what a defense costs relative to the claim. Some claims should be resolved early and cheaply, not because they have merit, but because winning costs more than settling. We will tell you which yours is rather than defaulting to fighting, because we are not a firm that needs litigation hours.
An employee left for a competitor. Can we enforce the non-compete?
Possibly, and speed matters (these frequently proceed on injunction timelines, where the first two weeks decide the outcome). Alabama restricts restrictive covenants and courts examine scope, duration, geography, and the legitimate interest being protected. Whether yours is enforceable is largely a question of how it was drafted, which is why the drafting and the litigation belong at the same firm.
Do you handle the policy side too, or only the lawsuit?
Both, and it is usually the same attorney. The advisory work lives under Employment & Workforce Management (handbooks, HR policy, severance agreements, and termination process). A defended claim that ends without fixing the policy that produced it is half a job.
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If a Charge Has Arrived, Call Today
Book a Risk-Free Strategy Session and send us the charge, the complaint, or the personnel file. We will have read it before we speak.