Labor and Employment

Overview

Arent Fox represents employers in a range of industries, including manufacturing, health care, utilities, hospitality, real estate, construction, professional sports, insurance, technology, education, retail, linen supply, professional services, food products and financial institutions. Clients include public and private companies, nonprofits and international corporations.

Employment Law

We offer practical employment procedures designed to prevent workplace disputes from escalating into legal disputes. But when litigation becomes necessary, we use our advocacy skills and experience to protect and defend our clients. We are experienced in jury trials, arbitrations and appellate litigation in federal and state courts. We also handle administrative proceedings before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, National Labor Relations Board, Department of Labor and other federal and state agencies.

Some of our recent cases include:

• Wrongful Termination. A former employee accused our client, a high elected official in state government, of wrongfully terminating her employment in violation of public policy. A one-week jury trial produced a verdict for our client.
• Sexual Harassment. We represented a former White House official charged with sexual harassment in a jury trial in which the plaintiff sought millions of dollars in damages. The jury ruled in our client’s favor on the sexual harassment claim and on his counterclaim. The defense verdict imposed no damages against our client.
• Equal Employment Opportunity Litigation. We successfully represented a government agency in a series of discrimination claims filed in federal and state courts, culminating in a four-week jury trial in which we defended the client from First Amendment, disability discrimination and retaliation claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of The Rehabilitation Act.
• Non-Competition Litigation. When a client sold his business and became an employee of the new owner, we negotiated the employment agreement. When our client was terminated for allegedly breaching a non-competition agreement, we recovered a judgment of $4.8 million for our client.

Immigration

Arent Fox deals primarily with work visas. We provide guidance on questions about US immigration and nationality law and assist clients in implementing IRCA or "I-9" compliance programs. Other services include:

• Conducting due diligence audits in mergers and acquisitions.
• Assisting with foreign visas.
• Providing international visa services for key personnel, with particular expertise in the transfer or employment of temporary international personnel on E-1/E-2 treaty trader/investor visas; L-1 intracompany transferee visas, including USBIS-approved blanket L visa programs; H-1B specialty occupation or professional worker visas; O and P visas for accomplished artists and entertainers, scientists, scholars, business persons and athletes.
• Obtaining TN visa status for Canadian and Mexican professionals qualifying under the North American Free Trade Agreement.
• Assisting clients through the processes for hiring key permanent international personnel.
• Offering a state-of-the-art case management system that tracks case progress from preparation to filing and follow-up.

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Compliance

We represent employers before federal and state agencies and courts in OSHA enforcement and rulemaking matters and related toxic tort and criminal litigation. Other services include:

• Advising clients on minimizing liability and preparing plans for responding to serious industrial accidents.
• Offering employers a comprehensive approach to safety and health issues.
• Defending employers against OSHA and Mine Safety and Health Administration civil and criminal enforcement actions.
• Handling all types of OSHA litigation, including allegations of willful and repeated violations and proposed multimillion-dollar civil penalties in complex cases involving significant industrial accidents.
• Counseling clients during OSHA inspections, including on-site inspections of catastrophic incidents.
• Representing employers in a range of rulemaking proceedings on OSHA standards.
• Developing and assistance in conducting compliance reviews.
• Working with engineering and other experts to reduce compliance costs and minimize liability.
• Assisting merger and acquisition clients in performing due diligence on the safety and health compliance of the company being acquired.

Some of our recent OSHA cases include:

• Allegations against a major manufacturer challenging the company’s lockout-tagout procedures were vacated after the trial judge agreed with our employee misconduct defense.
• Allegations against a client of violations of emergency response, respirator, HAZCOM, and lockout-tagout standards were vacated and OSHA experts were barred from testifying
• A state safety program we challenged was declared unconstitutional, and our client was awarded lawyers' fees and costs.