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Orientation | Scope of Services | Counseling | Additional Services Provided to the Clients
Orientation
The Vinson & Elkins Employment Litigation and Labor practice group has served employers for more than forty years. We provide comprehensive advice and counseling in employment and labor law and have extensive trial experience defending employers and senior executives. Our practice is limited to these matters—lawyers in our group focus their professional activities on having the expertise necessary to respond quickly and knowledgeably to all employment law issues. We have extensive experience in complex employment cases, primarily class actions before the federal and state courts and defense of systemic claims arising from multi-plaintiff cases or from commissioner’s charges and directed investigations by administrative agencies. Our practice, of course, also includes handling individual claims and inquiries involving employment and labor issues.
We have specialists certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization resident in our Houston, Dallas, and Austin offices and our lawyers are available for employment law and labor advice in all United States offices including Washington and New York City. Our experience spans the United States, from Florida to Alaska and California to New York, and overseas in Europe, South America, Asia, and Africa. We advise and defend all employers from multi-national corporations and Fortune 500 companies to start-up companies and family owned businesses. We also provide advice to independent board members and individual senior executives on specific engagements. Among the industries with which we are most familiar are: aviation, banking, chemicals, construction, food products, forest products, healthcare, insurance, manufacturing, oil and gas exploration, production and services, refining, retail, technology, and transportation.
To add value to our services, we work closely with other specialty practice groups in our national and international offices to provide cost effective and efficient legal services. We work routinely with lawyers specializing in business transactions, employee and executive benefits, energy services, intellectual property, and tax compliance developing solutions to legal problems on legal issues that can benefit from a multi-discipline approach.
Scope of Services
Litigation
We have seasoned trial lawyers with substantial experience in jury and bench trials in the federal and state courts, before administrative agencies, and in arbitration under the rules of the American Arbitration Association, the National Association of Securities Dealers, and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. Our approach in disputed matters is to resolve them as quickly as possible and in the least costly manner, consistent with preserving the goals and rights of our clients. When necessary, however, we have the trial experience to defend our clients successfully in any forum.
Class Actions. A focal point of our practice is the representation of clients in class actions, collective actions, and systemic claims under various employment and civil rights laws. We have substantial experience and success in litigating the underlying issue of whether class or collective action status is appropriate. If necessary, we also have the experience needed to defend class and systemic claims, whether brought by individuals or administrative agencies in the commissioner’s charge or directed investigation context. When appropriate, we are prepared to negotiate settlement agreements or consent decrees resolving class cases and to present these agreements in fairness hearings.
Individual Employment Claims. As expected in a practice group as large as ours, our lawyers manage a large docket of claims by individuals against their employers. These claims run the gamut of federal and state civil rights statutes as well as numerous common law causes of action under federal and state law including defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy, protection of whistle-blowers and employees who allege they were terminated for refusing to follow instructions they considered to be unlawful. For example, we have defended numerous discrimination and sexual harassment cases in all levels of the court system including the United States Supreme Court. We are currently handling some of the earliest claims filed under the recent Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Our individual employment claims experience also includes many cases in which the alleged underlying claims of wrongdoing concern other areas of law, including environmental law, export/import regulations, breach of fiduciary duty, and tax compliance.
Employee Benefits and ERISA. We have substantial experience on behalf of plan sponsors and plan fiduciaries in claims involving denial of benefits and breach of fiduciary duty. We have successfully defended benefit plans in multi-million dollar litigation concerning partial termination and alleged improper valuation of stock in employee stock option plans (ESOPs).
Occupational Safety and Health. As a specialty within a specialty, we have represented employers in numerous industries throughout the United States in their defense against citations issued by either federal OSHA or state plan OSHA. Our clients most often rely on our group in cases involving substantial penalties for multiple violations and substantial penalties in fatality cases. Whether in a substantial penalty matter or defending more routine work practices, we have been successful in obtaining the dismissal of citations at every level of the OSHA process, from the informal conference with the Area OSHA Office to appeals before the Occupational Safety and Health Commission.
Administrative Agencies. Our group routinely represents clients before all federal and state agencies that handle employment related claims including the National Labor Relations Board (union related disputes), the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (discrimination charges), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (workplace safety issues), the Department of Labor (wage, hour and affirmative action issues), the Texas Commission on Human Rights (discrimination charges), and the Texas Workforce Commission (unemployment compensation and wage payment issues).
Arbitration. We have been a leader in establishing arbitration programs and enforcing those programs throughout the United States. Our lawyers handled the Texas Supreme Court case that established the standards for enforcement of employment arbitration programs. We also have extensive experience in representing employers in arbitration under those programs, having handled hundred of arbitration matters to successful conclusion.
Non-Competition and Confidentiality. We not only assist clients in drafting non-competition agreements and confidentiality agreements for their employees, but we also litigate the enforcement of those agreements. We represent multinational companies as their primary counsel in both the United States and overseas in the enforcement of their non-competition and confidentiality agreements for employees in their world wide operations.
Counseling
Our clients see us as working partners with regard to their ongoing employment or labor relations. Therefore, we emphasize the need for prompt responses to client inquiries. Given the breadth of our practice, we insure through our experience and our in-house training that each of our lawyers after the third year of practice is capable of assisting clients through counseling either by telephone or in meetings. At the same time, also based upon the breadth of our practice, we have had individual lawyers develop expertise in certain areas upon which all of the lawyers in the section rely. This combination of a breadth of knowledge and expertise provides our clients with the best opportunity to have their questions answered quickly. The bottom line is, we do not need to research every question.
Business Transactions. We advise clients on the employment and labor matters that arise in the context of sales and purchases of stock or assets. We have provided advice on some of the largest transactions in the energy industry during the past 5 years. We have coordinated the proper handling of employment matters in these large transactions where they involve employees in numerous states within the United States and in foreign countries. For example, in a recent energy industry transaction, we represented a client purchasing assets that involved employees not only in the United States, but also in Norway, Brazil, Nigeria, and Indonesia.
Organized Labor. We have assisted clients in defeating election campaigns throughout the United States. In the past five years, we have handled election campaigns from Connecticut to California. We have represented health care clients in Texas and their successful efforts to remain non-union despite that industry's recent heavy unionization throughout the United States. We represent clients in defending themselves against claims of unfair labor practices. This practice is both under the National Labor Relations Act and the Railway Labor Act, the latter of which involves the representation of international airlines.
International Practice. As Vinson & Elkins has expanded its international practice, so has the labor and employment practice. We have advised numerous foreign companies with regard to the establishment and ongoing maintenance of their employment relations in the United States. We have also advised United States employers on their overseas operations including expatriate agreements and policies and their policies, contracts, and collective arrangements with local nationals in the foreign countries in which our clients operate. We have also advised non United States companies with regard to their relations in other foreign countries. For example, we have provided training to a large Chinese company concerning its operations in Saudi Arabia, Ecuador, Kazakhstan, and Indonesia.
Contracts and Policies. We draft, review and revise employment related documents such as employment contracts, personnel policies, and work place rules including safety rules. We assist clients in the best of times when hiring levels increase and advice is needed on how to best conduct the employment process of a growing business. We advise clients on matters such as layoffs or redundancies.
Affirmative Action and Diversity. We have defended companies and assisted them in responding to audits by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP). The matters we have handled in this area of our practice include glass ceiling reviews and claims of pay discrepancy. We have also coordinated with both the in-house HR managers and outside consultants of our clients who address the issue of diversity in the work place.
Civil Rights and Other Constitutional and Statutory Law Issues. We consult with clients concerning claims of discrimination because of race, age, sex, national origin, religion, or disability, under Title VII of the civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Texas Commission on Human Rights Act, and the Americans With Disabilities Act. We advise clients on compensation issues and pension issues, including exemption policies under the wage and hour standards set by the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Bankruptcy. We provide advice on labor issues that arise in bankruptcy proceedings, including modification of existing collective bargaining agreements. When necessary, we have worked with our clients to reject collective bargaining agreements to allow the company to emerge from bankruptcy with a viable reorganization plan. Our work in this area includes advising clients regarding medical benefits, pension plans, unfair labor practice charges, and litigation resulting from the modification or rejection of the agreements. We also provide consultation on United States labor and employment laws to non-U.S. companies seeking to do business in the United States and to U.S. companies whose employees work outside the United States.
Immigration and Naturalization Issues. We advise clients concerning immigration and naturalization issues, especially visa issues for U.S. employers bringing workers into the United States, the employers’ obligation to request and maintain proper documentation on all employees, claims of unfair employment practices related to immigration, and national origin discrimination investigations by the Department of Justice.
Leaves of Absence. We advise clients concerning the difficult issues of employees on medical leaves and the various laws that apply including the Family and Medical Leave Act.
Privacy and Confidentiality in the Workplace. We assist clients in matters concerning proper handling of confidential matters such as those involving drug-testing, the use of medical information, workplace searches, and investigations.
Additional Services Provided to the Clients
Client Seminars. We provide seminars to clients on a number of employment and labor related issues, including litigation prevention, compliance with leave laws such as the Family Medical Leave Act, compliance with Fair Labor Standards Act Regulations, safety and health practices, and recent developments in both case law and legislation.
Training. We provide training to supervisors and managers on numerous employment related issues including investigations of sexual harassment claims, the discipline process and record keeping, and union prevention. We also provide the same training for in-house trainers of our clients.
Publications. We issue email alerts to our clients concerning recent events in case law or legislative activity.
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Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
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