At the heart of today's employer-employee relationship is the management of legal risk associated with discrimination: protected class discrimination, harassment, whistleblower, retaliation, failure to accommodate, and related claims. We help clients with prevention strategies such as 1) training managers in areas such as principles of employment discrimination, accommodations, leave, performance management and investigations; 2) regular updates to management on new developments and trends; and 3) defense of claims in all administrative, state and federal forums. In addition, whether it's under the ADA, FMLA, state law leave requirements, or workers compensation laws, we help clients make decisions concerning their workforce that comply with today's legal and regulatory environment.
Representative Experience
We successfully compelled arbitration and then defended our client against a former executive’s multi-count claims that his termination violated the Massachusetts Wage Act and breached implied contractual duties. During the arbitral hearing, our attorneys prevailed on three of the executive’s four claims and succeeded in limiting the damages on his sole successful claim to a negligible amount. We then defeated the executive’s motion asking a court to vacate the arbitrator’s decision. We also succeeded in persuading the MCAD to dismiss his age discrimination claim with a finding of no reasonable grounds.
We obtained a defense verdict for Genesis Healthcare in a whistleblower case in Maine state court, in which the plaintiff, a registered nurse, alleged that she was terminated because she complained about what she claimed was an inadequate orientation that put patients at risk.
Lead counsel in obtaining dismissal of employment claims against hotel operator in U.S. District Court in Boston.
Obtained dismissal of employment discrimination claims against a hotel management company.
For a regional bank, we conducted sexual harassment training for all employees and managers in Maine and Massachusetts.
Successfully defended a race discrimination complaint before the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD) for food industry client.
In Beth Carnicella v. Mercy Hospital, we obtained summary judgment for our client, Mercy Hospital, in connection with a lawsuit filed by a former employee who alleged that Mercy failed to provide her with reasonable accommodation. The plaintiff appealed the trial court’s ruling in our client’s favor to the Law Court, which affirmed, concluding a jury could not find Mercy liable for disability discrimination.