Rick has experience representing employers in federal and state courts and before administrative agencies.
Rick focuses his practice in the areas of employment-related litigation, wage and hour class action litigation, noncompetition and trade secret rights enforcement litigation, ERISA litigation, and counseling management clients in a wide range of complex employment matters, including independent contractor classification, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, labor relations, wage and hour issues, health and safety, and immigration. He represents clients in various industries, including construction, healthcare, manufacturing, transportation, staffing, aviation, supply chain, cannabis, and finance.
Representative Experience
- Defended client against a claim of unpaid wages and unpaid overtime for a remote, on-site ATM technician. Secured a complete victory at arbitration by proving that NCR's policies and practices appropriately paid for all time worked by such remote technicians, provided the technicians follow company policy and appropriately report their time worked. Also successfully defeated novel claims by claimant's counsel that imputed income for personal use of a vehicle or insurance premium credits for being healthy should be considered wages to increase the regular hourly rate and overtime premiums and not fringe benefits.
- Obtained substantial relief for American Equipment Systems, LLC (“AES”) and its parent company, Rotunda Capital Partners, after a competitor poached two veteran AES employees subject to restrictive covenants, including the termination of one of the managers, who was subject to a non-competition provision, an extension of certain non-solicitation provisions, and protection of trade secrets and other proprietary information.
- Represented the buyer in its acquisition of a pet treat manufacturing company, a transaction which included a rollover of equity interests.
- Represented Shearer’s Foods, LLC in matters including conducting #metoo Sexual Harassment and union avoidance trainings at five facilities, OSHA investigations in Ohio and Iowa, a discrimination lawsuit in Oregon, a business defamation claim in Nevada, a class action in Ohio and a wrongful death claim against four supervisors in Iowa state court arising out of the same incident.
- Plaintiff, on behalf of herself and putative class, alleged that our client, an electric services company, misclassified certain land agents as independent contractors and, as a result, failed to pay them overtime wages to perform land agent work on transmission projects in Pennsylvania and Ohio. The parties engaged in limited discovery on the issue of whether our client was Plaintiff’s employer or joint employer. Following limited discovery, the parties reached a settlement.
- Represented Plaintiff, a professional dental group, who alleged that Defendant, a dentist, violated her non-competition and non-solicitation agreement and misappropriated Plaintiff’s trade secrets when she went to work for a competitor. Plaintiff also alleges that Defendant interfered with Plaintiff’s contractual rights and business relationships. The Court denied the parties cross summary judgment motion, finding a question of fact existed as to which party was the first to breach the contract. The parties ultimately settled on the eve of trial for an undisclosed monetary figure and various other protections for the Plaintiff.
- Prepared amicus briefs on behalf of several major trade associations.
- Conducted a Form I-9 audit for a national transportation firm to resolve potential issues.
- Successfully obtained B-1 visas to permit Canadian employees of a national manufacturer to travel for business reasons to the United States.
- Successfully obtained an H-1B visa for a national electronics manufacturer.
