Adam maintains a growing labor and employment practice that includes representing clients in employment litigation before federal and state administrative agencies and in trial courts in over 25 states, as well as counseling employers in all areas of employment law and labor relations related.
Adam has extensive experience defending numerous cases under the FLSA and state wage and hour laws, including collective and class actions regarding employee misclassification, unpaid overtime and minimum wages, meal and rest breaks, PAGA in California, and other wage issues. He also has experience and has handled numerous cases and charges involving employee misclassification, wages and overtime, meal and rest breaks, wrongful discharge, retaliation, sexual harassment, discrimination, including disability, age, race, pregnancy, and gender, and intentional torts. Adam has experience advising companies regarding restrictive covenants, litigating the enforceability of restrictive covenants and confidentiality agreements, and obtaining and opposing TROs and preliminary injunctions.
Representative Experience
- Advised client on orchestrating a campaign to defeat a union election. We trained supervisors and managers on how to interact with employees in light of NLRB restrictions and created extensive campaign materials to share with the employees. We also coordinated on-site conversations to persuade employees to oppose the union. Ultimately, the union withdrew the petition before an election was even held.
- 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.
- Defended client against discrimination and retaliation charges brought by pregnant former employee whose employment was terminated as part of a reduction in force. Successfully prevailed before both the Florida Commission on Human Relations and on appeal to an Administrative Law Judge after a hearing, both of whom found no probable cause for discrimination or retaliation.
- Secured summary judgment in Ohio state court in a case brought by a former employee for race and age discrimination, wrongful termination, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Substantively, we were able to secure admissions from the employee that she committed an egregious rule violation and that she could not identify anyone who was treated differently.
- Represented The Services Companies, Inc. in a class action of over 200 employees in Florida regarding failure to pay overtime wages to piece rate workers over a 16-month period, including liquidated damages and attorneys’ fees. We prevailed on denying preliminary certification due to plaintiffs’ failure to show class-wide interest as well as highlighting the need for individualized inquiries into each putative class member in order to prove either liability or damages. After the court denied preliminary certification, we engaged plaintiffs in settlement negotiations.
- Secured the dismissal of an unfair labor practice charge, in matters including a charge and challenge to decertification petition to enable decertification election to proceed in timely manner. After the filing of a decertification petition, we defended against and prevailed in securing the dismissal of an unfair labor practice blocking charge. Once dismissed, the petition proceeded to a hearing after which we prevailed in rejecting the union’s arguments that the petition was moot because the collective bargaining agreement at issue allegedly automatically extended, which would have barred the petition. Our success at both stages allowed the decertification election to continue and gave employees the right to vote regarding union representation.
- Represented Installed Building Products, LLC in matters including securing a pre-certification settlement of a 100+ member, 4-year class action in Florida. Plaintiffs’ claims were based on alleged failure to pay minimum wage and overtime caused by off-the-clock work. We adopted an aggressive approach to the case, quickly producing payroll records for the named plaintiff and clearly identifying that he was a piece rate worker and only entitled to half rate premiums for overtime. We followed this limited discovery with aggressive settlement negotiations that resulted in a settlement of nuisance value.
- Successfully represented Installed Building Products, LLC in matters including a class action in Washington regarding meal and rest breaks and unpaid time. In a litigious case, we aggressively opposed burdensome discovery and overbroad claims. After preliminary certification of a class, we prevailed on a motion to clarify the class definition, reducing one of the three claims by approximately 16 months, resulting in the elimination of approximately $700,000 in exposure, prevailed on a motion to quash a third-party subpoena and denying motion to compel native files of produced documents. The results ended in a very favorable settlement of all three claims.
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Secured summary judgment for Myers Industries, Inc. in a disability discrimination case brought by a former employee. We handled this case from filing to conclusion, ultimately prevailing at summary judgment and on appeal before the Second Circuit. Substantively, we were able to prove that Plaintiff never disclosed his alleged disability to Myers Industries, Inc., which defeated his claims for disability discrimination or failure to accommodate when he was otherwise returned to work with no restrictions after a short medical leave.
- Secured dismissal of discrimination charge brought against our client, a provider of hospitality industry services, based on religion and sex as well as sexual harassment. We defended the charge through our position statement, showing that claimant filed for repeated aggressive behavior towards co-workers. We also showed that the company repeatedly accommodated claimant’s requests for religious accommodations by allowing him to leave work early or arrive late to attend Friday prayer services and take prayer breaks throughout the workday which resulted in the dismissal of the underlying charge.