Labor and Employment Law Labor and employment issues are at the heart of any business. Whether the client is an international organization with thousands of employees, or a smaller business trying to compete, every business has labor and employment matters that need expert attention. Our labor and employment attorneys represent clients facing claims of wrongful discharge, breach of employment contracts, alleged discrimination, and retaliation under the ADEA, Title VII, ADA, FMLA, NJLAD, and violation of other federal and state anti-discrimination and whistle-blower statutes. We also have extensive experience counseling clients concerning restrictive covenants and trade secrets and in related litigation. We are accomplished trial lawyers in this field, taking difficult cases to jury verdicts with successful outcomes. We have also achieved highly successful results short of trial, including awards of summary judgment dismissing whistle-blower suits, discrimination and retaliation actions, and common-law wrongful discharge claims. We represent employers in traditional labor matters, such as NLRB proceedings, union organizing campaigns, collective bargaining, labor arbitrations, enjoining strike misconduct and unlawful picketing. The team also represents employers sued by individuals, labor organizations, and government agencies for terminating or altering employee benefits, including retiree-medical benefits, withdrawing from or terminating multi-employer plans, and other alleged denials of benefits under ERISA, LMRA, ADEA and various state laws. We provide counseling that is forward-looking, helping clients to make employment-related decisions intended to avoid or reduce the risks of litigation. We also represent domestic and foreign corporations in their employment-related immigration matters, including obtaining work visas for foreign nationals and permanent resident status for key employees. Contact: John K. Bennett Partners/Counsel: John K. Bennett John W. Bissell Kevin R. Gardner Marc D. Haefner John P. Lacey Kathleen S. Murphy Tricia B. O'Reilly Peter J. Pizzi Clarence Smith, Jr. Representative Cases: Bottle Beer Drivers, Warehousemen & Helpers, Teamsters Local 843 v. Anheuser-Busch, Inc., 96 Fed. Appx. 831 (3d Cir., Apr. 30, 2004) (affirming summary judgment dismissing ERISA and common-law claims of Union concerning payments required by employer to reimburse it for actuarially-estimated costs of providing pension benefits to full-time Union officials on leave of absence from employer); Finnegan v. Ritter-SYSCO, Inc., No. A-3975-02T3 (App. Div., Jan. 6, 2004) (affirming summary judgment dismissing claim that warehouse manager was "constructively discharged" based on alleged age discrimination under NJLAD); Connell v. Merck & Co., Inc., 76 Fed. Appx. 438 (3d Cir., Sept. 26, 2003) (affirming summary judgment dismissing race discrimination and Section 301 LMRA claims of bargaining-unit employee discharged for off-premises, off-duty drug sales activity); Gurry v. Merck & Co., Inc., 2003 WL 1878414 (S.D.N.Y., Apr. 14, 2003) (granting summary judgment dismissing gender discrimination and retaliation claims of sales associate fired for falsifying prior employment information on resume and application); Littman v. Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, 337 N.J. Super. 134, 766 A.2d 794 (App. Div. 2001) (holding that "whistle-blowing" claim was subject to compulsory NASD arbitration even though NASD rules exempt "employment discrimination" claims from arbitration); and Anderson v. Anheuser-Busch, Inc., 229 F.3d 1135 (2d Cir., 2000), affirming 65 F. Supp. 2d 218 (S.D.N.Y. 1999) (granting summary judgment dismissing race discrimination claims of sales manager discharged for submitting false expense and call reports).     About Us | Practice Areas | News | Attorneys | Publications Career Opportunities | Locations | Contact