Regulatory, compliance and advisory  

• Ongoing advice for a Fortune 500, worldwide, diversified manufacturer of complex metal components and products servicing aerospace, defense, oil and gas and general industrial markets on compliance with the California Labor Code, leave and anti-discriminations/harassment laws.  
• Acted for the transferee in the outsourcing of a life and pensions business. The deal is the largest outsourcing arrangement agreed in the European life and pensions sector, with an expected contract value of £1.5bn+ and involving the transfer of approx. 1000 employees.  
• For the last five years, we have represented a global chain of bakery-cafes, in connection with a variety of labor and employment matters, including employment counselling in the U.S. and internationally, as well as defending the company against Title III claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act, wage and hours class actions, and employment disputes. 
• Over the last 20 years, we have represented and counseled a worldwide hotel chain in nearly every area of law, including labor and employment. The matters range from employment contracting and EEOC charges to employment disputes and defending against Title III claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act.  
• Developed a training program and self-help wage and hour compliance guide for a fast food restaurant chain. These materials include time-keeping forms, guidance on calculating overtime compensation for restaurant industry employees, including salaried, non-exempt personnel and other practical materials that can be used in the restaurant environment to avoid wage and hour liability exposure. 

Investigations   

• Conducted hundreds of internal workplace investigations for various employers throughout the country, many of which related to allegations of sexual harassment.
• Assists clients with “high profile” internal investigations involving harassment and discrimination allegations concerning management and other executive officials.
• Regularly works with clients to conduct internal investigations of employee claims of harassment and discrimination, and employee violations of codes of conduct.
• Advised a global FTSE 100 client on a high-profile and sensitive SFO investigation into alleged wrongdoing in overseas jurisdictions.
• Conducted a whistleblowing investigation for a UK bank into a series of allegations against the Chief Executive.
• Conducted an investigation of workplace harassment allegations by an employee against the VP of HR at a pharmaceutical company.

Litigation and dispute resolution  

• Advised a UK-authorized firm on numerous grievances and subsequent employment tribunal proceedings relating to alleged discrimination spanning an eight-year period.  The matter was complicated by the claimant’s serious health issues but a creative settlement was agreed pre-trial.   
• Won an arbitration defense verdict for a global financial services technology company on claims filed under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act. The defense win on plaintiff’s claims came after a robust fight to compel arbitration in the Northern District of Illinois, substantial discovery battles and a two-day arbitration hearing. The arbitrator accepted every procedural and merits defense proffered by client and incorporated the bulk of our post-hearing submission into the arbitration award.  
• Defended a large privately held manufacturing and retail company in an arbitration of an employment case involving claims of disability discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Wisconsin Fair Employment Act (WFEA). The claimant, a disabled man who briefly had a job as a company retail merchandiser in Wisconsin, alleged the company failed to accommodate his disability and that he was terminated because of his disability. We obtained third party records and admissions from the claimant that led to complete victory after a multiday hearing. 
• Successfully defended a national food products manufacturer in a multi-plaintiff, multi-count federal race discrimination case.  Five plaintiffs alleged race and national origin discrimination and retaliation, including claims based on failure to hire, failure to promote, and disparate treatment in regards to work and shift assignments, performance reviews, compensation, and promotional opportunities. We obtained summary judgment on nearly all claims. On appeal, two plaintiffs obtained partial reversal of the summary judgment ruling, and a seven-day trial resulted in a complete defense verdict in favor of our client and we were awarded our costs. 
• Successfully represented a pharmaceutical company in Russian labour disputes over accrual and payment of regional coefficients and percentage allowance over and above employee salaries in 3 regions (northern hardship bonus payment). 
• Successfully defeated class certification in a putative class action against a retail client, alleging misclassification of assistant store managers as exempt from overtime law, meal/rest break violations, and wage statement violations. 
• Successfully defeated class certification in a putative class action alleging expense reimbursement violations under California law against a financial institution. 
• Obtained a summary judgment against the EEOC in an age discrimination case brought on behalf of 450 former employees. 
• Settled a nationwide class action claiming retiree health care benefits for 50,000 former employees for an international aircraft manufacturer. 
• Won at trial, and affirmed on appeal, in a WARN Act case as to whether sudden mass layoffs were “reasonably foreseeable.” 
• Successfully represented a bakery restaurant group as the defendant in a wage and hour class action brought on behalf of tipped employees alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act and New York labor laws.

Labor relations 

• Handled more than 70 different collective bargaining agreements with Teamsters, UFCW and UAW, and negotiated and secured unique neutrality agreement with company’s largest labor union.
• Handled two dozen labor arbitrations in six months for a large grocery chain seeking to reduce a backlog.
• Orchestrated withdrawal of recognition from unions at a uranium mine and a national trucking company.
• Defended more than two dozen contract interpretation and discharge grievances throughout the United States in various industries.
• Counsel for Chicago trucking company in 10(j) injunction hearing relating to unfair labor practices. At the conclusion of a bench trial, obtained a favorable settlement comprised of a new union election in which company prevailed.
• As former general counsel at the NLRB, Jerry Hunter supervised the Office of General Counsel and the agency's 1,800 employees. Jerry oversaw the operations of 33 regional, two sub-regional and 17 resident offices, prosecuted unfair labor practice cases before the five-member board, and represented the agency before the federal district courts, the U.S. courts of appeals, and the Supreme Court.
• Prosecuted a defendant class action for a Fortune 100 client as trustee of pension funds subject to competing claims of its unionized workers.

Wage and hour class actions

• Represented casino and its subsidiaries in three complex class and collective actions pending in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, Southern District of Indiana, and the District of New Jersey. We deposed dozens of current and former hourly employee and briefed very complicated class and collective issues involving various state wage and hour statutes and the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. These were the highest value lawsuits for the casino in 2021 and 2022, with potential damages in total of upwards of $30 million. For one of the cases we recently settled, we achieved a settlement that is less than ten percent of the pay-outs in publicly available settlements with these same opposing counsel filed against peer casinos. Our results have saved the client tens of millions of dollars in not only attorneys’ fees, but settlement dollars as well.
• Obtained a complete defense victory in a case filed against a market leader in electronic medical records software alleging that employees were misclassified as exempt from overtime. The defense team argued that multiple exemptions likely applied and defended the company’s classification on all available bases (administrative and computer exemptions) and also asserted the seldom used (yet powerful) argument for the “combination exemption” which argues that a fact-finder can combine multiple bases for exemption in reaching a decision on exempt status. Following a three-day arbitration and hundreds of pages of post-hearing briefing, the arbitrator issued an award in favor of the client on all issues concluding that evidence was persuasive and overwhelming, that claimant’s self-serving testimony was not credible, and that all bases asserted for exemption were established by the client.
• Successfully represented a car rental company in a multidistrict litigation challenging the exempt classification of nearly 15,000 assistant branch managers at the company’s locations across the U.S. From start to finish, the case was litigated more than seven years in 16 jurisdictions. After some key victories on class-specific legal issues and an unwavering resolve to defend the case, we were able to leverage a remarkable settlement in favor of our client
• Represented an employer in an investigation by the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE). In 2019, while another law firm was representing the car wash, the DLSE issued a citation against the car wash for $2.3 million, which is the largest citation in the DLSE’s history. The company hired BCLP to represent them in the appeal of the $2.3 million citation. After a contentious hearing spanning several months, BCLP obtained a settlement that was a fraction of the citation amount.
• Successfully defeated class certification in a putative class action in California state court against a Fortune 500 aerospace manufacturer, alleging wage and hour violations relating to meal and rest periods, rounding, and tool expense.