Labor and Employment

For employers, clear answers can be hard to find nowadays. The federal government has streamlined its regulatory regime, focusing on compliance-driven guidance and merit-based practices. But states are laying down their own rules. Waves of state-level legislative mandates concerning issues like pay transparency, artificial intelligence oversight, and restrictive covenants are rolling in. Employers are being held to higher standards than ever before, but in piecemeal.

If you’re experiencing the friction between a shifting federal baseline and a patchwork of state and local laws, we can smooth the way forward. We provide employers with clear, strategic counseling and compliance services across the entire employment lifecycle, from routine hiring and handbooks to complex corporate restructurings. When changing conditions elevate your exposure to litigation, we help you maintain operational consistency while managing risk and staying compliant – and we defend vigorously against claims when they do surface. As you respond to today’s “compliance gap,” our team works with your stakeholders to create a resilient, forward-looking infrastructure that treats legal compliance as a competitive advantage rather than a burden.

Our Capabilities

Recruiting, retaining, and employing a workforce comes with its own set of legal challenges. Whatever you’re facing, we’ve seen it, and we can overcome it. We support companies at every stage of their life cycles, from high-growth startups to mature, multi-jurisdictional enterprises with complex governance. Regardless of your current size, we offer the comprehensive suite of services you need to turn challenges into opportunities.

For emerging companies, we develop compliance programs from the ground up, preventing any early missteps from slowing your growth. Established companies turn to us for guidance on matters large and small, such as executive compensation, dispute resolution, large-scale labor relations, and daily personnel matters. We also “translate” federal, state, and local laws for international companies doing business in the United States. Every piece of advice we give has the same objective: to minimize your liability and protect your value.

Fortune 500 corporations as well as family-owned businesses have come to call us valued partners. We’re particularly experienced in several sectors of the economy, including consumer and hospitality, industrial and logistics, highly regulated environments (healthcare systems, financial institutions, and medical device manufacturers), and infrastructure and media. Though these markets each have distinct landscapes, their stakes are equally high. Whether you’re dealing with rigorous safety mandates, complicated labor relations, intense regulatory scrutiny, or a high-volume workforce, we know what it takes to resolve difficulties and keep your business moving forward.

Our Approach

At Smith Gambrell & Russell, we don’t just defend your past decisions. We make sure all future decisions are aligned with your long-term goals and your legal and regulatory requirements. Because we believe that the best defense is a proactive offense, we take compliance seriously, building systems and processes that pass muster in even the most labyrinthine regulatory environment. With offices in key markets across the United States, we’re well-positioned to assess your position on both micro and macro levels, accounting for state and local nuances that might otherwise go unnoticed. Having spent decades practicing labor and employment law, we can foresee changes in the legal landscape before they happen, and with our preventative counseling, you’ll always stay one step ahead of them. All you have to do is focus on growth while we build the guardrails.

Our Credentials

For us, strength lies in numbers – and in collaboration between them. Our bench is deep but broad, combining on-the-ground agility with all the resources of a top-tier firm. Whether we’re resolving a sensitive dispute or managing a multi-state workforce restructuring, we convene our national roster to get the job done with excellence and efficiency. Our coast-to-coast presence offers clients the best of both worlds: front-line insight and a unified national perspective. Although we can do it all, we aren’t generalists. Our lawyers have taken the time to immerse themselves in specific areas of law, becoming sought-after authorities in areas such as wage and hour, discrimination and civil rights litigation, restrictive covenants, and labor relations.

What We Do

Counsel
We provide counsel on day-to-day challenges of running a business, such as hiring, employee discipline, terminations, and leaves of absence. With an eye toward preventing employment claims and limiting liability, our lawyers develop and advise on employment contracts and benefits, employee handbooks, employee training and evaluations, sexual harassment issues, drug testing and background check practices, restrictive covenant agreements, separation agreements, vesting of bonuses, DNA testing, the use of polygraph tests, on-the-job injuries, the scope of insurance coverage, and record-keeping requirements. Additionally, we advise on compliance with federal, state, and local law concerning, among other issues, discrimination, minimum wage and overtime, unemployment compensation, and matters involving the Railway Labor Act and the National Labor Relations Act. When transformative transactions occur – like corporate restructurings, downsizings, mergers, and acquisitions – you can count on us for solutions to the most complex personnel matters.

Dispute Resolution
We represent your interests in litigation, agency proceedings, arbitrations, and other disputes. While our team regularly prevails in bench and jury trials and on appeal, we’re also skilled at using cost-effective alternative processes, such as mediation and arbitration, to streamline your return to “business as usual.”  

We defend clients against claims brought under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, and other federal, state, and local anti-discrimination and employment laws, with particular experience in occupational safety and health citation enforcement actions. Our lawyers have a long record of success in disposing of discrimination charges filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and other administrative bodies, sometimes just days after filing position papers. We also represent clients in connection with employment-related tort claims, breach of contract actions, and requests for injunctions involving restrictive covenant agreements, illegal slowdowns, work stoppages, and secondary boycotts. When appropriate, we advise clients to pursue actions – like TROs and injunctions – as plaintiffs against former employees and other counterparties.