Employment, Labor & Benefits

Practice Contacts

Ames, Sarah E. , Aparicio, Michael A. , Ball, Taylor S. , Belfiglio, Jeff , Bernick, Carol J. , Berry, Jennifer C. , Berry, Mark W. , Betzina, Keith , Bhagwandin, Sarah L. , Birmingham, Richard , Blackstone, Robert A. , Bussarakum, Michelle , Cai, Ron (Rongwei) , Carroll, Betsy , Colby, Aaron N. , Dahlgren, Anne I. , Daniels, Jacob W. , Dawood, Sam N. , De Santis, Amy M. , Deckman, Elizabeth J. , Dolan, Justin E. , Drobka, Mary E. , Duffy, Susan G. , Echavarria, Camilo , Ernst, David A. , Farber, Henry E. , Fendall, Kaley L. , Fernandez, Marc G. , Finch, Peter G. , Fisher, Gregory S. , Froggatt, Jason T. , Gabel, Mark C. , Gaviria, Boris , Gonzalez, Emilio G. , Grumer, Janet , Harris, Stuart C. , Hawkins, Christine C. , Hoag, Joseph P. , Hodes, Elizabeth Pifke , Hodges-Howell, John , Humphrey, Lawton , Hutcheson, Mark A. , Hwang, Amy , Keyes, Judith Droz , Killeen, Michael J. , Korrell, Harry J. F. , LeCrone, John P. , Lehmann, Paula L. , Lemly, Thomas A. , Maguire, Robert J. , Martin, Chrys A. , Meissner, Rebecca , Mooney, Jenna L. , Moore, Portia R. , Mordy, Missy , Murphy, Gillian , Ngo, Minh P. , Noonan, Carol A. , Ochoa, Kiko , Ovsepyan, Helen , Parker, James G. , Reiss, Michael , Robinson, Blake , Rosen, Kathryn S. , Russell, Karen K. , Sheldon, Kelsey M. , Shi, Yue , Simon, Paula C. , Smith, Devin M. , Stewart, Robert K. , Sudra, Dipa N. , Sullivan Weiss, Sheehan , Totten, Christie S. , Tylee, Katharine M. , Wang, Evelyn , Wang, Vincent X. , Wang, Yuping , Wilcox, Rochelle L. , Youmans, Jeffrey B.

Related Practices

A productive, positive workplace is key to a profitable business. One of the surest roads to a productive, positive workforce is to have effective employee benefits plans and strong personnel policies and procedures, consistently and thoughtfully applied by well-trained managers and human resources staff. Maintaining a stellar workforce also requires the ability to effectively and efficiently resolve employment-related and benefit plan disagreements, which can divert focus away from the company’s core business.

Davis Wright Tremaine’s employment, labor, and benefits lawyers are skilled at helping ensure that your human resources and employee benefits programs coordinate with your company’s goals. With over 70 highly experienced attorneys, we have handled virtually every conceivable workplace issue and can provide wise counsel efficiently. We provide practical answers and actionable advice so you can make sound decisions that are consistent with your business priorities and preferences.

Counseling
Our counseling services are characterized by efficient, practical advice designed to help you achieve your goals while minimizing risks. We always prefer to resolve issues before they become problems. Our attorneys track evolving national, state, and local laws and regulations and keep clients informed through regular bulletins and seminars.

Litigation
Our litigators have a tremendous record of success in resolving all types of employment and ERISA disputes. We concentrate on achieving the best business result for our clients–as defined in collaboration with our clients. We provide early case analysis, a creative approach to litigation and resolution strategy, and stay in close touch with our clients to ensure that we are pursuing our clients' most important goals. We are effective at minimizing the client’s total cost of litigation, including settlements, judgments and legal fees. We are also successful obtaining summary judgments and defense verdicts, and have substantial experience in handling class actions, the nature of which evolve as plaintiffs’ lawyers continually search for novel causes of action.

Labor
For employers that have–or are facing the prospect of–a union, our labor lawyers work on a national basis and provide the full range of labor services, including union avoidance, collective bargaining negotiations, union contract interpretation and administration, grievance and arbitration proceedings, NLRB and state labor board proceedings, corporate campaign responses and strike planning and prevention.

Client experience
While our depth, experience and record of success place us in the top ranks of employment and benefits firms, the client experience we provide truly differentiates us. Our clients tell us they appreciate that we don’t over lawyer our work and that we provide quick, relevant advice and answers. They like that we align our advice with their business goals and tolerance for risk. Regardless of size, we treat all clients with respect and strive to exceed their expectations, never settling for a “cookie cutter” approach to their issues.

Alternative fee arrangements
Another differentiator is the enthusiasm with which we embrace alternative fee arrangements that align incentives between our clients and us, offering more financial certainty. Based on conversations about circumstances, philosophies and goals, we offer retainer packages for counseling, arbitration, training and collective bargaining, demand letters and agency charges. We handle packages of single-plaintiff litigation on a flat-fee basis and are willing to offer–and stick to–budgets for more complex litigation. We also offer blended rates, bundled services, and volume discounts.