DW's Employment Relations Group is comprised of over 30 lawyers who possess extensive experience in virtually every aspect of the laws that govern the employment relationship. Eleven of our lawyers have been recognized by Chambers USA, Best Lawyers in America or Super Lawyers. Our group is included in the list of Go-To Law Firms selected in a recent survey of Fortune 500 companies, an honor accorded less than one-half of one percent of all the law firms in the U.S. We believe the depth and breadth of the experience of our lawyers is unmatched in Michigan, but our experience is by no means limited to work in Michigan, as we represent several clients in employment matters through the United States.

A significant part of our practice involves vigorously representing public and private employers in state and federal court in discrimination, whistleblower, wrongful termination, and other labor and employment litigation. As a group, we bring a creative and cost effective approach to defending single plaintiff and multiple plaintiff actions. In the past few years alone, we have successfully defended numerous wage and hour collective actions and discrimination class actions - in almost every instance, stopping the case before it starts by successfully arguing that a wage and hour collective action status is improper or by defeating class certification.

Our trial and arbitration experience stands out, in part because we have historically been committed to training new attorneys in these skills early on.

We are proud of the reputation we have with Judges and the plaintiffs' bar and are confident that our reputation for excellent and ethical practice directly benefits our clients, whether it be in the court room or during negotiations. Every member of our group has published work and presented at seminars in his or her particular are of expertise. Simply put, we are known as experts in the field because we are.

DW lawyers also work extensively with our clients to proactively address issues in an effort to avoid litigation. Our lawyers are experienced in counseling clients as to virtually any employment or labor law issue, including employment agreements, severance agreements, ADA and FMLA compliance, employee discipline and terminations, harassments claims, workplace violence, privacy, employee handbooks, affirmative action compliance, labor relations and collective bargaining, maintenance of a union-free work environment, mergers and acquisitions, workforce reductions, ERISA, wage and hour issues, OSHA and MIOSHA, and the enforcement of non-competition and confidentiality agreements. In addition to assisting with day-to-day issues, we offer our clients on-site training and off-site seminars. When the law changes, we make sure our clients know about it immediately through our "Client Alerts".

We believe that effective legal advocacy requires a thorough understanding of our clients' businesses, as well as the law. By knowing our clients' business needs and goals, we defend individual cases and offer advice with an eye toward the bigger picture.

Some attorneys in this Practice Area have been recognized by…

Contact the following specialist for more information:
Timothy H. Howlett
313-223-3662 or thowlett@dickinsonwright.com