Our Difference

We leverage our wealth of trial experience to ensure comprehensive, cost-effective, and seamless representation. Building long-term relationships with our clients enables us to truly understand each company’s operations and tailor our representation accordingly. From administrative proceedings through appeal — and every step in between — the same team of trial lawyers works with the client to develop a clear and nuanced understanding of what makes each case unique. We then apply that knowledge to achieve the best outcome for the client.

Our Approach

From single-plaintiff cases to complex class and collective actions, we represent our clients in federal and state courts, arbitrations, and mediations. We also advocate for clients in regulatory investigations, administrative proceedings, and enforcement litigation with key government agencies, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the United States Department of Labor, the National Labor Relations Board, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Mine Safety and Health Administration, and before state agencies.

Services

Our team of skilled and zealous trial attorneys has helped to shape modern labor and employment law. We regularly represent employers in the following types of litigation:

  • Discrimination
  • Harassment and hostile work environment
  • Retaliation
  • Class and collective actions
  • Pattern or practice and other government enforcement actions
  • Wage and hour
  • Employee leave
  • Failure to accommodate
  • Whistleblower
  • Worker misclassification
  • Workplace violence
  • Wrongful termination
  • Breach of noncompetition, nonsolicitation, nondisclosure agreements
  • Theft of trade secrets and unfair competition
  • Traditional contract claims, promissory estoppel, covenant of good faith and fair dealing
  • Traditional torts, such as defamation and intentional infliction of emotional stress

Sherman & Howard’s Labor & Employment trial attorneys defend employers across the nation in lawsuits involving federal and state statutes and regulations, including:

  • Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA)
  • Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
  • Equal Pay Act (EPA)
  • Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
  • Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
  • Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA)
  • Mine Safety and Health Act (MSHA)
  • National Labor Relations Act (NLRA)
  • Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA)
  • Civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO)
  • Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1991
  • Section 1983 of the Civil Rights Act of 1871
  • Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
  • Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA)
  • Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN)

Experience

  • After a 12-day jury trial, we obtained a complete defense verdict on behalf of an aviation services provider, defeating all claims brought by the EEOC and individual plaintiffs. The EEOC and the plaintiffs had alleged that the employer unlawfully refused to hire Muslim applicants, denied Muslim employees reasonable religious accommodations, and retaliated against Muslim employees.
  • We argued and won appeals on behalf of a multistate delivery logistics company before the Colorado Supreme Court and Colorado Court of Appeals concerning alleged misclassification of workers as independent contractors, establishing new law under Colorado’s independent contractor statute favorable to businesses and their contractors.
  • We won summary judgment for a large telecommunications company on a former employee’s claims of pregnancy discrimination, retaliation, and FMLA interference, a decision affirmed by the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.
  • We repeatedly and successfully defended a grocery chain against accusations by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union that our client refused to recognize a particular union representative. First, we prevailed before the NLRB over union accusations that the client’s conduct was an unfair labor practice. Second, we won in federal court by persuading the court to deny the union’s motion to compel arbitration because the dispute was subject to the primary jurisdiction of the NLRB.
  • We secured judgment against the EEOC and in favor of a global food production company following a four-week bench trial in Colorado federal court on pattern or practice claims alleging systemic religious, race, and national origin discrimination and retaliation against hundreds of Muslim employees. During a bench trial in Nebraska federal court, raising similar claims against the same client, we won a halftime motion for judgment against the EEOC and subsequently won summary judgment on all related individual claims of discrimination, harassment, and retaliation.
  • We obtained a defense jury verdict on behalf of an insurance company and a senior executive sued for wrongful termination by an employee alleging whistleblower retaliation.  We successfully defended the company’s decision to terminate the executive for his sexually harassing comments.