Labor & Employment

Mackenzie Hughes counseled a major Central New York manufacturer to a victory in one of the largest union organizational campaigns in the northeastern U.S. in the last 15 years. And, the firm won summary judgment on behalf of another nationally known manufacturer for a lawsuit alleging race discrimination at a large Upstate New York plant.

Our labor and employment attorneys represent public and private employers alike, including some of the region’s largest and most influential companies. The employers rely upon our labor lawyers because of our extensive experience counseling clients through all aspects of the employment relationship, including labor-management relations, and our record of success in employment litigation. Perhaps equally important, we also take special pride in our ability to counsel employers on how to avoid the costs, burdens and distraction of litigation altogether.

Our experience includes recruitment and hiring issues, union relations, wage and hour regulations, counseling employers involved in union organizational campaigns, statutory compliance (ADA, FLSA, FMLA, NLRA, Title VII, and OSHA, among others), discrimination and harassment issues, administrative hearings, and employment termination. We have also earned an excellent reputation for successfully defending employers in major (and frequently high-profile) employment litigation in federal and state courts and before governmental agencies. In addition, our attorneys frequently present workshops and author articles on the wide range of legal issues that affect human resources specialists.

Notable recent accomplishments include:

• Defending a prominent national company from multiple charges of sexual harassment at a regional plant, and counseling the company in enacting new procedures and practices to avoid future liability exposure;
• Counseling a local municipality through intense collective bargaining negotiations with four separate public employee unions;
• Winning outright dismissal of a wrongful discharge suit seeking back pay and punitive damages from a large local not-for-profit organization, then winning affirmance of the dismissal on appeal;
• Winning dismissal of unfair labor practices charges before the National Labor Relations Board on behalf of a local employer that hired the unionized employees of a predecessor firm;
• Successfully counseling a client in one of the largest union organizational campaigns in the northern U.S.;
• Representing employers in labor-management relations with unions and during organizational campaigns;
• Counseling a regional law-enforcement agency in the proper legal procedure for disciplining and removing police officers in a highly publicized, controversial case; and
• Winning dismissal of a “whistle-blower” retaliation suit before the Occupational Health and Safety Administration on behalf of a national employer with a regional presence in Central New York.