Employment - Areas of Focus

Orrick’s employment law lawyers advise employers in virtually every aspect of the employment relationship.

Our lawyers have substantial experience in federal and state trial and appellate courts and before the National Labor Relations Board, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the U.S. Department of Labor, the National Mediation Board, and a myriad of state and local administrative and alternative dispute resolution agencies.

Financial Services Industry Representation

Orrick's Employment Law Department represents many of the world's pre-eminent financial services firms, banks, and insurance companies. Clients include Charles Schwab, Citigroup, Daiwa Securities, Credit Suisse First Boston, JP Morgan Chase, Marsh & McLennan, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Smith Barney, UBS, and others. Orrick has substantial expertise advising and representing this industry on the employment law issues most important to it, and each year holds the well-known Roundtable on Critical Employment Law Issues in the Financial Services Industry. We have also represented the Securities Industry Association ("SIA") on a number of amicus petitions filed with the United States Supreme Court on issues most important to this industry. Orrick handles litigation before arbitration panels of the New York Stock Exchange and National Association of Securities Dealers, as well as in court. The Department also has substantial experience in the design and implementation of internal alternative dispute resolution mechanisms and arbitration programs.

Representation of Institutions of Higher Education

Orrick’s Employment Law Department has extensive experience counseling and representing colleges and universities with respect to a wide array of labor and employment law issues including challenges to tenure and other academic decisions, affirmative action compliance, collective bargaining, and personnel policies and practices. The Department also counsels and litigates on behalf of higher education clients with regard to student discipline, sexual harassment and disabilities issues, Title IX athletics compliance, and other situations unique to higher education settings. Orrick lawyers have successfully defended denials of tenure before judges and juries and have defeated such claims before trial by winning dismissals on summary judgment and have assisted our higher education clients in resolving academic and interpersonal campus disputes in a variety of alternative dispute resolution forums. The Department has conducted on-campus training programs specially designed for new chairs, and deans, and other high level administrators and faculty. Members of the Department regularly speak at conferences sponsored by the National Association of College and University Attorneys ("NACUA"), the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business ("AACSB"), and the University of Vermont. Lawyers also contribute articles to such publications as the Journal of College and University Law.