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Mike Delikat

Partner

纽约

Michael Delikat, a partner in the New York office, was the previous Chair of Orrick's Global Employment Law Practice for over twenty years, which has employment law teams in the European Union, Asia as well as the United States.

He also is the founder of the firm’s Whistleblower Task Force. He previously served as the Managing Director of Orrick’s Litigation Division.

Under Mike's leadership, Orrick’s Employment Law & Litigation group was recently named Labor & Employment Department of the Year in California for the fourth consecutive year by The Recorder, the premier source for legal news, in recognition of their significant wins on behalf of leading multinational companies on today’s most complex and challenging employment law matters. The practice group has also been chosen as one of the top national employment law practices by Law 360. Chambers USA and Chambers Global has ranked him in Band 1 since it began publishing its rankings, noting he is a "giant of the employment bar, widely regard as an expert in whistleblowing matters and sex harassment claims","sought out by premier clients to handle high-stakes employment litigation and investigations," and "a very persuasive advocate who knows the law inside out and is able to get to the heart of the issue very quickly."

He represents a broad range of major corporations and other institutions including law firms in all facets of labor and employment law. Mike has an active trial, arbitration and appellate practice and handles a number of high-visibility class action and impact cases. 

  • He currently has an active practice representing a number of major corporations in the defense of Sarbanes-Oxley Act and other whistleblower claims and is the coauthor of the only extensive treatise published on whistleblowing and internal investigations, Corporate Whistleblowing in the Sarbanes-Oxley/Dodd-Frank Era. He is regularly retained by boards of directors and audit committees to conduct high exposure internal investigations of corporate wrongdoing.

    Mike is published and quoted frequently on a variety of employment law issues in major academic and business publications and is a frequent speaker at national and international programs. He is the outgoing management chair of the ABA International Employment Law Committee.

  • Representative clients:

    • AllianceBernstein. Mike has represented this client on multiple matters in court and in arbitration, including a successful defense of an ERISA class action.
    • Facebook. Mike created a single contact point solution for all of this client’s employment law needs outside the United States, which now is managed through Orrick’s unique Global HR Solutions platform.
    • PG&E Corporation. Mike obtained a complete defense verdict in a jury trial brought in the Maryland state court seeking to hold PG&E liable for multimillion dollar bonuses claimed by energy traders.
    • Carrols Corporation. Mike successfully represented Carrols Corporation, the largest holder of Burger King franchises, in the largest pattern and practice systemic class action for sexual harassment ever brought by the EEOC in EEOC v. Carrols.
    • Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association. This client regularly looks to Mike for representation in filing amicus briefs on issues of paramount importance to SIFMA and its members.
    • Microsoft. Mike regularly advises this client on matters involving the enforcement of post-employment restrictions and restrictive covenants.
    • Citigroup. Mike regularly represents this client on a variety of employment disputes.
    • AIG Corporation. The Board of Directors of this company retained Mike to conduct a high-profile internal investigation of one of its senior executives.
    • Wyeth. Mike successfully defended Wyeth in a two-week jury trial in federal court alleging race discrimination. He also represented this client on several Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower matters, including the successful defense of Livingston v. Wyeth, which was the first U.S. Court of Appeals decision on what constitutes protected activity under the whistleblower provisions of SOX.
    • Gannett/USA Today. Mike has represented this client on a variety of post-employment restriction and trade secret litigation.
    • Oracle. Mike represented Oracle in multiple litigations, including a preliminary injunction trial involving efforts by a competitor to enforce its noncompete agreements.
    • Roche. Mike successfully represented Roche in several wage-and-hour collective actions which challenged the classification of pharmaceutical representatives as exempt from the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
    • Moody’s Investors Service. Mike defended Moody’s in a 400-plaintiff Title VII class action in the Southern District of New York alleging race and national origin discrimination in promotion.
    • Major Law Firm Representation. Mike represents a number of major law firms on a variety of matters relating to their partners, associates and staff. He obtained a seminal decision in Weir v. Holland & Knight, which held that law firm partners are not covered by statutory discrimination protections.
    • Time Warner, Inc. Mike obtained summary judgment on behalf of this client in a discrimination case brought by an in-house lawyer, affirmed on appeal by the Second Circuit, establishing the standard for retaliation claims in that Circuit.