We provide comprehensive employment law services, including counseling, investigation, and litigation, to businesses, non-profit organizations, governmental entities, and individuals.
Greene Espel provides comprehensive employment law services, including counseling, investigation, and litigation, to businesses, non-profit organizations, governmental entities, and individuals.
Fortune 500 companies, public institutions, and executives and individuals seek out our firm for representation in a wide range of employment-related matters. Our attorneys have tried cases to verdict—in state and federal court, and arbitration forums—and handled appeals in courts around the country in the full range of employment disputes.
EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION LITIGATION
We recognize that litigation is a last resort for most employers. Even so, when a dispute turns into a lawsuit or arbitration, our experience can help you.
We regularly defend both private and public sector clients when current or former employees accuse them of discrimination based on sex, race, disability, or other protected-class status. Often these cases involve allegations of retaliation in response to the underlying discrimination actions. And they may even include whistleblower or other similar claims. We work with our clients defending personnel decisions when they are challenged before various administrative agencies, such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Department of Economic Security, the Department of Labor, or the Minnesota Department of Human Rights. We also regularly defend such actions in state and federal court, and routinely secure agency determinations in the employers' favor. We have arbitrated numerous cases stemming from EEOC charges when necessary as well.
TRADE SECRET, NON-COMPETE DISPUTES, AND EMERGENCY INJUNCTIVE RELIEF
Employees come and go. Sometimes they take with them commercially sensitive information or regulated customer data. Their new roles may violate non-competition agreements or other legal duties to their former employers. Greene Espel mobilizes immediately to seek, or defend against, the expedited injunction motions that arise in these situations.
We regularly seek and obtain injunctive relief to prevent former employees and agents of our clients from breaching their employment agreements or using or disclosing non-public personal and financial information, technical trade secrets, and confidential business methods belonging to our clients. We also successfully resist such motions, whether representing the accused individuals or their new employers.
When necessary, we work with computer forensics specialists to develop the evidence necessary to prove or defend against these cases, and to secure the return and deletion of data from the computers and networks of the other side. We have negotiated creative resolutions to many of these cases, frequently including stipulated preliminary injunctions that ensure that the court orders relief consistent with the parties’ needs.
EMPLOYMENT INVESTIGATIONS
Litigants and governmental entities often seek to hold employers accountable for their employees’ acts or omissions—even if the employer had no idea what their employees were doing. We help employers find out what is happening in their workplaces to avoid such surprises, while complying with privacy standards and other legal requirements and documenting findings for future use.
Among other things, we:
- Advise clients in conducting their own internal workplace investigations;
- Oversee workplace investigations by third-party employment investigators;
- Train internal investigators in investigation and interview skills; and
- Conduct workplace investigations ranging from alleged harassment by employees to potential financial misconduct by high-ranking executives and officials.
EMPLOYMENT COUNSELING
Every Greene Espel employment attorney is an experienced litigator. This gives us special expertise when it comes to what is most important to you—avoiding litigation in the first place through active counseling and training. We can advise your human resource professionals, managers, and supervisors in employment decisions, assist with developing and analyzing workplace policies and procedures, and alert you to relevant changes in the law governing employees and employers
Our attorneys can train your employees and supervisors to help prevent and respond to allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination. Putting such training programs in place can help prevent litigation and can also provide meaningful defenses in the event a lawsuit is filed.
With the benefit of years of experience, we advise employers on compliance issues, workplace practices and procedures, and other complex employment issues. We routinely advise human resources professionals, managers, and supervisors on hiring, disciplining, or discharging employees to help minimize the likelihood of litigation and to ensure that your company has every possible defense available to it in the event of a claim.
We can also negotiate executive employment contracts and severance agreements to maximize the benefits to our client and minimize the chances of future litigation. And we are highly experienced in developing, analyzing, and enforcing non-competition and confidentiality agreements.
We can do all of this on a case-by case basis, or we can assist you in drafting overall workplace policies and procedures to help ensure that your business is always in compliance with the myriad requirements of statutory schemes including:
- Age Discrimination in Employment Act
- Americans With Disabilities Act
- Drug and Alcohol Testing in the Workplace Act
- Equal Pay Act/Minnesota Equal Pay for Equal Work Act
- Fair Labor Standards Act
- Family and Medical Leave Act
- Minnesota Government Data Practices Act
- Minnesota Human Rights Act
- Minnesota Whistleblower Act
- Occupational Safety and Health Acts
- Public Employment Labor Relations Act
- Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act
- Title VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act
- Title IX of the Education Amendments
- Veteran's Preference Act
DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION
We are also one of the few law firms in the nation featuring a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion practice group. We provide counseling and consulting services to a broad range of clients, advising as to the elimination of gender pay gaps, eliminating the biases in feedback and reviews that create pay gaps, and drafting non-biased job descriptions. Learn more about our DEI practice here.
Non-competition and solicitation
- Brought a successful 26-defendant lawsuit in federal court and FINRA on behalf of a financial services company to enforce its departed employees’ non-solicitation and confidentiality agreements, achieving a favorable settlement after a stipulated temporary restraining order
- Represented a major financial services firm in federal litigation and companion FINRA arbitration seeking the return of nonpublic personal and financial information and to enforce non-solicitation agreements
- Represented executives of a Fortune 500 transportation-logistics company in a two-week jury trial involving allegations of tortious interference, non-compete violations, and violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
- Defeated a motion for temporary restraining order in an action in which plaintiffs alleged that Greene Espel’s client tortiously interfered with plaintiffs’ contract with our client’s newly-hired employee. Medtronic, Inc. and Medtronic USA, Inc. v. Ernst, Nevro Corp., Case No. 16-cv-244 (D. Minn. 2016)
Discrimination and wrongful termination
- Successfully defended a corporate client accused of sexual harassment and retaliation initiated by a former employee. We convinced an arbitrator after a two-day arbitration that our client had immediately and appropriately responded to the initial report of sexual harassment and had not retaliated against the employee
- Successfully defended a client accused of discrimination and wrongful discharge initiated by a terminated broker against his financial services employer. The lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed in exchange for our client-defendants’ agreement not to enforce court sanctions imposed on the Plaintiff and his counsel. Paul v. Blaylock Robert Van, LLC, et al., Case No. 13-cv-04068 (N.D. Ill 2015)
PUBLICATIONS:
- Pregnancy Accommodation and Non-Discrimination (Minn. CLE 2017), edited by Marilyn Clark, Jenny Gassman-Pines, and Steven Andrew Smith
- Handling Internal Investigations (Minn. CLE 2017), edited by Joseph T. Dixon III, Peggy Kubicz Hall, and Peter H. Walsh. Jenny Gassman-Pines and Karl Procaccini, Chapter 2: Managing Attorney-Client and Work Product Privileges During (and After) the investigation
News
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Greene Espel Congratulates Nicholas Scheiner on His Elevation to Our Partnership
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Faris Rashid Recognized by Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal as a 2023 40 Under 40 Honoree
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Mark Johnson, Aaron Knoll, and Cliff Greene Recognized by Minnesota Lawyer as 2022 Attorneys of the Year
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Award: Jenny Gassman-Pines Named 2022 Diversity & Inclusion Awards Honoree by Minnesota Lawyer
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Best Lawyers Recognizes 14 Greene Espel Attorneys on the 2023 Best Lawyers and Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch Lists
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Faris Rashid Appointed to the Magistrate Judge Merit Selection Panel
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16 Greene Espel Attorneys Recognized on the Minnesota Super Lawyers and Rising Stars Lists
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Chambers USA Recognizes Greene Espel for Litigation in Minnesota; Jeanette Bazis, Sybil Dunlop, and Kate Swenson Named Notable Practitioners
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Jeanette Bazis and Jenny Gassman-Pines Named to Minnesota Lawyer’s POWER 30 for Employment Law
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Greene Espel Recognized in 2022 "Best Law Firms" Among Nation's Top Firms
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Minnesota Lawyer and Finance & Commerce Name Attorneys John Baker and Larry Shapiro as 2021 ICON Honorees
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Award: Minnesota Lawyer Names Attorneys Anna Tobin and Davida Williams as 2021 Up & Coming Attorneys and Accounting Manager Karen Deneen as a 2021 Unsung Legal Hero
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Chambers USA Recognizes Greene Espel for Litigation in Minnesota; Jeanette Bazis and Sybil Dunlop Named Notable Practitioners
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Award: Greene Espel is Recognized Again Among Nation’s Top Law Firms
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Greene Espel Secures Top Rankings in "Best Law Firms"
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Greene Espel Attorneys to Present at the 2018 Employment Law Conference
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2018 Business Law Institute Speakers Include Jenny Gassman-Pines, Faris Rashid, and Kevin Zhao
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Greene Espel Secures Tier 1 Rankings in "Best Law Firms"
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Greene Espel Secures Tier 1 Rankings in "Best Law Firms" 2017
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Seven Greene Espel Attorneys Listed in The Best Lawyers in America 2017
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Gassman-Pines and Greene to speak on Whistleblower and Retaliation Claims
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Gassman-Pines speaks at Labor & Employment Law Institute
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U.S. News – Best Lawyers 2016 ranks Greene Espel among top firms in Minneapolis
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Best Lawyers in America 2016 honors seven Greene Espel attorneys
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U.S. News – Best Lawyers 2015 ranks Greene Espel among top firms in Minneapolis
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Best Lawyers in America 2015 lists seven Greene Espel attorneys
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Greene, Dunlop, Kimble speak at 2014 Employment Law Institute
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U.S. News – Best Lawyers 2014 ranks Greene Espel among top firms in Minneapolis
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Best Lawyers in America 2014 lists seven Greene Espel attorneys
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Super Lawyers 2013 recognizes eleven Greene Espel attorneys for honors
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Bazis teaches Public Sector Retaliation and Whistleblowing: Practical Advice for the Employment Attorney at the Employment Law Institute
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U.S. News – Best Lawyers ranks Greene Espel among top firms in Minneapolis
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Best Lawyers in America 2013 lists six Greene Espel attorneys
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Greene, Luger, and Shapiro named to Best Lawyers 2012 list
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Greene presents on Ex parte Contacts with Employees at 2011 Employment Law Institute
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Greene presents at 2010 Employment Law Institute