Litigation

A Sensible Perspective on Employment Litigation

Balanced. Nuanced. These are dirty words in the high-stakes world of litigation. Not so at Lockaby PLLC. Quite the contrary, these qualities are the hallmark of our litigation practice and at the very core of our victories and successful outcomes for clients.

Arguing and fighting for the sake of arguing and fighting only benefits lawyers, increasing the number of billable hours and decreasing the chances of a successful outcome. Instead, we approach each matter with a balanced, nuanced understanding of the issues involved, including our client, its business interests, its risk profile, its industry, and its operations, as well as the legal claims at issue and the jurisdiction in which the action is pending. At the outset of each matter, we provide a reasoned assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the case, an estimated budget, and a plan of action for achieving each client’s goals as quickly and efficiently as possible, whether that is early resolution or a vigorous defense.

Over the years, we have successfully defended, and obtained dismissal of, a variety of discrimination, retaliation, harassment, and wage-and-hour claims, including class-action and FLSA collective-action claims, against employers and management in state and federal courts and administrative agencies, such as the Kentucky Labor Cabinet, the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the National Labor Relations Board, including race, ethnicity, and national origin discrimination; sex, gender, and pregnancy discrimination; age discrimination; disability discrimination; sexual harassment; and child labor, minimum wage, and overtime wage violations, among others.

Our successful results speak for themselves:

Obtained summary judgment and dismissal of the plaintiff’s claims for workers’ compensation retaliation and unpaid overtime wages in action against healthcare client.

Obtained summary judgment and dismissal of the plaintiff’s claims for FMLA interference, FMLA retaliation, disability discrimination, and workers’ compensation retaliation in action against healthcare client.

Obtained summary judgment and dismissal of the plaintiff’s claims for disability discrimination and retaliation in action against manufacturing client.

Obtained dismissal of the plaintiff’s wage-and-hour claims on mootness grounds after the plaintiff rejected a Rule 68 offer of judgment, the first such dismissal of its kind in the Sixth Circuit and only the second such dismissal in the United States in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Campbell-Ewald opinion, in action against healthcare client.

Obtained summary judgment and dismissal of the plaintiff’s ERISA claims, which was affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and obtained denial of the plaintiff’s cert petition before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Obtained Rule 12(b)(6) dismissal of the plaintiff’s claims for sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and wrongful termination in action against hotel client.

Obtained summary judgment and dismissal of the plaintiff’s claims arising under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which was affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in action against national cable TV provider.