Employment and Litigation

Our Practice

Workplace complaints and lawsuits are a fact of corporate life. Our Employment lawyers work with business owners and human resources executives and supervisors to establish regulatory compliant employment policies and procedures that minimize the risk of litigation. When litigation is unavoidable, we mount substantive and cost-effective defenses on behalf of our clients.

We are also experienced in alternative dispute resolution – arbitration and mediation – and we boast a substantial record of aggressive advocacy at trial and appeal. 

We regularly represent clients before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Department of Labor (DOL), National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), and other federal, state, and local agencies.

Pedersen litigators regularly resolve complex discrimination and harassment claims filed before the EEOC, and various state and federal courts.

We argue persuasively to defend employers facing a broad range of employee benefit claims.

Multiple jurisdictions – from state and federal Departments of Labor to state and federal discrimination agencies – complicate wage and hour disputes. We defend clients against claims for unpaid commissions, bonuses, overtime, and vacation pay as well as in cases brought under the Wage Payment Collection Act.

Our lawyers effectively represent clients in disputes involving Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), pregnancy, and disability leave issues. Our litigators vigorously defend clients facing workers' compensation claims brought before the Illinois Industrial Commission.

Pedersen has set precedents in its successful defense of clients facing wrongful discharge claims – winning in trial and appeal all the way up through the Illinois Supreme Court.  In addition, we ably defend and enforce our clients' restrictive covenants throughout the country.

Our Experience

• Obtained a summary judgment on a sex discrimination claim and judgment as a matter of law on behalf of an automotive parts manufacturer facing a federal lawsuit from a female production line worker fired for poor attendance.
• Received a judgment at trial in a race discrimination lawsuit for an air freight company client that had fired an employee for sleeping on the job and who subsequently sued our client.
• Successfully defended an industrial products manufacturer against the claim by a former employee that the company had failed to reinstate her as required by FMLA.
• Illinois Supreme Court upheld the rights of our client, a medical products manufacturer, in the defense of a wrongful discharge suit filed by its former in-house lawyer.
• Obtained a summary judgment in defense of a casino that was sued under Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN).

Publications