Photo of Ryan T. Smith

Ryan focuses his practice on employment litigation and labor relations. He represents management in state and federal courts and before administrative agencies in a wide range of matters, including employment discrimination, retaliation, and harassment, wage and hour disputes, including class and collective actions, and breaches of non-competition and other types of employment agreements. Ryan also represents employers in traditional labor matters, at arbitrations and before the National Labor Relations Board.

When not representing employers in active disputes, Ryan counsels them on key employment decisions such as wage and hour compliance, leave administration, and terminations, and on various aspects of the collective bargaining relationship. He also drafts employment agreements and policy manuals.

Yesterday, in a long-awaited decision in General Motors LLC, 14-CA-197985 369 NLRB No. 127 (2020), the National Labor Relations Board (“Board” or NLRB”) gave employers a clearer pathway to disciplining employees who engage in abusive workplace conduct — including profane, racist, and sexually harassing remarks — even when the conduct coincides with concerted activities

As we wrote about here, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) has issued informal guidance to help employers understand their rights and obligations under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (“FFCRA”). DOL has since updated that guidance to address topics such as the following:

  1. Whether employees are eligible for paid leave if they are unable

I. Introduction
On March 18, 2020, the President signed The Emergency Families First Coronavirus Response Act (“Bill”) into law. The Bill responds to the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) and provides for two new, overlapping paid leave requirements for employers. The first is an amendment to the FMLA, while the other is a separate new,

On March 14, 2020, the U.S. House of Representatives passed The Emergency Families First Coronavirus Response Act (H.R. 6201) (“House Bill”) in response to the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19). The House Bill provides for two new, overlapping paid leave requirements for employers: (1) the Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act, (2) the Emergency

Employer-mandated arbitration agreements have been a hot topic in recent years. Most notably, in its highly anticipated decision in Epic Systems v. Lewis, the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed that under the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”), employers may require employees to enter into mandatory arbitration agreements as a condition of employment, without violating the National Labor

The National Labor Relations Board has issued a new rule that significantly changes its union election procedures, reversing controversial Obama-era rules that had expedited the election process.

The last revision was implemented in 2015, when the Obama Board revised the union election process to implement what were referred to by many as “ambush” or “quickie”

On Monday, October 7, 2019, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued new proposed rules regarding the circumstances in which employers may (1) apply a “tip credit” to satisfy their minimum-wage obligations under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) and (2) permit non-tipped employees to participate in mandatory tip-pooling arrangements.

1. The Proposed Rules abolish the

No later than September 30, 2019, employers with 100 or more employees must file EEO-1 Component 2 to report workforce pay data for the years 2017 and 2018.  In light of the approaching deadline, we want to update employers briefly on the status of the reporting obligation, offer some key tips for compliance, and finally,

This week, the United States Supreme Court agreed to consider whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits workplace discrimination on the basis of gay and transgender status.

The Court will consider this issue in the context of three cases: Two involve claims that employees were fired because of their sexual orientation.