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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.

When an employee leaves an organization, one issue the employer often confronts is whether to pay the employee for unused vacation time or other paid time off (PTO). The employer may seek to withhold PTO for myriad reasons: from encouraging employees to use their PTO during employment, to offsetting an employee debt, to encouraging compliance

In a memorandum issued last week, NLRB General Counsel Peter Robb offered important guidance on how his office plans to prosecute claims of unlawful workplace rules in the wake of the Board’s restorative Boeing decision (365 NLRB No. 154 (Dec. 14, 2017)). As we discussed here last December, the Boeing decision created a sensible standard

Fresh off his Senate confirmation two weeks ago, new National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel Peter Robb has issued guidance that may portend welcomed changes for employers regarding controversial Obama-era pro-labor decisions.

The guidance comes in the form of a memorandum to the Regional Offices, dated December 1, 2017, in which Mr. Robb introduces

It’s no secret that President Obama’s use of executive orders to transform workplace laws was unprecedented. But perhaps even more unprecedented is how quickly those efforts have been derailed by the Trump administration. From NLRB appointments, to safety standards, to persuader-disclosure and joint-employment rules—to name a few—the White House has been systematically reversing workplace

183809648-57a54ae55f9b58974ab92602As my colleague Keith Ashmus recently noted, most employers currently ask job applicants for their salary histories. This is a reasonable question, and one that employers find useful to help attract and retain talented employees. Given recent legislative initiatives and judicial decisions on this topic, however, employers should tread carefully.

In the past few

Forms-2It’s no secret that Donald Trump is fulfilling his signature campaign promise to address immigration reform. So far, most of the media attention has been on the U.S.-Mexico border wall and the travel/refugee ban. For employers, however, other issues require attention.

One major issue requiring employers’ attention is I-9 compliance. In an Executive Order issued

BlockedIn a much-welcomed eleventh-hour ruling yesterday, the United States District Court in the Eastern Division of Texas issued a preliminary injunction enjoining the United States Department of Labor (“DOL”) from implementing changes to overtime rules under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) (the “Final Rule”). The Final Rule, which nearly doubles the salary threshold for

Sick-Leave-Sign-2-smallThe U.S. Department of Labor recently released its final rule requiring federal contractors and subcontractors to provide their employees with paid sick leave each year. This rule implements Executive Order 13706, which President Obama signed in September 2015. The rule takes effect on November 29, 2016, though generally it applies only to new contracts that