Kohn, Shands, Elbert, Gianoulakis & Giljum, LLP’s labor and employment practice involves representation of management in all aspects of labor relations and employment matters. We defend employers in state and federal courts, primarily in Missouri and Southern Illinois, in litigating claims for employment discrimination under federal and state anti-discrimination laws such as Title VII, the ADA and the ADEA, wrongful discharge, retaliation under Workers' Compensation and other laws, defamation, and other state law theories. Our practice includes defense of claims under the FLSA and the FMLA. We defend claims brought by federal and state agencies as well as individual claims. We also defend employers before federal, state and local administrative agencies, such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Department of Labor, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance, the National Labor Relations Board, and state and local human rights agencies.

We also represent and advise employers in all aspects of labor relations, including arbitrations, union avoidance, unfair labor practices, collective bargaining, unemployment compensation and injunction proceedings resulting from strikes, slowdowns or unlawful picketing. A substantial portion of our practice includes counseling employers to avoid litigation, such as pre-employment advice, drafting and review of personnel policies and employee handbooks, reviewing affirmative action plans, employment discrimination/harassment training and investigations. We perform personnel audits to identify areas of non-compliance and to help our clients avoid claims by employees and federal, state and local agencies. Our representation of public school districts also includes issues arising under laws relating to teacher and employee rights, including tenure laws and public employee unions and associations.

We represent both employers and executive employees in negotiating and drafting employment agreements and in enforcing, or opposing enforcement of, restrictive covenants, including covenants not to compete and non-disclosure and non-solicitation provisions.

Our clients include public utilities, mining companies, manufacturers, retailers, service businesses, distributors, construction contractors, hospitals, nursing homes, public and private schools, private universities, municipal and other governmental entities, insurance agencies, banks, brokerage firms, law firms and medical practices. Our clients have ranged in size from a few to thousands of employees.

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