McAfee & Taft’s Labor and Employment Group is one of the largest of its kind in the region and represents management exclusively in all areas of labor and employment law, including workers' compensation defense. Our attorneys also work closely with the firm's highly regarded Employee Benefits/ERISA Group on related compensation and benefits issues, providing employers with the full spectrum of legal counseling on issues affecting the workplace.
In the 2009 edition of Chambers USA Guide to America's Leading Lawyers for Business, researchers once again gave McAfee & Taft top marks in the area of Labor and Employment Law and singled out six individual attorneys -- the most of any Oklahoma firm -- for inclusion in the guide. The firm was also named to the most recent edition of Go-To Law Firms of the World’s Leading Companies, published by ALM, for its specific work in the areas of labor and employment law.
Leaders in Creating Legal Solutions for Employers
While a majority of our clients are concentrated in the Oklahoma and surrounding states, we also represent a number of clients on a national level. The practice group’s widely recognized expertise, combined with the relatively low business costs in Oklahoma, makes McAfee & Taft the easy choice for regional and national representation in labor and employment matters. In recent years, our attorneys have been lead counsel in significant employment litigation in Texas, Georgia, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kansas, Colorado, Arizona, California and Washington.
Our diverse clientele includes organizations of all types and sizes, including Fortune 500 companies, publicly owned and privately held businesses, self-employed individuals, family-owned businesses, professional employer organizations, minority-owned businesses, municipalities, public and private educational organizations, and religious and charitable organizations. Such diversity has provided us with the depth of experience and skills needed to recognized and address virtually every kind of legal concern in the marketplace.
Several of our labor and employment attorneys are listed in leading industry publications, including The Best Lawyers in America, Chambers USA Guide to America's Leading Lawyers for Business, and Oklahoma Super Lawyers and Oklahoma Rising Stars. Our group also includes nationally recognized speakers who routinely address both attorney conferences and management seminars. For example, our attorneys have addressed audiences on the defense of disability discrimination claims, prevention of violence in the workplace, reductions in force, electronic records retention, Family and Medical Leave Act, and Employee Free Choice Act. Our lawyers also collaboratively authored a treatise on age discrimination in the workplace which the Society for Human Resource Management Foundation published in 1999. Our writing credits include white papers and scholarly articles for the SHRM newsletter, law reviews and other professional publications.
McAfee & Taft's Labor and Employment Group serves as the editor of the Oklahoma Employment Law Letter, a monthly review of new court decisions, regulations and laws that affect state employers. The firm is also the exclusive Oklahoma representative to the Employers Counsel Network, a nationwide affiliation of leading law firms representing employers.
The firm also holds the distinction of being the only Oklahoma firm selected for membership in the National Workers' Compensation Defense Network, a comprehensive network of independent law firms throughout the United States and Canada which provides employers with the highest quality representation in workers' compensation and related employer liability fields.
Our Straightforward Approach to Problem Solving Gets Results
The Labor and Employment Group has a straightforward approach to problem solving. The first goal is to avoid disputes and litigation through preventive practices, which includes knowing the client’s business, and ongoing consultation between practice group members and client representatives. We understand that the best way to avoid legal problems is to educate the right personnel within the client’s operation on a continuing basis. As a result, many of our attorneys have become day-to-day legal and business advisors for firm clients.
Active involvement with clients enables our attorneys to forecast potential problems and help prevent them from happening. It also allows us to assist clients in crafting efficient, long-range human resource plans. This approach to the practice of law results in actual savings in clients’ legal costs. It also results in long-term professional relationships, many of which are measured by decades rather than mere months or years.
The Labor and Employment Group also provides complimentary client seminars and client updates on new developments, as well as fixed-fee on-site training which provides clients with affordable educational and compliance measures.
In the event of an employment-related dispute or litigation, Labor and Employment Group members are experienced at negotiating with individuals, private companies and government agencies. Our attorneys also are skilled litigators in state and federal courts and before governmental agencies. McAfee & Taft’s approach to litigation is practical and efficient. In short, the paramount goal is to successfully resolve cases as quickly and inexpensively as possible. This often is achieved by aggressive motion practice or by forcing favorable settlement terms before legal costs mount. If a case is to be tried, however, McAfee & Taft has a well-deserved reputation in the courts and with the plaintiffs’ bar for thorough preparation and outstanding litigation skills.
The list of areas of labor and employment law include:
For more details on some of our areas of expertise, please select from one or more of the following links: