Littler has appointed Kathryn (Kat) Siegel as Executive Director of its Labor Practice Group, the firm announced on November 10, 2025.

Siegel, a shareholder based in Littler’s Chicago office, will oversee the firm’s strategic planning and daily operations for its labor-focused legal services. She will collaborate with co-chairs Jonathan Levine, Tanja Thompson, and Brooke Niedecken to guide the practice group’s direction.

She joined Littler in 2008 and has nearly 20 years of experience in labor law. Her responsibilities will include talent acquisition and management, business development, practice operations, and enhancing group profitability.

Siegel most recently served as management co-chair of the American Bar Association’s Committee on Practice and Procedure Under the National Labor Relations Act. She holds a J.D. from Vanderbilt University Law School and a B.A., cum laude, from Miami University.

Littler, which has over 1,800 attorneys worldwide, is the largest labor and employment law firm representing management.

TORONTO (September 4, 2025) – Five attorneys from Littler, the world’s most significant employment and labour law practice representing management, have been named in the 2026 editions of The Best Lawyers in Canada™ and Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in Canada™ in Labour and Employment Law.

Those attorneys include the following:
• Shana French
• Barry Kuretzky
• Stephen Shore
• George J.A. Vassos

Associate Natalie Nicholson was recognized in Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in Canada™, which highlights attorneys earlier in their careers and their distinct legal talent in specific areas of law.

Attorneys on Best Lawyers® lists undergo a rigorous peer-review process, in which leading lawyers in the same geographic and practice areas provide confidential evaluations of their professional proficiency, integrity, and experience.

Recently, over 250 Littler attorneys were included in the 2026 edition of The Best Lawyers in America®, and more than 170 Littler lawyers were featured in the 2026 edition of Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch® in America.

About Littler

With more than 1,800 labour and employment attorneys in offices around the world, Littler provides local workplace solutions everywhere. Our diverse global team and proprietary technology foster a culture that celebrates original thinking, delivering groundbreaking innovation that prepares employers for what’s happening today and what’s likely to happen tomorrow.

For more information, visit www.littler.com.

Littler has expanded its labor practice by adding Dan Mueller, a seasoned labor relations attorney with over 25 years of experience, as a shareholder in its Seattle office.

Mueller, who joins the firm’s Labor Practice Group, previously served as corporate labor counsel at an international retail company and worked as a field attorney for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). His background includes representing employers in collective bargaining, unfair labor practice cases, labor arbitration, and union organizing matters.

Littler, which bills itself as the world’s largest labor and employment law firm representing management, said Mueller’s experience will enhance its capacity to serve union and non-union employers, particularly in the Pacific Northwest.

Mueller’s practice spans multiple sectors, including retail, hospitality, and healthcare. At the NLRB, he handled investigations, litigation, and federal court injunction proceedings. He has also represented clients in dozens of labor arbitrations and filed legal briefs with the NLRB and federal courts.

The firm’s labor practice includes more than 250 attorneys and has advised nearly half of the Fortune 100 on labor issues in recent years, according to Littler. Mueller’s addition supports Littler’s ongoing efforts to grow its presence in key markets and address evolving workplace dynamics.

More on Littler: Donal Dowling addition

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (Aug. 19, 2025) — Littler has expanded its Kansas City office with the addition of Daniel Johnson as a shareholder. Johnson joins the firm from Ogletree Deakins and brings more than two decades of experience in employment litigation and labor law.

Licensed in Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma, Johnson represents employers in disputes involving discrimination, harassment, retaliation, whistleblower claims, wage and hour issues, and restrictive covenant matters. He also has experience representing clients before the National Labor Relations Board, the Department of Labor, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

“Daniel has a well-rounded and strategic practice,” said Littler Managing Director Erin Webber. “His deep litigation background and practical approach to resolving complex employment issues will be of tremendous value to our clients.”

Johnson has served as lead counsel in jury and bench trials, as well as in labor arbitrations. He earned his law degree with honors from the University of Oklahoma College of Law and holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Central Oklahoma.

Littler, which focuses on representing management in labor and employment matters, employs more than 1,800 attorneys in offices worldwide.

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Employment defense attorney Brandon Rainey has joined Frost Brown Todd as a partner in its Labor and Employment practice, expanding the firm’s presence in San Francisco.

Frost Brown Todd (FBT) has appointed Brandon Rainey as partner in its Labor and Employment group, strengthening the firm’s capabilities in California’s competitive legal market. Rainey brings more than a decade of experience in defending employers in a wide range of litigation matters, including discrimination, retaliation, wrongful termination, and whistleblower cases.

Rainey’s clients span several sectors, including software, technology, manufacturing, and transportation. His work includes pre-litigation investigations, trial strategy, dispositive motions, and appeals in both state and federal courts. He also advises on risk management and has particular expertise in matters involving machine learning and advertising technologies.

Rainey joins the firm as it continues to grow its national footprint, with a focus on servicing California-based businesses. He holds a law degree from the University of Notre Dame, where he served as Executive Editor of the Journal of Legislation, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Los Angeles. He has been recognized as a “Rising Star” by Super Lawyers for eight consecutive years.

“Amid a flurry of fresh lateral moves among labor and employment lawyers, one of the leading L&E firms is facing a lawsuit tied to hires it made several years ago from an industry group that counts many of its clients as members,” report Arriana McLymore and Sara Merken in Reuters’ Employment.

“Law firms have been grabbing labor and employment lawyers at a fast clip the past several weeks, with hires at Blank Rome, Ogletree Deakins, Dentons and Kaufman, Dolowich & Voluck.”

Read the article.

Assistant Chief Mark Begley was awarded a $1.84 million lawsuit settlement against the County of Kaua‘i and Kaua‘i Police Department, reports Jason Blasco in The Garden Island.

“Begley was put on paid administrative leave in March 2012 when he filed a stress-based worker’s compensation claim, citing a hostile work environment. He was reinstated in June 2019.”

“In 2016, Begley initiated a federal lawsuit against the county, KPD and several senior officers, claiming that the now-retired KPD Chief Darryl Perry and his successor, former Acting Chief Michael Contrades, harassed and retaliated against him for reporting allegations that another assistant chief acted inappropriately toward a subordinate female officer.”

Read the article.

“After a routine compliance review by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), Locke Lord LLP – a federal contractor formerly known as Edwards Wildman – voluntarily entered into a conciliation agreement to resolve allegations of pay discrimination at its Providence, Rhode Island, office,” released the U.S. Department of Labor’s News Releases.

“In January 2015, Locke Lord LLP acquired Edwards Wildman. In fiscal years 2016 through 2020, Locke Lord LLP received payments totaling $4,915,638 due to federal contracts.”

“After a routine compliance evaluation, OFCCP alleged that Locke Lord LLP discriminated in its practice of issuing bonuses to 22 female associates. While not admitting the allegations, Locke Lord LLP agreed to provide relief for the affected associates totaling $150,000 in lost bonuses and interest, as well as assuring that all employees are afforded equal employment opportunities.”

Read the article.

Littler, the world’s largest employment and labor law practice representing management, has released its European Employer COVID-19 Survey Report, completed by more than 750 human resources executives and in-house counsel across Europe. The survey data provides insight into the pandemic’s impact on the future of the European workplace, particularly in the areas of remote work, employee wellbeing, vacation time and workforce reductions.

Remote Work

The sudden, deadly outbreak of COVID-19 forced many employers to adapt to a nearly universal remote workforce in a matter of days. In the wake of that abrupt shift, respondents expect the top long-term, positive implication on the workplace stemming from the pandemic will be a greater acceptance of the benefits of remote work. Further, 41 percent of employers surveyed say they are making or will make changes to their remote work policies to allow for more flexibility – as long as employees continue to demonstrate productivity while working from home.

In addition, 80 percent of respondents say they are requiring or considering requiring more employees to work remotely either somewhat or to a great extent. The reasons European employers say they are considering this shift include allowing for greater productivity of employees (41 percent), addressing the difficulty and cost of implementing new safety measures (38 percent) and allowing for the closure of offices (25 percent).

European employers’ attitudes toward remote work represent a contrast with their counterparts in the US. Littler’s COVID-19 Return to Work Survey Report, completed by US employers in May, found that only 30 percent planned to change policies to allow employees to continue working remotely in the long-term (compared to 41 percent in Europe). Rather, 52 percent of US employers surveyed said they would remain flexible regarding remote work only until the pandemic subsides, compared to the 34 percent of European respondents who indicated similarly.

Further, only 50 percent of American respondents reported requiring or considering requiring more employees to work remotely, compared to 80 percent of European respondents.

Employee Wellbeing

Across the corporate world, employers increasingly recognise the importance of addressing workplace mental health and wellbeing. Findings from Littler’s 2019 European Employer Survey provided support for this as respondents listed workplace mental health as their top concern, ranking it above sexual harassment and equal pay.

This year, most employers report taking at least some action to address their employees’ mental health and wellbeing during the pandemic. Fifty-seven percent of respondents have offered more flexible work schedules to accommodate employees’ personal needs, while 51 percent have solicited frequent feedback on their organisations’ pandemic response.

Vacation Time

Managing vacation time has also proven challenging for European employers. Thirty-four percent of respondents have begun to see an uptick in requests for time off, and the vacation requests are causing operational headaches for 82 percent of that group. As we move closer to the end of the year and more workers look to use remaining holiday time, those concerns are bound to grow.

Government Support and Workforce Reductions

At the start of the pandemic, several European governments implemented programs that allowed companies to keep employees on their payrolls by providing much of their base pay from a government fund. These wage subsidy programs helped prevent widespread job losses in the initial stage of the crisis, but critics argue that they only delayed inevitable workforce reductions and restructurings within struggling companies.

Of the survey respondents whose organisations did accept government support, 59 percent expect to implement reductions in staff when the program ends. Just 17 percent of respondents expect they can maintain their current workforce without government aid. Further, most employers surveyed expect the reductions to happen quickly – 63 percent say they would begin reductions as soon as the law allowed, before the government programs ended or within two weeks of their expiration. Only 10 percent say they would wait three months or longer.

The survey report covers a range of additional legal and HR matters impacting European companies, including issues specific to employers in the UK, Germany, France and Italy.

“As employees increasingly transition back into the physical workplace, employers have begun to grapple with whether and how to deploy COVID-19 diagnostic testing as a return-to-work solution. Many employers want to avoid extended employee quarantine or isolation requirements that prevent their employees from returning to the office for weeks and disrupt their operations. But is this potential solution legal? And is it effective?” ask Danielle M. Bereznay, Michael S. Arnold, Corbin Carter in Mintz’ Insights Center.

In this post they discuss practical considerations for employers to consider for a return to work COVID-19 testing strategy.

Read the post.

“Baker Donelson is imposing temporary pay cuts, reducing partner draws, and furloughing some employees because of the financial impact of the COVID-19 epidemic,” reports Debra Cassens Weiss in ABA Journal’s Latest News.

“Baker Donelson confirmed the measures in this statement provided to the ABA Journal: ‘We have undertaken a number of measures to ensure the financial stability of the firm moving forward, which includes shareholder reduction in draws and salary that have already been implemented,’ the statement said. ‘This will be followed over the next few weeks by temporary salary reductions across the firm and with a furloughing of some employees. … Our hope is that, once this crisis subsides, we will eventually be able to bring the furloughed team members back to Baker Donelson. Until then, we are providing them with support to help minimize the impact of what we know is an extremely trying situation, particularly in these highly uncertain times.'”

Read the article to find what other law firms are following suit by taking temporary measures in response to work slowdowns.

Read the article.

“It was major legal industry news last April when international business and legal services powerhouse EY entered into an agreement with Thomson Reuters to acquire Pangea3, the legal managed services business.” reports Robert J. Ambrogi in LawSite’s blog.

“Now, 10 months later, EY has laid off at least some of the U.S.-based lawyers who came with the deal.”

“While precise details remain uncertain, reports indicate that EY has let go some 20-30 lawyers who work for it in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area of Minnesota and the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas.”

Read the article.

“Coinbase Inc., a San Francisco-based digital currency exchange specializing in bitcoin transactions, has gone on an in-house hiring spree a little more than a year after recruiting former Fannie Mae general counsel Brian Brooks to serve as its chief legal officer.” reports Brian Baxter on Bloomberg Law’s Corporate Law News.

“Within the last three months Coinbase has brought on three more top in-house lawyers. One of those additions, former JPMorgan Chase & Co. assistant general counsel Rachel Nelson, was named in January to co-chair a new market integrity working group for the Blockchain Association, a trade association for the U.S. blockchain and cryptocurrency industry.”

“The additions by Coinbase come at the same time as a series of departures from Circle Internet Financial Ltd., a Boston-based blockchain payments company backed by The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Several in-house lawyers have left Circle since last summer amid a series of layoffs and divestitures by the company as it reshapes its business around stablecoins.”

Read the article.

Bankrupt coal company Blackjewel has agreed to pay roughly $5.1 million to cover back wages of more than 1,000 its Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia miners, reports The New York Times.

For two months this summer, out-of-work miners blocked a train full of coal from shipping out of an eastern Kentucky mine, demanding weeks of unpaid wages after their employer went bankrupt and shut down operations in the middle of an afternoon shift, writes the Times‘ Mihir Zaveri.

The company did not file a mandatory 60-day advance warning and did not post a bond, required by Kentucky law, to cover payroll. And workers did not receive pay for their last week on the job. Paychecks for two previous weeks bounced.

Read the  NY Times article.

Goldman Sachs and Dell Technologies will pay a combination of almost $17 million to settle separate Labor Department allegations of pay bias based on gender and race, reports Bloomberg Law.

“Both Goldman Sachs and Dell-EMC agreed to nationwide ‘early resolution’ agreements, whereby their compliance will be routinely monitored in exchange for five years free of random OFCCP audits,” explains Bloomberg’s Paige Smith. “These are at least the fourth and fifth ‘early resolution’ agreements with the agency, joining those with Bank of America, Performance Food Group, Cintas Corp., and US Foods Inc. ”

Read the Bloomberg Law article.

Three recent court decisions raise a few issues to keep in mind for employers to keep in mind when drafting arbitration agreements for employees, according to a post on Bradley Arant Boult Cummings’ Labor & Employment Insights blog.

The authors, Bridget Warren and Anne R. Yuengert, discuss the common characteristics that an agreement should include.

They also advise drafters to include class and collective action waivers and how to update existing agreements to include such a waiver while a lawsuit is pending.

Finally, they advise paying attention to state laws that affect what can be included in the arbitration agreement.

Read the article.

Employers may not be aware that the National Labor Relations Board has issued an opinion holding that arbitration agreements that could be “reasonably construed” to prohibit an employee from filing unfair labor practice charges with the board are invalid under the National Labor Relations Act, warns a post from Foley & Lardner.

“What is significant about this unanimous employee-friendly decision is that even if the language in your arbitration agreement does not expressly prohibit the filing of an NLRB charge (or accessing the Board or its processes), you may not be safe from a determination that your agreement is invalid,” explains the author, Cristina Portela Solomon.

She lists three steps employers should take if they use arbitration agreements.

Read the article.

A recent case from the National Labor Relations Board shows that American labor law, including principles that apply to collective bargaining agreements, is not always as straight-forward as basic contract law, points out Barnes & Thornburg in a recent post.

The contract included a clause setting “longevity pay increases” for workers who reached certain tenure milestones with the company.

“The employer and union were meeting to negotiate a successor contract, and the agreement expired in the interim,” explains David J. Pryzbylski. “Once the labor agreement expired, the company ceased offering longevity pay increases on grounds that there was no agreement in effect that provided for such increases.”

The NLRB, however, found that a company generally must continue to offer employees the terms set forth under a collective bargaining agreement when it expires and while negotiations for a new contract are underway.

Read the article.

 The Dallas Morning News  reports that American Airlines is demanding that the mechanics’ unions pay for hundreds of flight delays and cancellations over the last two months.

“In a new court filing Tuesday, the Fort Worth-based carrier said it wants sanctions ‘sufficient to compensate American for losses caused’ from violations to a June 14 restraining order telling mechanics to cease work slowdowns to punish the company,” writes the News‘ Kyle Arnold.

U.S. District Judge John McBryde found that union maintenance workers conspired to slow down work by refusing overtime, taking more time on jobs and refusing off-site assignments. The unions have denied they slowed down work.

Read the  Morning News article.

Two recent court decisions dealing with mandatory arbitration agreements highlight why some manufacturers may gain by requiring pre-dispute employment arbitration agreements, writes Matthew Miklave for the Robinson+Cole Manufacturing Law Blog.

He discusses two federal court rulings favoring individual arbitration over litigation.

In one of the cases, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court and found that a union labor contract which contained a clause requiring the arbitration of all disputes between the union represented employees and the employer prevented an employee from bringing an individual claim in federal court.

Read the article.