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Allan H. Weitzman, named by Best Lawyers as “Lawyer of the Year 2013” in Employment Law – Management in the Miami area, is a Partner in the Labor &  Employment Law Department and head of the labor and employment team in the Boca Raton office. He also is co-head of the Employment Law Counseling & Training, Non-Compete & Trade Secrets and Accessibility & Accommodations Groups, as well as a member of the International Labor & Employment Group.

Allan’s practice is multifaceted. Much of the time he is either litigating in state or federal court at the trial and appellate levels. He also represents employers before administrative agencies responsible for the enforcement of the numerous antidiscrimination laws and before the National Labor Relations Board. His experience includes negotiating collective bargaining agreements and arbitrating contract disputes. In addition, Allan has provided valuable day-to-day and crisis advice to clients in a wide range of businesses and industries, including retailers, banks, insurance, securities, health care, lodging and gaming, television networks, maritime, public utilities, sports and entertainment, beer distributors, manufacturing facilities and construction. On any given day, the scope of his practice could include personnel policy planning, sexual harassment, avoiding litigation when terminating employees, union election campaigns and employee benefit plans. 

Corporations also call upon Allan when their former employees engage in conduct that violates their non-compete agreements. In that regard, Allan took a case all the way to the Supreme Court of Florida and successfully argued that a successor employer can enforce a non-compete agreement signed with a former employer, even when the agreement does not contain a successors and assigns clause and where the employees have not consented to its assignment (Corporate Express Office Products, Inc. v. Phillips, 2003 WL 1883697 (Fla. April 17, 2003)).

On behalf of the Society for Human Resource Management (“SHRM”), Allan and his partner, Paul Salvatore, submitted the amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in Faragher v. City of Boca Raton. The employer's “affirmative defense” that was adopted by the Supreme Court in Faragher was based on the argument made by Allan and Paul that employees who bypass an employer's internal complaint procedure should not benefit from a strict liability standard. In late 1998, SHRM published a book that Allan co-authored on employee leaves, entitled “Issues in Employee Leave.” Allan also co-authored SHRM's amicus brief in Chapman v. AI Transport, in which he successfully argued that an employer's subjective impressions could be used as valid criteria in its employment decisions. In 2004, Allan co-authored another Supreme Court amicus brief on behalf of SHRM. This time his arguments in the Suders case persuaded the Court to conclude that a constructive discharge was not necessarily a tangible employment action that would deprive an employer of the availability of the Faragher affirmative defense.

Allan has earned a first tier Chambers ranking for his outstanding employment law work every year since 2007, naming him “first-class” and a “notable practitioner” who is an “excellent advocate with strong ethics and an unrivalled understanding of business.” He was also described as “amazingly bright” and held out as “bringing the best of both worlds: legal acumen and superb business judgments.” “He gets to the point in the most efficient and effective manner – he has the highest professional standards.” Allan also has been certified by the Florida Bar as an expert in labor and employment law.

Allan’s public speaking has given him a national reputation. His experience as a management advocate in arbitration proceedings has led to his lecturing to human resources practitioners across the country. He is frequently consulted and interviewed by business newspaper and magazine columnists for their articles on employment law issues. As a member of the ABA Committee on the Development of the Law under the NLRA, Allan also serves as a Chapter Editor for the BNA publication, The Developing Labor Law.

Since the eleventh grade, Allan has always wanted to practice labor and employment law.  By spending his entire professional career at Proskauer and becoming a Partner in its Labor & Employment Law Department in 1981, his ambitions have been fulfilled.

Allan H. Weitzman, Best Lawyers, Lawyer of the Year, 2013, Employment Law - Management - Miami Area
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