Fredric C. Leffler is a Senior Counsel in the Labor & Employment Law Department and co-head of the Employment Law Counseling & Training Group. He represents major private and not-for-profit employers in all aspects of labor and employment law.
As a trusted business advisor, Fred counsels employers on the whole gamut of employment decisions, on a crisis and day-to-day basis, in an effort to avoid litigation or minimize the risks of liability. He routinely advises clients on issues related to wage-hour laws, disability law and reasonable accommodations, the Family and Medical Leave Act, discrimination law, reductions in force, employment agreements, personnel policies, and pandemic planning strategies.
Over the last decade, Fred’s practice, particularly in the wage-hour and disability law arenas, has grown significantly. He is regularly called upon to assist employers with nationwide compliance and classification audits under federal and state wage-hour laws, and represents employers in the defense of actions alleging misclassification and overtime, regular rate, meal period, and record-keeping violations. In the disability law area, although Fred has litigated numerous cases at the district and appellate court levels, he devotes significant time to proactively working with clients to design strategies to avoid litigation and achieve successful employee relations outcomes.
Turning to litigation, Fred has a proven record of successfully defending employers in all kinds of employment actions, ranging from agency investigations to single and multiple plaintiff cases, class actions and collective actions, and pattern and practice cases. He has litigated cases in federal and state courts, courts of appeals, and before administrative agencies. In addition, Fred advises management in connection with union organizing, collective bargaining and strikes, and has handled representation and unfair labor practice proceedings before the National Labor Relations Board. Fred also regularly represents employers in labor arbitration proceedings.
Fred has written extensively on workplace issues for both practicing lawyers and human resources professionals. He is the Senior Editor of Proskauer's Law and the Workplace Newsletter and serves as the Senior Editor of HR Advisor, a Thomson-West journal devoted to employment law, workplace, and human resources issues. In addition, Fred has taught a variety of employment law topics at Proskauer seminars and at events sponsored by The Southwestern Legal Foundation, The College Board, Omgeo, UJA-Federation, The InterAgency Council of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Agencies, Jewish Child Care Association, and The Council on Education in Management.