HunterMaclean’s Employment Group is well-recognized throughout Georgia and the Southeast.  Our Employment Group forges long-term relationships with clients of all sizes, working collaboratively to achieve clients’ business goals, while at the same time improving employee relations and avoiding legal claims and liability. 

We provide advice and counsel on sensitive discipline and termination questions to senior management and human resource professionals, conduct employment audits and training to help clients stay current on ever-evolving legal requirements, and draft and review employment policies and handbooks.  We also help clients respond to governmental inquiries, including I-9 audits, wage & hour investigations, and EEOC and DOL charges.  Additionally, we prepare employment contracts and confidentiality and restrictive covenant agreements to meet the unique and challenging requirements of Georgia law.  When an employment problem becomes an administrative investigation, arbitration, or lawsuit, our attorneys vigorously represent the client before the appropriate administrative agency, arbitral forum, or in the state and federal trial and appellate courts throughout Georgia, South Carolina, or elsewhere in the Southeast. 

Our employment attorneys are also very involved in the community and strive to stay current with evolving human resources trends.  In addition to serving in leadership positions in local and state-wide SHRM (Society of Human Resource Manager) chapters and local and state-wide Employer Committees sponsored by the Georgia Department of Labor, HunterMaclean’s employment attorneys are also frequent speakers at employment law and human resources seminars and continuing legal education programs.  Our employment group also worked with other Georgia counsel and the Georgia legislature to change long-standing Georgia law governing the interpretation of restrictive covenant agreements in Georgia, bringing the state in-line with the majority of other states and making Georgia’s business climate more attractive for companies located here and those looking to relocate to Georgia.

Our attorneys are widely-recognized experts in the employment field and are passionate about helping clients achieve their business goals and create good places to work.

Representative Engagements

• HunterMaclean attorneys represented the prevailing parties in the then seminal cases in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals concerning Georgia’s stringent requirements for enforceable noncompete agreements.  Keener v. Convergys Corp., 205 F. Supp. 2d 1374 (S.D. Ga. 2002), question certified to Georgia Supreme Court, 312 F.3d 1236 (11th Cir. 2002), certified question answered, 276 Ga. 808 (2003), aff'd in part and rev’d in part, 342 F.3d 1264 (11th Cir. 2003); Palmer & Cay, Inc. v. Marsh & McLennan Cos., 404 F.3d 1297 (11th Cir. 2005).
• HunterMaclean attorneys litigated the seminal case in the Eleventh Circuit establishing that companies may create binding arbitration agreements with their employees through internal dispute resolution policies.  Caley v. Gulfstream Aero. Corp., 333 F. Supp. 2d 1367 (N.D. Ga. 2004), aff’d, 428 F.3d 1359 (11th Cir. 2005), cert. denied, 547 U.S. 1128 (2006).
• Bacon v. Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation.  Tried and received favorable order dismissing plaintiff's claims of age discrimination in a contentious arbitration proceeding.
• Hart v. Camden Urgent Care.  Plaintiff voluntarily dismissed lawsuit federal court FLSA lawsuit after HunterMaclean filed a detailed motion for summary judgment.
• Washington v. Waffle House, Inc.  Very favorable settlement of claims arising out of assault by security guard after protracted litigation where client had significant exposure to liability.
• Hobby v. Momentum Resources II, Inc.  Superior Court granted defendant’s motion for summary judgment on plaintiff’s claim of disability discrimination based on Georgia law.
• Cooksey v. South Atlantic Forest Products, Inc.  Superior Court granted defendant’s temporary restraining order to enforce employment covenants.
• Wagner v. Murphy Oil USA.  Jury verdict for the defendant in FLSA case affirming that that former store manager was properly classified for wage/hour purposes and therefore exempt from overtime.
• Matos v. Fulcrum Properties, Inc.  Summary judgment for defendant on state tort claims.  Jury verdict for defendant on Title VII and § 1981 claims of racial/national origin harassment, disparate treatment, and retaliation.
  

Specialty Group:

• Convenience Store and Gas Station Specialty Group