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Tom Barton is a partner and head of the firm's Labor and Employment Team and is located in Drinker Biddle's Princeton and Philadelphia offices. For the last 20 years, Tom has represented employers in all aspects of labor and employment law, including employment discrimination and wrongful termination litigation, preventive advice and counseling, manager and employee training and internal employee investigations and audits.
Tom has tried discrimination, harassment, retaliation, hiring, compensation, promotion and termination cases in the state and federal courts throughout the country. These cases have involved claims based on race, sex, sexual orientation, disability, family leave, age, national origin, religion and reverse discrimination as well as employee whistle-blower, wage and hour, non-competition, trade secret, defamation, privacy and public accommodation claims. Tom also has experience litigating complex employment and business lawsuits, class actions, collective actions and other multi-party litigation. Tom also has litigated before arbitrators and the various administrative agencies including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the Department of Labor (DOL), the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the various state anti-discrimination agencies. The successful defense of employment lawsuits requires experience and familiarity with the particular employment laws, the courts and adversaries; a thorough and aggressive evaluation of the claims before discovery; communication of an effective strategy to the client that includes a realistic assessment of the litigation, defense costs and likely outcomes; and an aggressive and creative litigation plan formulated in partnership with the client that ensures a winning result.
Tom regularly advises clients with respect to employment hiring, compensation and termination practices, proposed employee discipline and dismissal, internal employee complaints and investigations, executive employment, non-competition and severance agreements, mergers and acquisitions, reductions in force, union collective bargaining, affirmative action, drug testing, workplace violence, the Family Medial Leave Act (FMLA), the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and many other issues. Because of his substantial litigation and employment management experience, Tom takes a business-oriented approach to the unique legal issues that arise in the workplace to achieve solutions that avoid liability and minimize the ever-increasing costs of litigation.
Tom represents a broad range of clients including Fortune 500 employers in the retail and services, financial services, insurance, pharmaceutical, health care, manufacturing, communications and aerospace industries, as well as educational and nonprofit institutions. Tom is a resident of Riverton, New Jersey and a member of the New Jersey and Pennsylvania Bars, various federal district and appellate courts, the United States Supreme Court and the ABA Labor Section’s Employee Rights and Responsibilities Committee. He is a graduate of the College of William & Mary in Virginia and a magna cum laude graduate of Boston College Law School, where he was an editor of the Boston College Law Review. |
