Alex Drummond is a partner and an experienced litigator in the Labor and Employment group in Seyfarth Shaw’s Atlanta office. His practice includes the representation of management in employment litigation matters before state and federal courts, at trial and appellate levels, as well as federal and state agencies, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Florida Commission on Human Relations. In this role, Mr. Drummond has extensive experience defending multi-plaintiff discrimination/harassment cases, class and/or collective actions, as well as lawsuits initiated by the EEOC.
Mr. Drummond has represented employers in class and collective actions and multi-plaintiff claims involving discrimination/harassment on the basis of age, race, national origin, and other protected classifications. He has leveraged this experience with the talents of others operating in high impact class-action teams to secure dismissal of substantial multi-plaintiff claims. In addition, when it has advantaged the employer, Mr. Drummond has structured complex case-resolution strategies for the efficient disposition of otherwise costly actions.
Among his various cases, Mr. Drummond has been instrumental in representing Sterling Jewelers in the largest current pending EEOC discrimination lawsuit in the country entitled EEOC v. Sterling Jewelers Inc. In that case, which involved claims of systemic gender discrimination in pay and promotions, the Seyfarth team recently fractured the case by defeating the EEOC’s “punitive damages bifurcation” theory, which is reported at EEOC v. Sterling Jewelers Inc., 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 44255 (W.D. NY April 25, 2011). This is the first ruling that ever defeated this tactic of the EEOC.
Mr. Drummond’s class experience also includes a significant understanding of emerging discovery and electronic discovery issues. He has managed large scale discovery in class actions and in EEOC-initiated lawsuits, and has helped secure ground-breaking discovery decisions in such cases, including in EEOC v. Kaplan Higher Education Corporation, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 57829 (N.D. OH May 27, 2011), where the Court compelled the EEOC to produce a Rule 30(b)(6) witness to testify about the Commission’s own hiring practices. This is the first ruling that ever held that the EEOC’s own employment practices are relevant to show a business necessity in disparate impact cases.
Mr. Drummond also has extensive experience litigating against the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, both at the early charge stage, administrative subpoena enforcement actions, and in large-scale EEOC pattern-and-practice litigation. When the EEOC has resorted to litigation, Mr. Drummond has defended our clients against these often high-profile systemic cases, working with any number of class action teams to achieve efficient and effective case resolution.
Beyond this complex litigation experience, Mr. Drummond also serves as the firm’s Atlanta office coordinator for the Single-Plaintiff Litigation Practice Group. As a member of this Practice Group, he has defended employers ranging from Fortune 100 companies to small businesses against the full spectrum of cases involving allegations of discrimination, harassment, and retaliation, as well as employment related breach of contract and tort claims. In addition, he represents parties in non-competition, non-solicitation, and other restrictive covenant claims. Mr. Drummond has argued before federal appellate courts and has obtained successful results for our clients, including a favorable decision for a large national retailer in a complex disability case that was featured prominent employment law publications.
Mr. Drummond has served as chapter co-chair and assistant associate editor for the 2002 Supplement to the Lindemann & Grossman’s Employment Discrimination Law treatise. He has given numerous speeches and presentations on employment law issues, including on best practices in litigating collective actions under the ADEA, and has authored various postings in the Firm’s new Class Action Blog at
