Mr. McGlothlen is a partner representing employers in equal employment opportunity and other employment law matters. He has particularly extensive experience representing companies in complex employment matters, including class actions and pattern and practice cases, as well as developing and implementing advanced hiring, promotion, compensation, and separation systems. He has been recognized in Legal 500 as one of the six “Leading Lawyers” in the United States in the area of Workplace and Employment Law Counseling.
Mr. McGlothlen currently chairs the Workforce Restructuring Best Practices Team, which advises public and privately held companies on all facets of reductions and restructurings, from design to selection decisions, compliance requirements, and risk avoidance strategy generally. The Restructuring Team leverages technology and non-attorney professionals to conduct statistical analyses and prepare compliance documentation of the highest caliber under demanding, business-driven deadlines. Mr. McGlothlen also co-chairs the Hiring, Testing, and Selection team, which oversees advice for companies who are recruiting and hiring, particularly here in the U.S. As with Restructuring Best Practices, hiring advice oftentimes requires statistical analysis and/or collaborating with statisticians or labor economists to help ensure an employer’s selection methods are valid and otherwise defensible.
Subject matter expertise in both of these areas derives from decades of litigation experience against EEOC, OFCCP, and the plaintiffs’ class action bar. Mr. McGlothlen is among the Firm’s most experienced attorneys in defending EEOC systemic/class-type cases. He has led the defense of several large pattern and practice cases, has negotiated multiple consent decrees and conciliation agreements with EEOC attorneys, and has tried cases against EEOC across the country. Mr. McGlothlen has taken and defended numerous expert depositions, deposed lead plaintiffs in class cases and lead claimants in EEOC cases, and been the chief architect of class and collective action defense strategies in other matters. He has similar experience representing federal contractors in OFCCP matters, including at the audit/investigation stage, during conciliation, and against the Department of Labor in the event conciliation fails.
Mr. McGlothlen’s other area of subject matter concentration is the Americans With Disabilities Act. In 1989, he joined a handful of other attorneys to form the Firm’s then “ADA Task Force” (even before Congress enacted the law). Shortly thereafter, that group submitted proposed regulations to EEOC, some of which were accepted; others that were rejected, however, went on to become the law of the land under landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases like Sutton v. United Airlines (1999), Toyota Motor Mfg. v. Williams (2002), and U.S. Airways v. Barnett (2002). When Congress decided to amend the ADA by reversing some of those decisions, Mr. McGlothlen worked with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to help ensure that the ADA Amendments Act remained largely true to the original ADA. And, when EEOC proposed regulations to interpret the amended ADA in 2009, Mr. McGlothlen again worked with the U.S. Chamber, together with Society for Human Resource Management, to see that management’s viewpoint was considered (and in some instances incorporated) in the final ADAAA regulations. Throughout this time, Mr. McGlothlen has advised hundreds of employers on ADA compliance, has successfully tried ADA cases and argued several before the U.S. Courts of Appeal. Having also taught and published widely on disability law subjects, his command of this area is second to none.
Since 2005, Mr. McGlothlen has been selected as an Illinois Super Lawyer, one of 5% of Illinois attorneys to receive this honor. Mr. McGlothlen is also AV Peer Review Rated by Lexis/Nexis Martindale-Hubbell—the highest possible rating for both ethical standards and legal ability.
