Greenberg Traurig &
Ford Motor Company

Greenberg Traurig brings a sophisticated and coordinated approach to trying complex cases in diverse industries such as chemicals, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, energy, toxic mold, tobacco, and transportation. We have been trailblazers on the cutting edge of some of the most high-profile cases in the country and possess deep knowledge and experience in both regulated and non-regulated industries. Not only do our attorneys provide powerful defense in litigation, but we also proactively partner with our clients to develop liability prevention programs to identify and correct potentially devastating practices that may lead to litigation. We develop innovative strategies that are custom-fit to each client’s needs and unique situation, be it a single plaintiff matter or mass tort. Harnessing our breadth of experience in cases of all kinds in venues across the United States and internationally allows us to take powerful and cost-effective action through flexible and client-centered teamwork.

• Represented an automobile manufacturer as national counsel for high exposure personal injury cases.
• Served as lead counsel to Goodyear Dunlop Tires North America, LTD. in defense of an alleged catastrophic tire defect case pending in Florida’s Second Judicial Circuit; GT has been selected to represent Goodyear in all such cases in North Florida courts.
• Defended Husky, Inc. against personal injury and wrongful death claims involving allegations of defects in the design and manufacture of plastic injection molding machines; all claims handled by our team have resulted in dismissals for the client before trial, including summary judgment and voluntary dismissal.
• Represented Mestek, Inc. in the resolution of multi-year, multimillion dollar personal injury and property damage litigation relating to the alleged release of chlorinated solvents into the drinking water of the residential area surrounding a client facility
• Secured a defense verdict for HDR Engineering, Inc. after an almost four-week trial in Monroe County (FL) Circuit Court. Our client was one of five defendants sued in connection with a 2010 accident that resulted in injuries to a motorcyclist who hit a concrete valve cover associated with a water transmission main in the median of the Overseas Highway in Key Largo, Florida. Approximately 30 witnesses were called during the trial including both fact and experts related to the medical, engineering and construction issues in the case. The jury returned a complete defense verdict for all defendants after a demand at trial of approximately $14.5 million.
• Secured the dismissal with prejudice on behalf of Orange Lake Country Club, four other firm clients, and fourteen other defendants, including the State of Florida and the Brevard County School Board, of a fifteen count, 80-page Complaint alleging tort, contract, and statutory claims. In addition, they obtained an order from the Brevard County Circuit Court, declaring the plaintiff to be a vexatious litigant under Florida law, which bars him from initiating any further litigation in that Circuit without receiving preclearance to do so from the court.
• Representation of Lockheed Martin in a case where 43 plaintiffs have filed claims against five defendants, including our client, seeking damages arising out of groundwater contamination in the unincorporated town of Wedron, Illinois. The plaintiffs assert claims of negligence, negligence per se, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress, permanent trespass, continuing trespass, private nuisance, fraudulent concealment, wrongful death and loss of consortium, alleging that they have incurred personal injury and property damage as a result of BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene) contamination in their residential well water. On behalf of Lockheed Martin, Greenberg Traurig has taken the lead in the defense of the case to date, along with co-defendant Wedron Silica Co., represented by Shook, Hardy & Bacon. Plaintiffs seek in excess of $40 million. Following various motions to dismiss plaintiff’s pleadings, the court has dismissed with prejudice the wrongful death and fraudulent concealment claims. The matter is currently proceeding through discovery.
• Represented Sony Electronics and Qualcomm in a series of actions in which the plaintiffs allege that the defendants have negligently and fraudulently endangered consumers by providing wireless telephones that emit unsafe levels of radio frequency radiation; the plaintiffs in these actions allege that they have been diagnosed with brain cancer as a result of their exposure to radio frequency radiation; they seek compensatory and consequential damages for their injuries; in August 2007, Judge Cheryl Long of the Superior Court for the District of Columbia granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss, finding the plaintiffs’ claims were preempted
• Represented an American supermarket chain in a suit by a plaintiff who was chasing a shopping cart and tripped and fell due to "dilapidated and deteriorated conditions" in the pavement in the parking lot adjacent to our client's store. She had previously fallen on a slate sidewalk in June 2009 and had knee replacement surgery in April 2011. This case is ongoing.
• Representation of a multinational telecommunications corporation in a lawsuit alleging breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and tortious interference claims. The eight-member jury returned a unanimous verdict in favor of the client, not only dismissing all of plaintiff's claims, but also finding in favor of the client on its counterclaims, awarding them more than $35,000 in damages. The plaintiff appealed and Greenberg Traurig represented the company in that proceeding. Plaintiff subsequently filed a petition for certification, which was denied in December 2014. Her motion for reconsideration of that denial is now pending.

Greenberg Traurig’s Labor & Employment Group provides national and international corporations with strategic legal advice on all matters concerning the employment relationship. With over 150 practitioners around the globe, we offer national and international organizations strategic and practical legal services that are focused on maximizing human resource potential. Our team is regularly called upon to handle complex, bet-the-company cases and has taken three cases to the U.S. Supreme Court within the last 10 years. We have extensive and wide-ranging experience in class and collective litigation, having handled over 100 such cases in the last three years alone. Additionally, we have experience supporting clients in maintaining positive labor relations as it has in-depth experience structuring corporate transactions aimed at maximizing managerial flexibility and labor efficiency, negotiating collective bargaining agreements, trying labor arbitrations throughout the county, and assisting employers to lead and manage in ways that best fir their cultures.

• Represented national automotive company in putative nationwide collective action under the FLSA seeking overtime compensation allegedly due and owing as a result of employer’s alleged misclassification of Service Managers as exempt employees.  (Middle District of Florida) 
• Representing Caesar's Entertainment Corporation in the consolidation of a large amount of its total work for properties west of the Mississippi River at GT in employment law, traditional labor law, executive contracts, employee benefits, immigration, and general HR contracts. This is a major representation covering scores of properties nationwide employing over 50,000 employees, and includes a large and complex docket of cases requiring close coordination and collaboration with Caesars’ talented in-house lawyers in the Caesars Legal Department.
• Represented a national supermarket chain wherein GT obtained a major ERISA litigation victory for a The Fifth Circuit’s dismissal of a class action lawsuit alleging the fiduciaries of our client’s 401(k) had failed in their duties by maintaining a company stock plan among possible investment choices. Plaintiffs alleged that certain regulator allegations and resolutions relating to labels that should have triggered the cessation of the company stock offering in the 401(k) plan. The Court ruled that plaintiffs had not plausibly alleged an action that a prudent fiduciary in similar circumstances would have taken that did more benefit than harm to the plan, and dismissed with prejudice.
• Obtained summary judgement for CVS Rx Services, Inc. in a putative Rule 23 class action under California Labor Code and Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA). Former pharmaceutical employees seeking payment for alleged unpaid time associated with mandatory training filed the case. Upon filing, CVS moved to compel the case to individual arbitration, after which plaintiffs have amended the case twice to avoid dismissal in court. Ultimately, named plaintiffs waived any entitlement to back wages in order to pursue case in court under PAGA. The case is significant due to the argument we raised that held named plaintiffs, who intentionally waived any entitlement to back wages, are not aggrieved employees under PAGA and thus lack standing to sue.
• GT is representing Mauser in this nationwide FLSA collective action and Ohio state law class action. Plaintiff alleges that Mauser unlawfully deducts 30 minutes from each employees time for lunch even if the employee works through lunch, unlawfully rounds down time entries, and engages in other improper time keeping practices. The lawsuit was filed in 2018 and discovery has just begun on the initial conditional certification issue. Plaintiff has not yet provided an estimate for damages.
• Represented Central Parking Systems in a putative nationwide collective action under the FLSA and state-wide class action under the New York Labor Law seeking overtime compensation allegedly due and owing as a result of employer’s alleged misclassification of Assistant Garage Managers as exempt employees.
• Representation of Michaels Stores in a case involving claims of discrimination, harassment, failure to accommodate, and retaliation under federal and Florida law, including retaliatory discharge under Florida's workers’ compensation statute. The plaintiff was terminated less than 30 days after filing a workers’ compensation claim, which is generally sufficient to show temporal proximity, but Michaels successfully showed its termination decision was unrelated to the protected activity. The plaintiff appealed, and Michaels maintained its position.
• Representing Hornblower New York, Inc. ("HNY"), an affiliate of Hornblower Cruises & Events, Inc., in a visionary transformative transportation project for the New York City metropolitan area. This involves a major expansion of existing service, acquisition of existing service lines, construction of a new fleet of vessels, and coordination with bus and subway lines currently and in the future. GT negotiated with the NY EDC to secure procurement and with organized labor to staff the system and provide support in the political and regulatory arena. Ultimately the vote was against the union.
• Represented Hornblower Yachts LLC in defense of wage and hour class action matter on behalf of all non-exempt employees in California, which totaled nearly 1600 current and former employees. Plaintiff alleged numerous wage and hour violations including, failure to pay overtime, wage statement violations, failure to reimburse for business expenses, reporting time pay penalties, and for remedies under the Private Attorneys General Act (“PAGA”). The team crafted the creative strategy of informal exchange of information prior to class certification, which forced plaintiff to settle matter on behalf of fewer than 80 individuals in one job category.
• GT represents Vornado Realty Trust and its subsidiaries Building Maintenance Service LLC and Metal-Brite Service Company in all aspects of labor and employment litigation, labor negotiation and contract administration and transactional matters in the labor perspective. We have successfully handled numerous arbitrations, employment discrimination matters and labor disputes. In addition, we have regularly provided labor and ERISA counsel on both purchase and sale transactions and refinancing deals. More recently we have represented Vornado in connection with Americans with Disabilities Act access litigation.
• Represented Wendy’s against a putative class brought by current and former exempt employees seeking unpaid wages, and civil and statutory penalties for alleged wage and hour violations; GT obtained dismissal of class and dismissal of representative PAGA claim on ground that the "notice" provided to the State was insufficient notice to exhaust the preconditions to filing suit, and ruling of first impression that Labor Code section 1174 does not create a private right of action.
• Representation of an American supermarket chain against an ERISA class action brought by a former employee on behalf of a putative class of all current and former employees who participated in the company’s 401(k) plan. Plaintiff alleged that the executives in charge of managing that plan breached their fiduciary duties under ERISA by continuing to invest in company stock despite their alleged knowledge of non-public company information that could affect the stock’s price. In September 2018, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a Texas federal court dismissal on the basis that plaintiff failed to allege an alternative action that the company’s fiduciaries --at the time-- could have taken. This ruling will have a severe, negative impact on a plaintiff’s ability to plead an ERISA claim that could withstand a motion to dismiss.
• Representation of RVR, Inc. and its subsidiaries in connection with the sale by the shareholders of RVR, Inc. of their shares to a newly-formed employee stock ownership trust, the RVR Employee Stock Ownership Trust, established pursuant to the RVR Employee Stock Ownership Plan, in exchange for $105 million in cash.