[August 28, 2015]

Jackson Lewis Expands in Wisconsin

Jackson Lewis P.C., one of the country's preeminent workplace law firms, expands its presence in Wisconsin with a new Madison office on August 27. Six attorneys formerly with the Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete law firm will establish Jackson Lewis' second Wisconsin office. The firm's Milwaukee location opened in 2010. Led by Office Managing Shareholder Mark P. Tilkens, the new team includes Shareholders Daniel D. Barker, Elizabeth A. Erickson and Tony H. McGrath and Sharon Mollman Elliott and James K. Pease, Jr., who both join as Of Counsel.

"Madison is an attractive market to us, as we have a number of clients in the area," said Firm Chairman Vincent A. Cino, adding, "We are confident we have found the perfect team to expand our Wisconsin presence in Mark, Daniel, Elizabeth, Tony, Sharon and James, all of whom are exceptional professionals and highly esteemed in the legal community. We look forward to combining these new additions with our Milwaukee team and other Midwestern offices as we continue to grow regionally."

"We have long been familiar with Jackson Lewis, due to its extensive roster of practice area specialists and long history of consistently delivering excellent client service," said Tilkens. "I look forward to growing this office and further solidifying Jackson Lewis' position as a leading workplace firm in Wisconsin and throughout the country."

Mark Tilkens has successfully represented clients before judges, juries, and administrative agencies throughout the country. He is often called upon to provide representation and strategic counsel in high-stakes labor and employment matters and other crisis situations. Mr. Tilkens' legal experience includes counseling and representing employers across the country in traditional labor law matters, including the most difficult collective bargaining and "bet the company" cases, situations, arbitrations, strikes, replacing strikers, union organizing campaigns, elections, acquisitions of unionized companies, and proceedings before the National Labor Relations Board.

Mr. Tilkens defends employers in cases before the U.S. Department of Labor and in federal court actions involving labor relations; investigating and defending the most complex employment discrimination claims and class action wage and hour cases. He also guides employers on all issues related to employee performance, disciplinary and discharge decisions, reductions in force, and enforceability of post-employment restrictive covenants, as well as advising employers in all aspects of the employer employee relationship, including wage and hour, employment contracts, workers' compensation, disability issues, internal investigations, and policy formulation/review.

Mr. Tilkens began his labor and employment practice after a ecorated career in law enforcement, during which he received specialized training in interviewing skills, spent hundreds of hours in the courtroom and gained labor relations experience as a union executive board member where he worked closely with management officials during the development of internal investigation policies.

Mr. Tilkens, who has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America©, is a frequent speaker on labor and employment law topics, including annual teaching presentations for supervisors and managers working for national companies.

Mr. Tilkens received his B.S. from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and his J.D. from Marquette University Law School.

Daniel Barker has successfully defended clients in discrimination claims before courts and administrative agencies, as well as worked with employers to find creative and cost-effective solutions to their most difficult labor and employment-related legal challenges. His experience includes guiding employers through union-related challenges and all traditional labor matters, including strikes, collective bargaining, arbitrations, organizing campaigns, elections, and cases before the National Labor Relations Board; defending employers as lead counsel in employment discrimination and harassment cases, including complex class action and high-profile discrimination cases; counseling and advising employers on performance management, disciplinary and discharge decisions, reductions in force, disability law compliance issues, internal investigations, and enforceability of post-employment restrictive covenants; helping employers comply with state and federal wage and hour requirements, including collective action matters and investigations involving administrative agencies; training supervisors and managers to implement and administer proper harassment and fair employment policies and practices.

Mr. Barker received his B.A. from the University of Wisconsin and his J.D. from the University of Wisconsin Law School.

Elizabeth Erickson focuses her practice on employment counseling and litigation. She regularly partners with clients to mitigate their employment risk and help them grow their business. Ms. Erickson's experience includes counseling on difficult disability accommodations, conducting investigations into sexual harassment and other alleged employee wrongdoing, defending employers accused of discrimination, harassment, FLSA violations, drafting non-competition and confidentiality agreements and arbitrating labor grievances.

Ms. Erickson received her B.A. from the University of Kansas, her M.A. from the Ohio State University and her J.D. from the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, where she was Executive Editor of the Ohio State Law Journal.

Tony McGrath partners with employers in Wisconsin and around the country to defend employment discrimination, retaliation and sexual harassment cases in federal court and before the EEOC or Wisconsin Equal Rights Division; counsel employers on non-competition, non-disclosure and other restrictive covenants; prosecute cases against formers employees for theft, trade secret misappropriation, and breach of restrictive covenants; defend collective and class action lawsuits alleging overtime, minimum wage, prevailing wage, and other wage and hour violations; and draft employment contracts and non-competition agreements.

In addition, Mr. McGrath represents clients in business disputes involving breach of contract, conversion, unfair business practices, fraud, misrepresentation, and shareholder disputes.

Mr. McGrath received his B.B.A. from the Wisconsin School of Business and his J.D. from the University of Wisconsin Law School, where he graduated magna cum laude.

Sharon Mollman Elliott has handled all aspects of employment cases, including from the initial employment problem in the workplace through trial. Ms. Elliott regularly counsels employers in cases involving the most difficult employee discipline and termination situations, harassment and discrimination claims, handbooks, wage and hour issues, and disability and FMLA requests. She also has extensive experience in both invalidating and enforcing non-competition and confidentiality agreements, including obtaining and defeating preliminary injunctions.

Ms. Elliott, who has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America©, received her B.S. from Ohio University and her J.D. from the Maurer School of Law at Indiana University (News - Alert) Bloomington, where she graduated summa cum laude.

James Pease, Jr., has over 45 years of experience in successfully defeating union organizing campaigns and effectively dealing with picketing and strike activity, secondary boycotts, "salting" and other coercive union strategies. He has trained members of management on how to comply with federal and state laws relating to labor and employment matters, defended against unfair labor practice charges and brought such charges against unions and have represented management in representation cases, all before the National Labor Relations Board. Mr. Pease has also negotiated labor agreements in difficult situations, defended grievance arbitrations, union trust fund suits and discrimination claims, as well as significant experience advising employers on day-to-day personnel and other employment-related matters, and helping employers comply with wage and hour laws.

Mr. Pease is AV-Rated by Martindale-Hubbell and has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America©. He received his B.A. from Carroll College (now Carroll University) and his J.D. from the University of Wisconsin Law School.

Jackson Lewis' Madison office is located at 1 South Pinckney Street, Suite 930. The office can be reached at: (608) 729-5598.

About Jackson Lewis

Founded in 1958, Jackson Lewis is dedicated to representing management exclusively in workplace law. Additional information about the firm can be found at www.jacksonlewis.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150828005422/en/

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