Betty is a highly respected, established and experienced Labor and Employment practitioner. She represents a Fortune 50 telecommunications company, a nationwide optical manufacturer and retailer, a private aviation facilities company, a surgical center, numerous health care providers, and a regional financial services company, among other notable clients. Her legal background, her strength in continuously staying abreast of changes in the law and adapting to the legal environment, as well as her diverse community involvement, have given her a unique ability to identify with the sensitive and evolving issues and communicate in an effective and practical manner with clients involved in labor and employment matters. Betty serves as Deputy Practice Group Leader for Reed Smith’s Labor & Employment practice.
Betty is frequently called upon to defend her clients in matters involving claims for violations of the Americans With Disabilities Act ("ADA"), the Family and Medical Leave Act ("FMLA"), Title VII, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and the Fair Labor Standards Act. She also has extensive experience working with clients in federal agency investigations related to violations of the ADA and the FMLA, and she counsels clients regarding wrongful discharge claims, matters involving restrictive covenants, defamation and other employment torts, employment policies, harassment investigations and employment agreements. Betty also offers preventative counseling to employers in a variety of industries on wage and hour matters, and has successfully defended her clients against wage and hour claims. Her experienced representation and practical approach has resulted in numerous early settlements on behalf of her clients.
Betty defends management in both contract interpretation and discipline grievance arbitrations, counsels employers on issues involving the National Labor Relations Act, and serves as strike counsel during collective bargaining proceedings. Throughout her career, she has routinely represented management in federal and state courts nationwide in agency investigations relating to charges of discrimination and in various proceedings involving voluntary reductions in force and labor strikes.
In addition to her skills at trial, Betty has handled more than 100 labor arbitrations. She consistently obtains favorable results on a variety of issues from companies’ abilities to subcontract out work and to use a lower wage title to perform certain contract work; as well as to sustaining employee discharges for violations of drug and alcohol policies; use of offensive ethnic slurs in the workplace; threat of workplace violence made against a supervisor; theft of company property; and lying about the reason for an absence.