New Partners Boost Baker & McKenzie Labor and Employment Practice in North America
Firm News
July 16, 2009
Chicago, July 16, 2009 – Baker & McKenzie has added two experienced labor and employment attorneys, Robert J. Mignin and Douglas Darch, as partners in its North American Compensation, Labor and Employment Law Practice Group. Both were partners at Seyfarth Shaw LLP and will join the Firm’s Chicago office.
Mignin and Darch further strengthen Baker & McKenzie’s labor and employment law capabilities in the U.S. and globally, particularly in the areas of management labor and employee relations, ERISA litigation, wage hour litigation, wrongful termination and employment discrimination lawsuits, labor and employment law counseling, and other employment litigation and compliance matters. They will lead the labor and employment team in Chicago.
“Bob and Doug have high-profile, national practices,” said Richard Hammett, chair of Baker & McKenzie’s North American Practice Group. “Their recruitment is part of our continuing efforts to enhance our core labor and employment practice in all of our offices in the U.S. Their wealth of experience will add considerable depth to the labor, employment and benefits services we already provide to our clients.”
Bob Mignin has practiced for over 30 years representing and counseling employers in a wide variety of industries (manufacturing, transportation, financial and other services, hospitality, health care, and retail) in all areas of labor, employment and discrimination law. He regularly represents employers in all matters involving union organizing, corporate campaigns, labor negotiations, arbitrations and litigation under the National Labor Relations Act and in all matters before the EEOC, OFCCP, state discrimination agencies and state and federal courts including wage hour litigation.
His practice also includes counseling clients with regard to development of human resources policies and procedures and corporate compliance programs and new and changing labor, employment and discrimination laws and regulations. He also regularly advises employers with regard to labor and employment law issues arising out of business transactions, sales and mergers, restructurings, bankruptcies and reductions in force.
Mignin is chair of the Employment & Industrial Relations Law Committee of the International Bar Association (London). In 2007, he was elected to the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers which is a non-profit professional association honoring the leading lawyers nationwide in the practice of labor and employment law. The College is affiliated with the council of the American Bar Association’s section of Labor and Employment Law.
Mignin received his J.D. from the University of Illinois. While at Illinois, he was a Notes and Comments Editor for the University of Illinois Law Review and an undergraduate teaching assistant for the College of Commerce and Business Administration. Mignin received his B.A., cum laude, from Knox College.
Doug Darch has 28 years of practice representing employers in labor and employment matters, in particular, corporate transactions, labor management restructuring, Taft-Hartley benefit plan modification, corporate campaigns and employment litigation. He has represented clients in high profile cases such as Kyles v. JK Guardian, the Title VII employment testers case; Dubuque Packing – the case establishing the duty to bargain over work relocations under the National Labor Relations Act; and Esmark v. NLRB – at the time, the largest corporate restructuring of a publicly held employer.
Over his career, he has conducted more than 200 hearings before various tribunals. He has been an active member of the Illinois and Chicago Bar Associations and has served as a chair of a committee in each Association. Darch received his J.D. from the University of North Carolina and a B.S. from Georgia Tech.
Commenting on the new additions, Phil Suse, Managing Partner of the Firm’s Chicago office, said: “Bob and Doug have represented a large variety of clients, from mid-sized local employers to national and multinational Fortune 500 companies in the areas of labor, employment and discrimination law. They will no doubt complement and expand our existing practice here and across the country.”
Baker & McKenzie's Compensation, Labor and Employment Law practice in North America has made a number of recent additions including John J. “Lou” Michels Jr., who joined the Firm’s Chicago office as partner in late 2008. Michels has 24 years of practice defending employers in employment litigation.