Proactive counseling and complex litigation
Gary Clark focuses on all areas of labor and employment law. He provides day-to-day counsel on employment matters for national and regional clients with a results-oriented approach that emphasizes crafting creative legal solutions to further business objectives and proactively anticipating what's coming around the next corner. Gary also defends employers in complex and class action employment litigation, including large-scale EEOC enforcement actions, wage and hour/discrimination/ERISA class actions, unfair competition/trade secret misappropriation and biometric information privacy.
Experience in Action
- Counseling national and regional employers on day-to-day employment issues.
- National and regional ADA practice, including advising on ADA process best practices, all accommodation requests and defending large and multi-party EEOC enforcement actions.
- Biometric information privacy, including advising on compliance with privacy laws and defending class actions under Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).
- Defending employers in class action litigation under the FLSA, Title VII, ERISA and state law.
- Advising employers on unfair competition and trade secret misappropriation matters and prosecuting and defending related claims in court.
- Conducting internal investigations involving executive and highly placed employees.
Successes
Class Action and Complex Litigation
- Defended employer on national EEOC enforcement action asserting ADA violations on behalf of 134 employees.
- Defended multiple employers in biometric information privacy class actions.
- Defended a nationwide Title VII class action alleging pregnancy discrimination on disparate impact and disparate treatment theories with regard to company's job accommodation policies.
- Defended multiple restaurant chains in class and collective actions alleging issues involving tip credits, tip pooling, unlawful deductions and unpaid overtime.
- Defended an ERISA breach of fiduciary duty class action claim at trial and on appeal to the Seventh Circuit.
- Defended a package delivery client against allegations it violated the FLSA and state laws by misclassifying a management trainee position as exempt where the class and collective allegations involved thousands of employees on a nationwide basis.
- Defended a package delivery client in a class and collective action lawsuit where employees claimed that time spent passing through security, changing into uniforms and walking should have been compensable time under the FLSA and state law.
- Defended against multiple class action lawsuits asserting joint employer liability against clients based on a vendor's alleged non-compliance with federal and state wage and hour law for vendor's employees.
Other Litigation
- Obtained a defense verdict in a jury trial for a client accused of defamation where the plaintiff was seeking $3 million in damages.
- Obtained injunctive relief against a departed sales executive and his new employer after the executive misappropriated confidential trade secret information.
- Represented a global IT consulting firm in enforcing a noncompete agreement with regard to the departure of a high-level executive to join a competitor.
- Obtained dismissal of retaliatory discharge whistleblower claim brought by former in-house counsel for global accounting firm and successfully defended result on appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court.
Capabilities
- Labor & Employment
- Data Privacy & Security
- Financial Institutions Litigation
- Class Action Defense
- Employment Advice, Counseling and Training
- Employment Litigation and Dispute Resolution
- Intellectual Property Litigation
- Internal Investigations and Compliance
- Litigation & Dispute Resolution
- Wage and Hour Compliance and Defense
Professional Recognitions
- Chambers USA® Labor and Employment, 2018, 2019, 2022-present
- Illinois Super Lawyers® (2014-2016, 2020-2022: Employment & Labor)
- Illinois Super Lawyers® "Rising Stars," (2008-2011: Employment & Labor)
News & Insights
Education
- Washington University in St. Louis School of Law (J.D., 1997)
- Northwestern University (B.A., 1994)
Bar Admissions
- Illinois
- Tennessee
Court Admissions
- U.S. Court of Appeals, 7th Circuit, 2003
- U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, 2000
- U.S. District Court, Western District of Tennessee, 1997
- U.S. District Court, Southern District of Indiana
- U.S. District Court, Southern District of Illinois
- U.S. District Court, Central District of Illinois