Sarah Belger

Business tort and employment law trial attorney

Sarah Belger is a trial lawyer who focuses on complex employment-related litigation and disputes involving restrictive covenants, business torts and trade secret litigation. Sarah represents plaintiffs and defendants in cases involving noncompete agreements, confidentiality agreements and trade secret theft. She has obtained injunctions in multiple cases that prohibited individuals from competing against firm clients and has successfully represented employers who have hired individuals with noncompete or confidentiality agreements. In addition to her litigation experience, she counsels employers on how to draft noncompete and secrecy agreements. Her work covers many industries, including:

• Government contractors
• Professional services
• Information technology
• Health care
• Hospitality
• Nonprofit organizations
• Utilities

Known for her pragmatic business communication and listening skills, clients praise Sarah’s extensive knowledge of their business, as well as her ability to provide common-sense advice and effective representation both in the court room and the board room. She finds creative solutions to business issues and, when necessary, aggressively represents her clients’ interests in court.

Sarah frequently speaks on employment law issues and has presented numerous continuing legal education topics to Virginia attorneys. She regularly provides training to private companies and government entities on topics such as ethics, protecting corporate assets, internal investigations, discipline and workplace accommodations.

• Defends employers before federal, state and appellate courts, administrative agencies and in arbitration settings.
• Counsels and defends clients under Title VII, Section 1981, the ADA, the ADEA, the FMLA, USERRA, the WARN Act, federal and state whistleblower statutes, Executive Order 11246 governing the employment practices of federal contractors and other federal, state and local laws.
• Litigates collective action and class action claims arising under federal and state wage and hour laws, including the FLSA. Sarah also litigates ERISA-related pension, fiduciary and severance claims in multiple federal courts.
• Counsels employers on how to avoid discrimination charges and lawsuits.
• Assists organizations on a variety of employment matters, including disciplinary decisions, reductions in force, employee handbooks, drug testing, executive agreements, disability accommodations and defamation.
• Drafts employment contracts for executives.

• Lead attorney for client with $1.3 billion in revenue in its successful defense of race and national origin claims brought by a former employee.
• Obtained a preliminary injunction for a government contractor against a business development manager in a restrictive covenant and trade secrets case.
• Led a nonprofit organization’s successful defense in an arbitration filed by a former CEO who alleged defamation and disability discrimination.
• Lead attorney for a 14,000-employee company in its successful defense of sexual orientation and national origin claims brought by a former employee.
• Successfully argued and defended appeals in disability and race discrimination cases in the Fourth and Sixth Circuits.