Lee D. Moylan

Lee is the Chair of the firm’s Labor and Employment Law Practice Group and a member of the firm’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee. Lee has extensive experience advising employers on a wide variety of labor and employment issues at all stages of counseling and litigation. Lee represents companies ranging in size from very large to very small, including multi-state asset/property management and construction companies, a large infrastructure and site development contractor, a major employer in the healthcare industry, a multi-national consulting company, local businesses in the hospitality industry, and small distribution companies. Lee is available to her clients to provide counseling on day-to-day workplace issues to ensure compliance with federal, state and local laws and to mitigate litigation risk as much as possible.

Among other things, with her client’s goals, concerns, past policies and practices in mind, Lee has advised her clients related to the hiring, disciplining and terminating of employees, workforce reductions, and employer obligations under common law and local and state sick leave laws, Title VII, the ADA, the ADEA, the FMLA, Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act, the FLSA, ERISA, the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988 (WARN), and state and local wage payment statutes and anti-discrimination laws. Further, Lee has been entrusted to conduct prompt, thorough, and unbiased workplace investigations of, and submit reports concerning, allegations of harassment, discrimination and workplace misconduct.

After litigation has begun, Lee has defended her clients against claims brought by single plaintiffs, as well as by representative plaintiffs in the collective and class action contexts. These matters include, but are not limited to, most recently:

• Defeating a multimillion-dollar breach of employment contract claim following a bench trial and appeal to the Pennsylvania Superior Court.
• Enforcing an arbitration clause, which resulted in a Pennsylvania Superior Court published decision that has been cited as authority by Pennsylvania state and federal courts.
• Obtaining summary judgment for her corporate clients on several actions alleging discrimination, retaliation and/or harassment claims.
• Obtaining a preliminary injunction preventing a salesman from violating a restrictive covenant.
• On multiple occasions, securing settlements for nuisance value of multi-claim retaliation and discrimination complaints.
• At the pleadings stage, obtaining a dismissal with prejudice of a Pennsylvania Whistleblower Law claim.
• Zealously defending her clients sued on class and collective action claims and thereafter securing favorable settlements, pre-certification and afterwards, for a fraction of the threatened damages.

Lee also has represented thousands of employees in a half dozen WARN Act class actions, which have ended in favorable settlements for the displaced employees.

Lee practices before Pennsylvania state and federal trial and appellate courts, as well as the EEOC, the PHRC, the PCHR, the NLRB, and the DOL. She also has been admitted to practice pro hac vice when representing her clients in states such as California, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia.

Author, “The COVID-19 Relief Bill is Expected to Become Law,” March 10, 2021

Presenter, “Where We Are Now in 2021 : Complying With the ADA and FMLA in the Age of COVID-19,” accredited CLE program, January 21, 2021

Author, “The Second Coronavirus Relief Bill Does Not Extend the FFCRA’s Mandated Paid Sick Leave But Does Provide a Tax Credit to Employers Who Voluntarily Provide the Leave,” December 23, 2020

Author, “CDC Expands Definition of ‘Close Contact’,” October 27, 2020

Author, “EEOC Warns Employers Against Antibody Testing,” June 19, 2020

Author, “EEOC Continues to Update Guidance on Steps Employers May Take to Control the Spread of COVID-19 Without Violating the ADA,” April 28, 2020

Author, “OSHA Relaxes Recording and Reporting Requirements for Some Employers Regarding COVID-19 Cases in their Workforce,” April 15, 2020

Author, “CDC Interim Guidance Enables Essential Workers to Continue Working After Potential Exposure to COVID-19,” April 13, 2020

Author, “PA’s Department of Labor & Industry Provides Additional Guidance on UC Benefits Given the Families First Act and the CARES Act,” April 2, 2020

Author, “CARES Act Significantly Expands Unemployment Benefits,” March 27, 2020

Author, “Considerations Regarding Furloughing Employees,” March 19, 2020

In addition to counseling her clients on various pressing personnel matters and employment questions, Lee has served as pre-litigation and litigation counsel for numerous clients in various matters, including:

• Numerous companies and institutions, conducting workplace investigations of allegations of harassment, discrimination and workplace misconduct.
• A major employer in the healthcare industry, achieving a verdict for the employer after a multi-day bench trial in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas on breach of employment contract claims involving a demand of well over a million dollars in damages.
• Working closely with Associate General Counsel and achieving favorable outcomes in favor of a major employer in the healthcare industry in many different actions alleging discrimination, retaliation and whistleblower claims.
• Representing a large company in connection with achieving, after extensive briefing and oral argument, a reported Pennsylvania Superior Court decision granting her client’s preliminary objections to compel arbitration pursuant to an arbitration clause in the parties’ contract and establishing often-cited law on the interpretation of such clauses in Pennsylvania.
• Successfully defending and obtaining summary judgment or favorable settlements in multiple matters for a company with billions in assets in matters concerning allegations of discrimination, harassment, and retaliation, as well as in wage claim collective and class actions under the FLSA and state laws involving plaintiffs throughout the country and complex legal and factual issues concerning off-the-clock claims and allegedly improper wage deductions.
• A local printing company, securing a preliminary injunction preventing a salesman from violating a covenant not to compete.
• Guiding and representing a popular local restaurant chain in connection with a Department of Labor audit.
• Obtaining nuisance value settlement for a pharmaceutical company client in an FLSA collective action alleging improper classification of employees as exempt.
• Co-counseling an international private equity management company on matters concerning various discrimination statutes.
• Obtaining favorable WARN Act settlements for thousands of individuals, in several different matters.
• Successfully defending a Fortune 500 company in a case brought under the FMLA and Michigan’s Persons with Disabilities Civil Rights Act.