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Partner
Labor & Employment
Houston
(713) 229-5717 Phone
(713) 229-5750 Fax
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| Practices |
Labor & Employment
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Practice focuses on representing management in labor and employment law litigation, contract negotiations, and arbitrations. She has represented clients before administrative agencies, such as OSHA, the Department of Labor, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency ("ICE"), the Department of Justice, the EEOC, the Texas & Louisiana Commissions on Human Rights, and Texas Workforce Commission. Ms. Williamson serves as primary regional employment counsel to companies, especially in the restaurant, retail, chemical, transportation, oil and gas exploration & production, oil & gas tools and service, and telecommunications industries. Conducts training for clients and advises on all aspects of employment issues. Handles complex litigation and appeals involving trade secrets, unfair competition, ERISA, discrimination and harassment claims, employee benefit claims under ERISA, employment torts, defamation, drug testing, privacy, and collective action wage and hour claims.
Relevant Experience 
- Defended cases alleging discrimination, retaliation, harassment, including cases with class and collective allegations.
- Defended high-ranking corporate executives accused by employees of sexual assault and fraud.
- Coordinated, conducted, and assisted with the resolutions of numerous confidential investigations involving alleged executive misconduct, including Sarbanes Oxley investigations, investigations into claims of sexual harassment, sexual assault, company-wide discrimination, fraud, and federal criminal immigration hiring and harboring allegations.
- Report to members of executive management, boards of directors, audit committees, ICE, and Department of Justice on issues involving allegations of corporate or executive misconduct.
- Defended employers in nation-wide collective wage and hour cases.
- Conducts audits of employers' workplace practices and policies, as well as I-9 and hiring/promotion audits, and wage and hour assessments and audits.
- Successfully resolved Commissioner's Charges claiming ADA, Race, Sex, Age, Ethnicity.
- First-chaired numerous trials in both state and federal court, including:
- a seventy-plaintiff age discrimination case arising out of a reduction in force,
- FLSA collective action,
- a multi-plaintiff case for severance benefits under ERISA involving potential claims amounting to tens of millions of dollars,
- claims against former employees/competitors under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, trade secret laws, and other unfair competition laws,
- cases involving claims of exposure to a sexually hostile working environment, sexual assault, sex discrimination and retaliation, and employment torts,
- workers' compensation retaliation cases,
- race discrimination and racial harassment cases that also include claims of retaliation and allegations of derogatory racial remarks,
- Equal Pay Act cases,
- Fraud and negligent misrepresentation claims,
- breach of contract claims.
- Argued before the Texas Supreme Court, many Texas courts of appeals, the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the 4th and 5th Circuits, Louisiana state and federal district courts and a Louisiana Court of Appeal, and a Maryland federal district court. Ms. Williamson has extensive appellate practice, and has prepared briefs presented to the U.S. Supreme Court, one of which was argued before the Court.
- Provides management training designed to prevent employment litigation or other employment disputes, and she provides advice and counseling regarding employment contracts, reductions-in-force, audits, hiring, severance packages and agreements.
- Has spoken frequently on a variety of employment law topics, including harassment, discrimination, wage and hour issues, class and collective actions, trial and motion tactics and strategy, protection and theft of trade secrets, non compete agreements, and developments and trends in employment law.
Background
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Law Clerk, the Honorable Edith Hollan Jones, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit
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Appointee, by former Governor George W. Bush, Texas Board on Aging, 1995-1998, Finance Committee.
Membership
- Member, State Bar of Texas
- Life Sustaining Fellow, Texas Bar Foundation
- Member, Texas Bar Association, Labor and Employment Sections
- Fellow, Houston Bar Foundation; Member, Houston Bar Association, Labor and Employment Sections
- Member, American Bar Association, Labor and Employment Sections
- Planning Committee, Texas Corporate Counsel Institute
- Former Co-chair, Candidate and Recruitment Committee, R Club
- Board Member, March of Dimes
- Advisory Committee, Federalist Society
- Delegate to 5th Circuit Conference, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2007, 2009
- Lifetime Member, Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo; Member Grand Entry Committee
- Admitted to practice: U.S. Supreme Court; U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th & 5th Circuits; U.S. District Courts for the Eastern, Northern, Southern and Western Districts of Texas
Awards and Professional Recognition
- Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business (Labor & Employment), 2004-present
- Named among the 50 Best Women Lawyers in Texas, 2006-present, Texas Monthly Magazine
- Among the Top 100 Lawyers in Houston, Texas Monthly Magazine, 2007
- Voted by readers and the professional community as one of Houston's top lawyers, H Texas Magazine, 2007-present
- Best Lawyers in America (Labor & Employment), 2005-present
- Texas "Super Lawyer," 2003-present
- Recognized by ALM 2008-2009 as one of Texas' Best Lawyers in Labor & Employment
- Corporate Counsel Magazine, Best Lawyers in Labor & Employment, 2007-present
Education - J.D., South Texas College of Law, magna cum laude, Case Notes Editor, South Texas Law Review, 1985
- B.B.A., Texas State University, with honors, 1977
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Holly Williamson
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