Kimberly A. Yates

Kimberly A. Yates is an experienced litigator, counselor, leader and innovator. She represents clients in employment litigation, provides advice and counsel on a variety of employment and human resource matters, and has led innovation platforms that provide these services.

Kim’s practice includes advice and counsel for global clients and various labor and employment litigation, particularly in the areas of:

• Discrimination and retaliation lawsuits
• Wage and hour collective and class action matters
• Trade secrets, restrictive covenant agreements and unfair competition cases
• Management and employee training

Additionally, Kim provides client counseling concerning risk management and compliance with state and federal employment laws. A frequent speaker and lecturer on labor and employment matters, she also has trained executives and management on:

• Pandemic/COVID-19 Response
• Wage and hour compliance
• Personnel policies and practices
• Employee discipline and discharge
• Workplace safety

Kim’s management and strategic leadership experience includes roles at the firm leading two of Littler’s award-winning innovation platforms - Littler CaseSmart®- Charges (LCS) and Littler onDemand (LoD). As Program Director for LCS – Charges, Kim led the team of national LCS Counsel defending agency charges and other pre-litigation matters. Kim also served as Program Director for Littler onDemand during development and launch of the technology-based, advice-and counsel platform. In her Program Director roles, Kim provided clients extensive consulting on program performance and analysis of metrics related to their employment matters and legal services.  

Kim developed and led the firm’s Littler onDemand COVID-19 Task Force process connecting clients with fast and effective subject-matter knowledge during the pandemic. Kim is a current member of Littler’s Women’s Leadership Initiative Steering Committee and a past member of the core team of the firm's Associates Committee and the Talent Advisory Council.

In law school, Kim was lead articles editor for the Journal of Dispute Resolution. Prior to beginning a career in law, she worked for a global distribution company as a national account manager in its health and beauty care division and as a human resources executive. Kim also drafted substantial portions of Missouri's revised Dram Shop law, which was subjected to heavy judicial scrutiny and survived a constitutional challenge.