Jennifer Schilling

Jennifer Schilling represents clients in a broad range of labor and employment matters, including class and collective actions, as well as single and multiple plaintiff litigation involving matters of:

• Discrimination
• Harassment
• Wage and hour
• Defamation
• Wrongful termination
• Employment-based torts
• Contract grievances

Jennifer routinely represents clients in union grievance arbitrations involving contract interpretation and just cause termination. She has extensive experience with litigation before federal and state courts and regularly appears before administrative agencies including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Illinois Department of Human Rights, and the State of Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development-Equal Rights Division. Jennifer routinely assists clients with various forms of Alternative Dispute Resolution, such as private and agency-based mediation, as well as court-sponsored settlement conferences. Among litigation matters, Jennifer handles issues arising under:

• The Family and Medical Leave Act
• The Americans with Disabilities Act
• The Fair Labor Standards Act
• The Age Discrimination in Employment Act
• Title VII and 42 U.S.C. Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Acts
• The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act
• The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act
• The Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act
• The Illinois Minimum Wage Law
• The One Day Rest in Seven Act

Additionally, Jennifer counsels clients on workplace issues such as terminations, leaves of absence, drug testing, wage garnishments, and policy review. She has managed numerous large scale reductions-in-force, including adverse impact and disparate treatment assessments, and has trained other attorneys in her field on detailed procedures to minimize legal risks regarding reductions-in-force. She also:

• Develops employee handbooks and personnel policy manuals
• Drafts and negotiates severance and release agreements
• Drafts restrictive covenants, convents not to compete, and non-solicitation agreements
• Provides protection of confidential information and trade secrets
• Conducts harassment training
• Performs large scale sensitive sexual harassment investigations
• Performs due diligence labor and employment reviews on corporate deals

Prior to working at Littler, Jennifer spent seven years working at one of the largest law firms in the world. During her tenure, she advised that firm's international offices on U. S. labor laws; worked with corporate attorneys conducting due diligence labor and employment reviews regarding large scale and multi-million dollar mergers and acquisitions; and provided litigation, advice and counseling regarding virtually all areas of labor and employment law.

In law school, Jennifer served as a judicial extern for the Honorable Magistrate Judge Arlander Keys of the Northern District of Illinois, and she also completed internships with the Cook County Public Defender's Office and the National Organization for Women. She was actively involved with the National Moot Court Team, was a writer and editor for the Loyola Consumer Law Reporter, served as president of the Women's Law Society, and was a London Advocacy Scholar.