Christian Vieira is a trusted advisor to companies of all sizes addressing their most sensitive employment matters. In the courtroom, Christian represents employers and their management in high-stakes disputes involving claims of discrimination, harassment, retaliation, trade secret misappropriation, and the violation of restrictive employment covenants. Christian also litigates wage and hour class and collective actions, and he advocates for employers before government agencies. Through his commitment to excellent client service, Christian’s employment litigation practice obtains effective results while providing tremendous value for his clients.
Christian also provides day-to-day advice and counsel to human resources personnel on a wide range of issues that arise in the employment context. Christian’s business-minded approach and understanding of employment laws allows employers to identify risks early, mitigating exposure to liability.
REPRESENTATIVE EXPERIENCE
WAGE AND HOUR MATTERS
- Compelled a wage and hour case to arbitration and out of an unfavorable jurisdiction.
- Obtained favorable settlements in wage and hour class and collective actions for clients in the energy services and insurance industries, including in independent contractor classification and overtime pay disputes.
- Obtained a dismissal with prejudice of a federal court wage and hour collective action against an inspection company in the energy services industry.
- Prepared damages models in complex wage and hour class and collective actions to advise clients on their potential liability in such disputes.
Trade Secret and Restrictive Covenant Matters
- Represented an industrial and energy services company in a lawsuit involving claims of trade secret misappropriation, conversion of company property, and breaches of fiduciary duties.
- Member of litigation team which obtained summary judgment on a counterclaim alleging that claims of misappropriation of trade secrets were brought in bad faith.
- Crafted and executed strategies to address complex discovery issues in trade secret litigation with over 280,000 produced documents.
OTHER LITIGATION
- Compelled and removed discrimination, harassment, and retaliation cases out of unfavorable jurisdictions.
- Obtained a favorable settlement for a hospital client in a dispute with a former employee who alleged tortious interference with prospective employment and retaliation under a whistleblower provision of the Texas Health and Safety Code.
- Member of team which prevailed in employment arbitration against a former law firm shareholder who claimed he was wrongfully terminated.
Administrative Claims
- Successfully represented clients before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Texas Workforce Commission.
- Obtained favorable settlements during mediations before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
- Investigated allegations made in Charges of Discrimination filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Texas Workforce Commission and drafted employer’s position statements responding to the Charges.
Counseling
- Mitigated employers’ risk through day-to-day counseling on issues that arise in the employment context, including those involving the hiring of employees, requests for accommodation, employee complaints, employee discipline, employee terminations and suspensions, employee and independent contractor classifications, the calculation of pay, off-the-clock work, and city and state sick leave laws.
- Conducted trainings and webinars for employers on employment-related issues, including on how to avoid misclassifying employees and independent contractors and on wage and hour laws.
- Counseled employers on their investigations into allegations of workplace discrimination, harassment, retaliation, fraud, and embezzlement.
Employment Due Diligence Support and Transactional Employment Work
- Conducted employment due diligence for proposed equity transactions.
- Drafted employment-related documents and agreements protecting employer-clients’ interests, including offer letters, employee handbooks and policies for multinational companies, and separation/severance, non-compete, non-solicitation, non-disclosure, retention, and tuition reimbursement agreements.