Anna is a litigator who represents businesses in complex employment, trade secret, non-compete and related commercial disputes. Anna also regularly defends businesses in wage and hour class and collective actions brought under the Fair Labor Standards Act, Massachusetts Wage Act and other state laws, involving claims alleging exempt misclassification, overtime and minimum wage violations, independent contractor classification, and tip credit issues.

In addition to litigation, Anna regularly counsels clients on employment-and business related matters, including the development and deployment of company-wide restrictive covenant and trade secret protection practices, harassment and discrimination investigations and prevention best practices, “me too” issues, equal pay compliance, and reductions-in-force. Anna partners with companies to make strategic, forward-looking employment decisions to help mitigate legal risks in a manner that compliments their business goals.

The companies Anna has worked with include financial services and life sciences companies, major retailers, nationwide restaurant groups, manufacturers, energy companies, grocery retail, advertising and digital publishing, among others.

Relevant Experience

• Prosecuted and defended multi-state trade secret, non-compete, employee raiding and non-disclosure matters within numerous industries. Anna has successfully obtained preliminary and permanent injunctions for several corporate clients enforcing restrictive covenant agreements in federal and state courts, as well as litigating complex trade secrets misappropriation cases, including managing forensic and expert discovery related to trade secret theft and IP issues.
• Defended class and collective action lawsuits alleging statutory employment violations arising under the Fair Labor Standards Act and state wage laws alleging overtime and minimum wage violations, exemption misclassification, independent contractor misclassification, and other related wage and hour claims.
• Assisted employers in responding to administrative complaints, investigations and enforcement actions before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Department of Labor, Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, and various other state agencies, on a range of claims including pay bias, wage theft, and misclassification.
• Litigated and advised clients on nationwide employment law matters, including compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and state disability laws, Family and Medical Leave Act, state leave laws, the Fair Labor Standards Act and state wage and hour laws, Title VII, the Equal Pay Act, trade secret protection, and reductions-in-force implementation.
• Litigated business disputes in matters involving construction and property claims, copyright and intellectual property disputes, and RICO.
• Regularly advises and counsels clients on development and implementation of company-wide restrictive covenant policies, background check procedures in compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and issues pertaining to executive employment agreements, severance agreements, and incentive compensation plans.

Education
BA, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2009