Practice Expertise

  • Labor and Employment
  • Complex Employment Litigation
  • Consumer Products
  • Health Care and Life Sciences

Areas of Practice

  • Complex Employment Litigation
  • Consumer Products
  • Health Care and Life Sciences
  • Labor and Employment
  • Labor Management Relations and Labor ...
  • Labor-Management Relations and Labor ...
  • Retail
  • Unfair Competition and Employee Raiding
  • View More

Profile

Kurt has a national practice focused on complex labor and employment matters and related litigation.

Kurt helps businesses of all sizes solve their complex labor and employment challenges. He counsels clients on all aspects of labor-management relations, including representation elections, collective bargaining and strikes and lockouts, and also advises clients in strategic employment and human relations matters. Kurt litigates labor and employment cases in federal and state trial and appellate courts around the country and before the NLRB and EEOC.

Kurt has been recognized nationally as a 2022 Top 10 Labor Lawyer by Benchmark Litigation and as a leader in Labor and Employment by Chambers USA Virginia. A recognized thought leader in traditional labor-management relations, Kurt has testified twice before the US House of Representatives on introducing reforms to US labor policy and has represented many of the country’s most influential trade associations in amicus curiae and other filings in labor cases of national significance.

Kurt also has extensive experience advising employers facing nontraditional organizing and corporate campaign activity from labor unions and other NGOs. He has helped clients develop campaign management strategies and litigation responses to corporate campaign activities, including the groundbreaking use of civil RICO to terminate union corporate campaign attacks.

Kurt is a chapter editor of the Developing Labor Law as well as a contributing author to the  Hunton Employment & Labor Perspectives blog. Kurt also participates in a number of the firm’s pro bono programs. He is a past co-chair of the firm’s veterans pro bono committee and has participated in the Wills for Heroes program, preparing wills, powers of attorney and medical directives for Virginia first responders. Kurt has also participated in the Lawyers Serving Warriors program, representing soldiers injured in Operation Iraqi Freedom in disability and medical retirement proceedings before military medical and physical evaluation boards. Prior to joining Hunton Andrews Kurth, Kurt served on active duty as a lawyer in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps. He was also certified by the National Football League Players Association as a player representative and negotiated several contracts with NFL clubs.

Relevant Experience

  • Advised clients in numerous union organizing campaigns and helped clients prepare advance strategies for responding to union organizing efforts.
  • Negotiated or assisted clients in negotiating numerous collective bargaining agreements around the country, including area and national master contracts.
  • Argued labor and employment appeals in the Fourth, Eighth and D.C. Circuits.
  • Represented industry groups and co-authored amicus briefs in labor cases of national significance, including in the following cases: 

    Loper-Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, No. 22-451 (S.Ct.), (addressing reform of the Chevron deference standard); Tesla, Inc., 370 NLRB No. 88 (Feb. 12, 2021) (addressing employer uniform standards under NLRA); International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 150, 370 NLRB No. 40 (Oct. 27, 2020) (addressing standard for determining whether union use of inflatable rat on public property violates NLRA); The Boeing Company, NLRB Case 10-RC-215878 (2018)(challenge to application of NLRB’s appropriate bargaining unit standard); Browning-Ferris Industries of California v. NLRB, 911 F.3d 1195 (D.C. Cir., Dec. 28, 2018)(reviewing NLRB’s joint employer standard); Volkswagen Group of America, Inc., v. NLRB, No. 16-1309; 1353 (D.C. Cir. Filed Sep. 1, 2016)(challenge to application of NLRB’s appropriate bargaining unit standard); NLRB v. Noel Canning, 134 S.Ct. 2550 (2014)(challenge to President’s authority to appoint NLRB members under Recess Appointment Clause of the U.S. Constitution).

  •  

  • Co-author of NLRB Rulemaking Petition filed on behalf of broad coalition of national trade associations requesting issuance of Board rulemaking overruling Browning-Ferris Industries of California and re-implementing the Board’s historical joint employer standard.
  • Represented nation’s sole designer and builder of nuclear-powered vessels in landmark challenge to scope of President’s authority to make unilateral executive appointments under the Recess Appointments Clause of US Constitution. NLRB v. Enter. Leasing Co. Southeast, 722 F.3d 609 (4th Cir. 2013); cert denied, 134 S.Ct. 2902 (2014).
  • Represented international companies in civil RICO actions against international labor unions and related defendants; litigation resulted in groundbreaking legal precedent relating to the use of racketeering laws to respond to union corporate campaigns. Sodexo, Inc. v. SEIU, Case 1:11-cv-276 (E.D.Va. 2011); Smithfield Foods v. UFCW, 585 F. Supp. 2d 789 (E.D. Va. 2008).
  • Advised numerous national and international companies and trade groups facing union corporate campaigns and other non-traditional union organizing activity, including customer and product boycotts, public relations attacks and shareholder activism.
  • Represented Pebblebrook Hotel Trust in its $118 million sale of the Dumont NYC, a 252-room hotel, adjoined by a residential rental building with ground floor commercial space, located in the Murray Hill neighborhood of New York City.
  • Represented utility company in IBEW organizing campaign involving three nuclear power plants.
  • Advised Fortune 500 company facing 26 concurrently filed unfair labor practice charges involving numerous bargaining units and collective bargaining agreements; obtained withdrawal, dismissal or deferral of 25 out of 26 charges.
  • Won reversal of NLRB ruling that employee strike over retention of supervisory personnel was protected under the National Labor Relations Act; decision created new Fourth Circuit precedent relating to the scope of protected, concerted activity under the Act. Smithfield Packing Company, Inc. v. NLRB, 510 F.3d 507 (4th Cir. 2007).
  • Represented one of world’s largest food processors in EEOC investigation involving pattern and practice ADA claims.
  • Represented Fortune 500 company in defense of class action employment discrimination and sexual harassment case.

Bar Admissions

  • New Jersey
  • Virginia

Education
BA, Dickinson College, Distinguished Military Graduate, 1997

Areas of Practice

  • Complex Employment Litigation
  • Consumer Products
  • Health Care and Life Sciences
  • Labor and Employment
  • Labor Management Relations and Labor Litigation
  • Labor-Management Relations and Labor Litigation
  • Retail
  • Unfair Competition and Employee Raiding

Professional Career

Significant Accomplishments
  • Advised numerous national and international companies and trade groups facing union corporate campaigns and other non-traditional union organizing activity, including customer and product boycotts, public relations attacks and shareholder activism. 
  • Represented international companies in civil RICO actions against international labor unions and related defendants; litigation resulted in groundbreaking legal precedent relating to the use of racketeering laws to respond to union corporate campaigns. Sodexo, Inc. v. SEIU, Case 1:11-cv-276 (E.D.Va. 2011); Smithfield Foods v. UFCW, 585 F. Supp. 2d 789 (E.D. Va. 2008).
  • Represented Fortune 500 company in defense of class action employment discrimination and sexual harassment case. 
  • Advised Fortune 500 company facing 26 concurrently filed unfair labor practice charges involving numerous bargaining units and collective bargaining agreements; obtained withdrawal, dismissal or deferral of 25 out of 26 charges. 
  • Won reversal of NLRB ruling that employee strike over retention of supervisory personnel was protected under the National Labor Relations Act; decision created new Fourth Circuit precedent relating to the scope of protected, concerted activity under the Act. 
  • Advised employers in the health care, financial, and manufacturing industries in both offensive and defensive trade secrets and unfair competition cases, and negotiated numerous executive employment and separation agreements.


Professional Associations
  • American Bar Association, Committee on Labor & Employment and Subcommittee on Antitrust, RICO and Labor Law
  • Virginia Bar Association

Professional Activities and Experience
  • BTI “Client Service All-Star” for corporate counsel, 2017  
  • Associates to Watch, Labor & Employment (Virginia), Chambers USA, America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, 2013
  • Leader in the Field, Labor & Employment (Virginia), Chambers USA, America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, 2012


Articles

Additional Articles
  • Clearing the Path to Unionizing America’s Workforce: The NLRB’s New Rules Governing Union Elections and Bargaining Units, 36 Energy & Min. L. Inst. Ch. 27
  • Dues Checkoff: The Board Giveth and the Board Taketh Away, ABA Journal of Labor & Employment Law, Vol. 29, No. 2
  • Organized Labor: Coming Soon To A Corporate Board Near You, Washington Times
  • RICO: A New Tool for Employers Facing Union Corporate Campaigns?, Corporate Counsel
  • Section 302: Drawing The Line For Employers, Unions, Law360
  • Redefining the Employer-Employee Relationship, A Quarterly Legal Perspective on Today’s Top-of-Mind Issues, The Advisory Board Company
  • New York's $15 minimum wage hike: Who's behind it and why – and what may be coming next, InsideCounsel
  • Returning Balance to the NLRB, Law360
  • Fifth Circuit Overturns NLRB's Dress Code Decision, The National Law Review
  • Expanded Joint-Employer Rule Could ‘Upend’ Franchise World, QSR Magazine
  • Three Key Things in Health Care
  • Kurt Larkin Media Coverage on UPS Freight v. NRLB (Kurt Larkin quoted)
  • 5 NLRA Changes To Make Nonunion Employers Wary In 2024, Law360
  • If At First You Don’t Succeed: National Labor Relations Board Readopts Highly Controversial “Independent Contractor” Standard, Employee Benefit Plan Review
  • How to Escape Joint-Employer Status under the NLRA with Concrete Evidence, Construction Business Owner
  • Labor Organizing in Retail: 2022 Review, Retail Industry 2022 Year in Review
  • 4th Circ. Joint Employer Test Is Incredibly Broad, Law360
  • Labor Organizing in Retail: Conditions Remain for Continued Momentum, Journal on Emerging Issues in Litigation, vol. 3 no. 2

Blogs

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