For more than thirty years, Michael Brett Burns has represented leading employers and management, particularly in the retail industry, in a wide range of employment and public accommodations-related matters. Brett, a partner in the labor and employment practice at Hunton Andrews Kurth, focuses on complex litigation matters, and regularly defends clients in employment class actions, wage and hour class, collective, and representative actions, public accommodations litigation, and federal agency pattern or practice matters (including lawsuits filed by the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and state attorneys general).

Brett has led the defense teams for more than 120 class, collective, representative, and pattern or practice actions, tried complex collective actions and pattern or practice cases to juries, and secured verdicts for clients in multiple single-plaintiff jury trials, bench trials, and arbitrations.

In addition to his litigation and arbitration practice, Brett counsels clients on litigation avoidance strategies and on creative solutions for complicated employment, wage and hour, and public accommodation law challenges. He has earned national recognition for his work from Chambers USA (2021 to present), Benchmark Litigation (2018 to present), Legal 500 US (2021 to present), the California Daily Journal (2021 “Top Labor & Employment Lawyers”), and others.  He is a member of the American Employment Law Council and several other legal organizations. 

Relevant Experience

• Representing a national retailer client in EEOC investigations presenting allegations that the use of criminal background checks during the hiring process has a disparate impact on minority applicants under Title VII (California, New York, Texas).
• Defending national casual dining and national retailer clients in nationwide FLSA collective actions presenting first impression “tip pooling,” “donning and doffing,” and misclassification claims, respectively (Fifth Circuit and Southern District of Texas, Northern District of Ohio, District of New Jersey).
• Defending national movie exhibitor clients in nationwide pattern or practice public accommodations cases filed by the U.S. Department of Justice presenting challenges to architectural designs under ADA Title III (Ninth Circuit and Central District of California, Ninth Circuit and District of Oregon, Sixth Circuit and Northern District of Ohio).

• Representing a national retailer client in a nationwide structured negotiations dispute presenting allegations that the use of personality assessments during the hiring process has a disparate impact on applicants with mental health disabilities under the ADA (California, Washington, D.C.).
• Defending multiple statewide wage and hour class and collective actions against national retailer, casual dining, financial services, movie exhibitor, manufacturing, and hospitality clients presenting meal period, rest break, reporting time pay, misclassification, off-the-clock, tip pooling, and other claims (Central District of California, Southern District of California, California Supreme Court, California Court of Appeal, multiple California Superior Courts (Alameda, Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego), Middle District of Florida, Southern District of Florida, Southern District of Texas).
• Defending multiple statewide class, multi-plaintiff, state agency pattern or practice, and structured negotiations public accommodations actions against national movie theater exhibitor clients concerning seeking to mandate new captioning, narrative description, and assistive listening technologies under ADA Title III and analogous state laws (Arizona, California, New York, Texas, Washington).
• Defending a national retailer client in a multi-year nationwide pattern or practice case filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission presenting race and national origin discrimination and harassment claims under Title VII (District of Arizona).
• Defending a national retail client in a national public accommodations class action presenting challenges to architectural designs and construction of parking facilities and accessible paths of travel under ADA Title III (Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia).
• Managing national and regional dockets of employment, wage and hour, and public accommodations litigation for multiple national clients (Arizona, California, Florida, Ohio, New York, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Washington, D.C.).
• Advising national clients on multiple employment, wage and hour, and public accommodations consulting projects (Arizona, California, Florida, Maryland, New York, Ohio, Texas, Virginia, Washington, Washington, D.C.).

Bar Admissions

• California
• Texas

Education
BS, Texas A&M University, 1988

• Representing a national retailer client in a nationwide investigation involving claims alleging that the use of criminal background checks during the hiring process has a disparate impact on minority applicants (California, New York, Texas).
• Defending a national movie exhibitor client in a nationwide ADA pattern or practice pubic accessibility case filed by the U.S. Department of Justice presenting challenges to new architectural designs (Ninth Circuit and Central District of California).
• Representing a national casual dining client in a nationwide FLSA collective action presenting first impression "tip pooling" wage claims (Fifth Circuit and Southern District of Texas). 
• Defending multiple national movie theater clients in statewide class, multi-plaintiff, and agency pattern and practice public accessibility actions seeking to mandate new captioning and narrative description technologies, and challenging new architectural designs (Arizona, California, Texas, Washington).
• Representing multiple statewide wage and hour class and collective actions against national retailer, casual dining, manufacturing, and hospitality clients presenting meal period, rest break, manager misclassification, off-the-clock, tip pooling, and other claims (Central District of California, Southern District of California, California Supreme Court, California Court of Appeal, multiple California Superior Courts (Alameda, Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego), Middle District of Florida, and Southern District of Florida).
• Representing a national retailer client in a nationwide Title VII pattern or practice case filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission presenting race and national origin discrimination and harassment claims (District of Arizona).
• Defending a national movie exhibitor client in a multi-plaintiff Title VII case presenting sex discrimination, sex harassment, and religious harassment claims (District of Utah).
• Managing national and regional dockets of employment, wage and hour, and public accessibility cases for national retailer, casual dining, and movie exhibitor clients (Arizona, California, Florida, Ohio, New York, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, Washington, D.C.).
• Defending a national movie exhibitor client in a nationwide ADA pattern or practice pubic accessibility case filed by the U.S. Department of Justice presenting challenges to new architectural designs (Sixth Circuit and Northern District of Ohio).

• Hunton Retail Law Resource: Analysis and Insight in Retail Law

  By M. Burns |November 2020

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