Douglas H. Duerr - Partner
duerr@elarbeethompson.com
(404) 582-8432
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Practice Areas
Wage & Hour Law
Class Action and Collective Action 
Employment Litigation
Labor Relations
Complex Litigation
Environmental (CERCLA)
Occupational Safety & Health Law
Hospitality & Service Industries
Public Employment Law
Trade Secrets Protection & Restrictive Covenants
Employer Counseling, Training & Litigation Prevention
Business Immigration

Education
J.D., cum laude, Mercer University, 1989
B.A., University of the South, 1986

Admitted to Practice
Georgia

Profile
Douglas focuses on preventive advice and counseling on a wide range of employment and labor issues, while providing experienced counsel to employers in litigation and administrative proceedings.

Areas of Practice
Hospitality & Service Industries
Douglas has worked with a number of restaurant chains on "front of the house" and "back of the house" issues. He has defended numerous hospitality employers in a variety of states in connection with alleged wage and hour and wage payment claims.

Trade Secrets & Restrictive Covenants
Douglas has extensive, nationwide experience in helping employers prepare restrictive covenants and develop protections for trade secrets in many states including California, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Texas. In addition to such preventive steps, Douglas helps employers protect against unfair competition by former employees and prevent the misappropriation of trade secrets and confidential information.

Wage and Hour
With over 15 years of experience defending collective actions, Douglas has a long history of defending employers in the manufacturing, retail, and the hospitality industries against claims of misclassification as well as claims for failure to pay minimum wage. Because of such experience, he is frequently asked to speak on wage and hour compliance and regularly advises employers on issues, such as overtime, minimum wage and exempt status. Douglas is not only a Contributor to the treatise Kearns, Fair Labor Standards Act (1rst ed. 1999), he has also served many years since then as a Chapter Editor for the annual updates, with a focus on chapters dealing with litigation. Douglas is able to use his extensive experience effectively in defending employers against collective actions by focusing quickly on class membership issues, fundamental wage hour issues, and complex litigation strategies.

Complex Litigation
Douglas has experience handling Professional Liability and Errors and Omission claims, as well as Products Liability and Commercial Litigation.

Professional Associations
American Bar Association
State Bar of Georgia
Atlanta Bar Association
American Immigration Lawyers Association
Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce

Public Speaking

• Speaker - Georgia Local Government Personnel Association
• Speaker - Buffalo Wild Wings National Franchisee Association.
• Speaker - 56th Annual Institute for City and County Attorneys. Topic: "Immigration: Complying With Mandates on Local Government."
• Speaker - Burger King National Franchisee Association, Government Relations Summit: Topic: "Lilly Ledbetter Act of 2009:Its Impact on Franchisees."

Webinars
08-26-10 - Top Ten Mistakes of Wage and Hour Compliance.
08-11-10 - Employee Internet & Email Usage/Online Social Networking.
05-18-10 - Advanced Issues About Worker Misclassification: Independent Contractor vs. Employee.
01-08-09 - New FMLA Regulations: What You Should Do Now to Get Ready.

Foreign language:
German