Douglas H. Duerr - Partner
duerr@elarbeethompson.com
(404) 582-8432

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 a number of hospitality employers in a number of states in connection with alleged wage and hour and wage payment violations.

Trade Secrets & Restrictive Covenants
Douglas has extensive, nationwide experience in helping employers prepare restrictive covenants and developing protections for trade secrets in states such as California, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Texas. In addition to such preventive steps, Douglas helps employers protect against unfair competition from former employees and prevent the misappropriation of trade secrets and confidential information by seeking legal action to enforce agreements and prevent new employers from misappropriating information.

Wage and Hour
Douglas is frequently asked to speak on wage and hour compliance and regularly advises employers on issues, such as overtime, minimum wage and exempt statues. He is a Contributing Editor to the annual updates of Kearns The Fair Labor Standards Act (BNA 1999), for which he was a contributing author. He also has experience handling class and collective action cases.

Complex Litigation
Douglas has experience handling professional liability, 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 - 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: "Lilly Ledbetter Act of 2009:Its Impact on Franchisees."