Ferrell, Michael S.

Current Employment Position(s)

Associate

Lawyer Overview

Mike Ferrell's practice involves all areas of labor and employment law, including representing employers before federal and state courts, administrative agencies, and private arbitrators in dealing with employment discrimination claims, wage and hour claims, the enforcement of employment contracts, the interpretation and application of collective bargaining agreements, and matters involving the National Labor Relations Act. Mike's practice focuses on traditional labor and includes representing employers in collective bargaining negotiations, contract arbitration, union organizing and decertification proceedings, unfair labor practice proceedings, corporate campaigns, strikes, and picketing disputes. His traditional labor practice extends nationwide and includes employers in the manufacturing, retail, telecommunications, and transportation industries.

Representative clients include Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, CareerBuilder, Chrysler, Elite Labor Services, General Cable Corporation, Journal Communications, Edw. C. Levy Co., Morton's Restaurant Group, and Verizon Communications.

Mike's practice also includes trial and appellate litigation of employment disputes, including representing employers in employment litigation before U.S. District Courts in Illinois and Indiana and state courts in Illinois, Ohio, Massachusetts, and Michigan. He represents employers in class action litigation pertaining to FLSA and state wage-hour cases, employee benefits, and other employment issues. In addition, Mike counsels employers regarding labor and employment issues, including hiring, firing, and discipline-related issues; compensation practices; reductions in force; employment and severance agreements; and wage and hour compliance. Mike has represented individual asylum applicants before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and the Immigration Court as well.

Mike is a member of The Chicago Bar Association and the Illinois State Bar Association.

Areas of Practice

• Labor & Employment

Representative Cases

• Albanian human rights activist granted U.S. asylum
• Albertson's negotiates industrywide multi-employer collective bargaining agreement
• BOC Group settles favorably in ERISA class action
• Bridgestone defends against discipline and discharge labor arbitrations throughout the country
• Bridgestone negotiates collective bargaining agreements with USWA
• Bulkmatic Transport opposes nationwide union organizing drive by Teamsters
• CareerBuilder successfully resolves FLSA collective action
• Continental Tire is successful against unfair labor practice charge
• Continental Tire successfully opposes organizing efforts by union
• Elite Labor Services settles favorably in complex wage-hour class action
• Ron's Staffing Services defends against wage-hour class action; class settlement preliminarily approved , (2009)
• Russian client wins U.S. political asylum
• Staff Source defends against unfair labor practice charge
• Staff Source obtains dismissal of petition filed by union in NLRB proceeding
• USG Corp acquires California Wholesale Material Supply for $280 million , (2009)
• Volunteers participate in the 2009-10 Edward J. Lewis II Lawyers in the Classroom Program

West Practice Categories

Collective Bargaining, Labor Arbitration, Labor Disputes, Labor Law, Labor Legislation, Labor Relations Boards & Proceedings, Unfair Labor Practices, Unions, Wage & Hour Laws, Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act

Bar Admissions

• Illinois

Education

• Loyola Univ- Chicago
• Texas A&M Univ- College Statio
• Vanderbilt University

Published Works

• Balancing Patient and Employee Interests: Health Care Employer Responses to the H1N1 Pandemic, 2009
• Recent Developments in Traditional Labor Law, coauthor, 2007 Employment Law Conference, National Employment Law Institute, 2007

Address

77 West Wacker
Chicago, IL 60601-1692

Phones

1.312.269.4226 (Business Phone)

Faxes

1.312.782.8585 (Business Fax)

Emails

Contact Us (Business Email)

Websites

http://www.jonesday.com