Karen Elliott is a member of the Business and Professional Litigation practice group and its Employment Law team. Karen focuses her law practice on labor and employment law counseling and trial work, and on a broad range of commercial litigation. Karen strives to provide practical legal advice to help employers craft reasonable business solutions for their human resource challenges and works with clients of all sizes, from start-ups to the Fortune 500.

She counsels and represents clients in investigation and defense of EEOC, DOL and NLRB charges, drafting of employment contracts, handbooks and drug policies, providing coaching for terminations and management training for litigation and union avoidance. She also assists clients with issues relating to the numerous federal and state employment laws, among them: Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act and unemployment issues.

Karen's litigation practice focuses on defending employment law claims, non-competition claims, intellectual property disputes, workplace information privacy and security issues, as well as breach of commercial, business contracts. She has been listed for five years in Virginia Business magazine's "Legal Elite" for her Labor and Employment practice. She is a graduate of Leadership Metro Richmond, Class of 2002-2003.

Karen is active on committees of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce. In the past, she served as a board member of the City of Richmond Bar Association, on the Society of Human Resources State Council as Legislative Director, as President of NOVA of Virginia Aquatics, Inc. as a board member of the Children's Home Society of Virginia and as President of the Metropolitan Richmond Women's Bar Association.

Speaking Engagements 

Karen is a frequent speaker on employment law topics.  Speaking engagements for the past year included the Virginia Bar Association's Annual Labor & Employment Conference; and the International Public Management Association for Human Resources - Virginia Chapter - annual retreat.

Testimony 

March 2, 2009: Testified as the SHRM representative before the full U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. ("GINA").  Quoted extensively in June 2009 ABA Journal article regarding GINA

2008:  Met with the Deputy Secretary of Labor and other DOL officials at the DOL as SHRMS' representative for perspective from the business community to discuss the impending FMLA regulations.

Recent Case

Prevailing party in KBH Corp. v. David R. McGeorge Car Co. et al. Virginia Supreme Court  Record  No. 080371 (Va. Dec 12, 2008)(unpublished order)(non-compete case).