Kelley Edwards focuses her practice on a variety of labor and employment litigation matters. She represents employers in federal and state courts and before administrative agencies, such as the Texas Workforce Commission, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the United States Department of Labor. She handles litigation matters at the pre-trial, trial, and appellate levels.  

Kelley is board certified in labor and employment law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.

Kelley has represented management in charges and litigation matters related to:

• Race, gender, national origin, disability, and equal pay discrimination
• Harassment
• Retaliation
• Wage and hour disputes
• Employment tort
• The Family and Medical Leave Act
• Workers' compensation
• The Employee Retirement Income Security Act

Her litigation practice also includes complex commercial disputes, from products liability and unfair competition to covenants not to compete and breach of contract litigation. She often works with clients in the following industries:

• Health care and health services
• Financial and banking
• Retail
• Airline services and transportation
• Oil and gas / energy services

With extensive trial and oral advocacy experience, Kelley has handled single- and multi-plaintiff actions in state and federal courts and before the EEOC.  She has first- and second-chaired jury and bench trials to verdict in federal, state, and local courts and has successfully defended judgments for clients on appeal.  Among her notable cases, she tried two high-profile race discrimination trials for a national fast food franchisee, both resulting in defense verdicts; successfully defended a telephone directory company in a multi-plaintiff federal bench trial alleging wrongful denial of overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act; and obtained a defense verdict for a Texas healthcare provider in a Title VII retaliation case following a three-day jury trial in federal court.  She has also prosecuted numerous Class C misdemeanor jury trials for the Houston City Attorney's Office as part of an attorney loan program with the City of Houston.

She has obtained favorable rulings on summary judgment in cases involving:

• Discrimination
• Retaliation
• ERISA
• The Americans with Disabilities Act
• Workers' compensation
• Title VII
• Breach of contract

She has handled numerous federal appeals, including successfully defending awards of summary judgment in ADA, ERISA, workers' compensation, and Title VII cases.

Kelley performs training seminars, prepares and reviews personnel handbooks and policies, and conducts workplace investigations. She also advises clients on a variety of labor and employment matters. In particular, she provides counsel and document preparation to clients regarding:

• Executive compensation
• Employment and severance agreements
• Mergers and acquisitions
• Layoffs
• Executive hiring

Her counseling practice extends to all workplace issues, including:

• Employment policies
• Employee retention
• Hiring and termination decisions
• Reductions-in-force
• Supervisor and executive training
• Wage and hour law/FLSA compliance
• The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act
• The Sarbanes-Oxley Act
• Drug testing
• Privacy
• Immigration compliance

Prior to joining Littler Mendelson, Kelley was an associate in the Labor and Employment practice of an international law firm. In law school, she was the managing editor of the Virginia Tax Review.

PROFESSIONAL AND COMMUNITY AFFILIATIONS

• Member, Greater Houston Partnership
• Member, Litigation Section - Houston Bar Association
• Member, Houston Young lawyers - Federal Bar Association
• Member, Labor and Employment / Litigation sections - State Bar of Texas
• Chair, Labor and Employment Section – Houston Bar Association, 2007-2008

RECOGNITION

• Named, Rising Star – Texas Monthly Magazine, 2010-2012