Shawn Matthew Clark

Shawn Matthew Clark provides practical advice to employers on every aspect of the laws governing the workplace. He has extensive experience litigating employment disputes of all types, including defending employers and managers against claims of discrimination, retaliation, and harassment. On behalf of his clients, Shawn has won dispositive motions, temporary restraining orders, preliminary injunctions, defense verdicts, and appeals. He draws on that litigation experience to counsel employers on effective strategies for preventing litigation when possible, and preparing for litigation when it is unavoidable.

Beyond the courtroom, Shawn devotes much of his practice to business restructuring and M&A matters. In particular, he helps employers plan and implement reductions-in-force, mass layoffs, plant closings, furloughs, and other business reorganizations, including all aspects of compliance with federal and state Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Acts and the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act (OWPBA). He also advises corporate clients and private equity firms on employment issues that arise in corporate transactions and performs pre-acquisition due diligence to identify employment obligations and liabilities that may affect the value and structure of the transaction. 

As an unfair competition and trade secret lawyer, Shawn drafts and negotiates executive employment contracts and noncompetition, nonsolicitation, and confidentiality agreements. He also litigates claims related to such agreements, including claims for breach of contract, misappropriation of confidential information, theft of trade secrets, unfair competition, tortious interference, and breach of the duty of loyalty. For example, on behalf of a Fortune 500 professional services company, Shawn successfully obtained a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction against three former employees based on breaches of their nonsolicitation and confidentiality obligations. Shawn also successfully defended a noncompetition claim against an employee of a cloud-based data security company resulting in the denial of the request for a preliminary injunction and withdrawal of the claims.

Before entering private practice, Shawn served as an assistant corporation counsel in the Labor and Employment Law Division of the New York City Law Department where he represented the City of New York and its agencies and officers in employment litigation.

Before law school, Shawn worked in the United States Senate for members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.