Amanda Gamblin offers practical advice for the unique employment issues that arise in the construction and maritime industries. Her advice integrates complex and often contradictory legal requirements with the business realities facing a workforce that may be seasonal, transitory, or deployed for extended periods. Amanda is skillful in handling complicated employment situations ranging from organized labor disputes to safety concerns. On those occasions when the employment relationship breaks down, Amanda represents clients in litigation, arbitration, and mediation.

Substantial litigation

Amanda has tried many large, complex cases where companies are significantly exposed, including labor disputes and class actions such as wage and hour, race discrimination, and Title III Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) cases. Her extensive experience ensures that clients are in capable, practiced hands.

Experienced trial attorney

A veteran trial lawyer, Amanda is a skilled communicator who can persuasively tell her clients’ stories in court. She is known for creative strategies that lead to positive solutions.

Labor disputes

Amanda supports clients in a wide range of labor concerns, from contesting unfair labor practices to counseling employers of all sizes on organized labor issues, including union organizing activities, representation elections, union contracts, arbitrations, and lawsuits.

Employment concerns

Taking a proactive approach to potential employment problems, Amanda trains executives, managers, and directors to understand their legal obligations, recognize high-risk situations, and balance the needs of the business with the rights of employees.

Amanda helps companies protect their intangible assets by safeguarding intellectual property while creating employee incentives. Strategies such as non-solicitation and non-compete agreements, and bonus and retention programs, improve the company’s performance while facilitating its future transition to a potential buyer or to the next generation of employees.

Experience

Labor experience

• Served on the lead legal team for a multi-national transportation company in a contentious and highly publicized labor dispute at the Port of Portland with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.
• Defeated dozens of unfair labor practice charges filed by a union during its campaign for representation, resulting in the union giving up its efforts to unionize the employer before the election.
• Worked on the team that helped resoundingly defeat the Teamsters union in an election campaign for a large warehouse employer.
• Represented a construction firm targeted by the steelworkers’ union. The union filed simultaneous unfair labor practice charges and persuaded employees to sue for unpaid prevailing wages and retaliation. The union’s stated goal was to run the client out of business. We defeated the union’s claims and the client continues to be a thriving, non-union shop today.

Employment experience

• Won a defense verdict for a maritime employer in an ADA discrimination claim that was appealed to (and affirmed by) the Washington Supreme Court.
• Defeated a motion for a temporary restraining order against a large technology client that had hired an employee with a non-compete agreement with a former employer. The court recognized the potential unenforceability of the non-compete agreement and denied the former employer’s TRO.
• Represented a contractor in a $4.5 million wrongful death action where the plaintiff claimed that the employer was not subject to the workers’ compensation exclusive remedy. The creative strategy employed caused the plaintiff to reduce the settlement offer by 75% after the summary judgment hearing; ultimately, the client paid nothing.
• Obtained a permanent injunction against a former employee who violated a non-compete agreement.
• Prepared a manufacturing company for an asset sale by implementing restrictive covenants, arbitration agreements, and bonus retention agreements, and by cleaning up employee benefit plans and policies. As a result, the company’s value substantially increased before going to market.

Class action experience

• Successfully represented a hotel client in an ADA class action suit over website access.
• Successfully represented a large agricultural entity in a class action suit over farm worker housing.
• Successfully resolved a wage and hour class action suit on behalf of a trucking company.

Awards

• Best Lawyers in America Award, Employment Law - Management (2021)
• Ranked for Labor & Employment Lawyers in Oregon, Chambers USA (2020-2021)

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