The law firm of Employment Legal Team (ELT) (http://www.employmentlegalteam.com) announced today the opening of its flagship office in Washington, D.C. to meet the growing demand for exceptional, yet affordable, employment law legal services in the areas such as whistleblower actions, security clearance revocations, wrongful termination, employment discrimination, non-competitive promotions, disability retirement, workers' compensation, and the Family Medical Leave Act.
According to Mr. Gilliard, ?A result of the Federal government's belt-tightening is that agency managers now seek to reduce the rolls of vulnerable and older workers, and to reduce the needs for government contractors. This is taking place in an environment in which thousands of unemployed Americans are ready to take the job of someone terminated from private sector employment. We are ready and equipped to defend government employees and government contractor employees who are unfairly let go, older employees who have asked to retire because they supposedly "make too much," and employees forced to choose between blowing the whistle on management or themselves taking the blame for management fraud, waste and abuse of authority."
Mr. Gilliard?s representation of clients in a broad range of labor and employment matters includes an association with a government contracts litigation boutique where he provided legal services to corporate whistleblowers during Federal trial and appellate qui tam and commercial litigation against powerful corporations such as KBR, Halliburton Co., and Telef?nica, S.A. U.S. ex rel. Wilson v. Kellogg Brown & Root, Inc., No. 07-1516 (4th Cir.); U.S. ex rel. McBride v. Halliburton Co., No. CV-05-00828 (D.D.C.); Kargo, Inc., et al., v. Pegaso, PCS, S.A. de C.V., et al., No. 05 Civ. 10528 (S.D.N.Y.).
He also served as a Staff Counsel for the American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO (AFGE), a federal-sector labor union with more than 600,000 members. His dedicated, relentless legal representation and nationwide outreach efforts to thousands of Transportation Security Administration airport screeners (Transportation Security Officers, or TSOs) was crucial to AFGE?s successful 2010 collective bargaining representative election victory for TSOs. He has since in private practice represented employees before the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Gerald Gilliard is a former board member of the D.C. Bar Labor and Employment Law Steering Committee and a current member of the Metropolitan Washington Employment Lawyers Association, an affiliate of the National Employment Law Association. Mr. Gilliard, the son of an Army Reserve sergeant, attended the University of Pennsylvania on an AFSCME scholarship and is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center.
Amber Smith, an associate with Employment Legal Team, is a graduate of the University of Georgia and the George Washington University Law School and a member of the New York State Bar Association. She has specific experience in the areas of federal sector employment law, wrongful termination suits, unfair bargaining issues, and unfair labor practices.
About Employment Legal Team
Employment Legal Team is a full-service employment law firm based in Washington, D.C. Our attorneys have extensive experience in a broad range of employment law practice areas. Our attorneys have successfully represented clients before numerous state and federal trial and appellate courts, as well as various municipal, state and federal agencies and authorities. A philosophy of concerted, collaborative problem solving, coupled with a client-centered focus, allows Employment Legal Team to deliver exceptional legal services at competitive rates.
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