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Boutique labor & employment firm opens in Stark County
SHERRY KARABIN
Legal News Reporter
Published: April 15, 2014
When it comes to Fair Labor Standards Act cases, Stark County-based Nilges.Draher.llc, expects to give others a run for their money.
This new boutique employment and labor law firm opened its doors on Feb. 12 at 4580 Stephen Cir., N.W. in Canton, representing individual and class members in wage and hour suits and helping employers prevent and defend violations.
“We are the only firm in the area that does both individual and collective action wage and hour cases,” said Attorney Shannon Draher, who started the firm with Hans Nilges.
“We have the largest FLSA practice in Stark County and I would say you would have to travel to Cleveland or Columbus to find a firm that handles more of these cases than we do,” said Nilges.
He said the FLSA is the most violated employment law because it can be difficult to understand.
“Many employers misclassify employees as exempt when they’re not,” said Nilges. “It can also be hard to monitor off-the-clock work especially with the use of mobile devices.
“Another big issue is illegal clock rounding. A lot of employers round the time clock to the nearest quarter hour, which is okay as long as the employee gets the benefit. When it works to the employee’s detriment there are problems.”
In addition to FLSA matters, the firm handles Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) retaliation cases and various types of discrimination lawsuits providing a variety of consulting services to employers and individuals on a flat fee basis.
For example, Nilges said employers can choose from several proprietary legal compliance programs such as the FLSA Stress Test, Small Employer’s Toolkit and the HR Professional’s Best Friend. The attorneys also offer employee handbook review and training on various topics.
“We understand that employers often don’t have the resources needed to commit to compliance so by offering these alternatives the client can get up to speed without worrying about the bill,” said Nilges.
Nilges said the partnership has been years in the making. He said the two received their bachelor’s and law degrees from The University of Toledo, which is where they first met although their families had known each other for years before they actually became acquainted. Nilges said he began his career at Brouse McDowell and Draher worked at Jones Day and Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease. The two eventually ended up as colleagues at Morrow & Meyer in North Canton.
“We started moving our practice in a different direction because we were representing employees and that led to a discussion on what it would be like to have our own firm,” said Draher.
In addition to the two of them, there is a paralegal, Luda Kovalishin. Nilges said while he focuses on working with employers, Draher generally represents employees.
“We would like to keep our practice small but given that we are already so busy, I imagine growth is inevitable somewhere down the road,” said Draher.