Greater Atlanta Area
Featured Speaker
Experienced practitioners share their insights on the latest developments at the NLRB and what merit shop contractors should expect from the board in the second half of 2021, with a particular focus on the pro-labor agenda of the new NLRB general counsel.
James W. Wimberly, Jr., an AV rated attorney, is a founding principal of the firm and of the Wimberly Lawson Network. In over 40 years as an attorney, in private practice and early on with the US Department of Labor, and as a Professor of Labor Law, he has built a national reputation for excellence in comprehensively addressing the needs of employers.
Chosen by Best Lawyers in America every year since 1987 as one of the very top lawyers in labor and employment law, Jim is perhaps most sought after for his work representing employers in traditional labor management defense. He provides solutions to clients with respect to concerns such as union avoidance and union organizing and election campaigns, collective bargaining, plant closings, and, when it cannot be avoided, arbitration and litigation before the NLRB, EEOC, and all state and federal courts. Jim’s litigation experience is demonstrated by the litigation of two Title VII class actions that worked all the way to the U.S Supreme Court. As a preeminent expert in the area he has testified before the U.S. Congress.
Jim advises clients on how to best avoid labor concerns by analyzing industry trends, developing workable plans for regulatory compliance, training executives and management on workplace administration, and developing and implementing effective human resources standards and practices. In addition to employers he counsels national trade associations in the lumber, furniture, apparel and farming, and food processing industries, and state trade associations in the poultry and trucking industries.
Jim’s labor representation has led him to success on behalf of employers in hundreds of labor arbitrations. He has represented employers in over 50 union recognitional elections, has negotiated successful collective bargaining agreements involving thousands of workers in myriad industries, and has created strategies to terminate local, regional and nationwide strikes.
Notable successes include:
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Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) Arbitrations: Resolved disputes respecting MARTA’s labor contract with over 3,000 employees through four interest arbitration cases and related collective bargaining.
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National trucking company: Ended nationwide strikes affecting over 3,000 transportation workers.
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Fortune 500 manufacturer of construction products: Performed labor and employment due diligence reviews in multiple acquisitions and developed revised organizational structure for the company following the acquisitions.
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Fidelity Interior Construction Company v. Southeastern Carpenters Regional Council, 675 F.3d 1250 (11th Cir. 2012). The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a $1.7 million jury verdict against the Carpenters’ union. The jury found that the union violated Federal secondary boycott law by conducting an illegal “area standards” campaign which included bannering, picketing and handbilling at buildings where Fidelity was, had or might be working to coerce third parties into not doing business with Fidelity.
The author of Georgia Employment Law, Jim also regularly writes and speaks on labor and employment law issues. He served on the Advisory Board of Simon and Schuster's Business Practice newsletters, and formerly served on the Advisory Board to Commerce Clearing House's labor relations publications, and is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. He is a co-author, along with senior principals Marty Steckel and Les Schneider on the book entitled Construction Industry Labor & Employment Law.
Education
Jim received his B.B.A. cum laude and his J.D. from The University of Georgia. He earned his LL.M. from Harvard University and did graduate work in labor relations at Georgetown University
Top 10 Most Important Labor and Employment Law Changes in 2025
As we normally do, we reviewed 2025's biggest labor and employment law changes. This webinar featured Jim Wimberly and Les Schneider discussing the year's “most critical subjects.”
Watch This Webinar
Webinar Key Insights
- Audit and Update Religious Accommodation Procedures: Implement a centralized process for religious requests, as first-line supervisors are often unequipped to handle the new "substantial harm to the business as a whole" legal standard.
- Re-evaluate DEI Terminology and Individual Decision-Making: Ensure every employment decision is based on individual merit rather than group representation to avoid the EEOC's top priority: rooting out DEI-motivated discrimination.
- Eliminate Applicant Flow Logs: Stop tracking race, sex, and national origin for job applicants—unless required by state law—to remove the statistical data necessary for plaintiffs to build adverse impact lawsuits.
- Establish a Formal AI Usage Policy: Create clear guidelines for the use of AI in hiring and performance reviews to prevent discriminatory outcomes and protect your trade secrets and attorney-client privilege.
- Draft "Surgical" Social Media Policies: Avoid overly detailed social media rules that could be viewed as chilling protected speech; instead, use carefully worded protocols that include "weasel words" to protect management's right to intervene.
- Develop a Tiered Immigration Policy: Adopt a comprehensive policy (ideally 10+ pages) that dictates how management should respond to tips regarding undocumented workers and requires regular I-9 audits to ensure full compliance.
- Prepare for Captive Audience Rule Reversals: Be ready to re-implement small group meetings and one-on-ones during union organizing campaigns as the NLRB moves to reverse previous restrictive rulings.
- Monitor National Origin Protections for American Workers: Stay alert to a new enforcement emphasis on protecting American workers from being passed over in favor of immigrant labor through temporary visa programs.
- Adopt a "Merit-Only" Evaluation Model: To stay out of legal trouble, evaluate candidates solely on their merits compared to other applicants, as the government has shifted away from enforcing the "adverse impact" theory in its own prosecutions.
- Handle Gender Identity Issues with Special Counsel: Given the conflict between Supreme Court rulings and current executive orders regarding "binary reality," treat any bathroom or pronoun-related disputes as high-risk matters requiring specialized legal handling.
