For Professionals and White-Collar Employees

Many people mistakenly think traditional Labor Law protects only blue-collar laborers, union workers, and employees in the goods producing industries. However, there are federal and state employment laws which also protect professional employees, white-collar workers, and those in service providing industries. We have substantial experience representing everyone from secretaries and factory workers to corporate presidents and attorneys. While we have represented workers in the manufacturing, food and beverage, restaurant, auto, transportation, and retail industries, we also have always represented professionals and white-collar employees working in the banking, financial, technology, chemical, pharmaceutical, medical, healthcare, insurance, real estate, accounting, and legal fields with their employment issues such as severance, non-renewal or breach of employment contract, termination, layoff, retaliation, whistle blowing, age discrimination, sex discrimination, and other forms of employment discrimination. Below are a few of the cases we’ve handled successfully for professionals and white-collar employees. If you are a professional or a white-collar employee with a similar employment problem, contact us today.

Nature of Case	Banking and Financial Services Industries	Jurisdiction
Severance; Retaliation; Sex Discrimination	Negotiated a severance package for a bank’s female Senior Vice President discharged after informing the CEO he was running an “all boys’ club.”	Out-of-Court Settlement
Breach of the Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing; Delaware Whistle Blowers’ Protection Act	Obtained a settlement for a Bank Branch Manager who was discharged after reporting to Human Resources her Regional Manager’s improper transfer of loans and falsification of related records in violation of federal and state law and the Bank’s Code of Ethics.	United States District Court For the District of Delaware
Age Discrimination; Race Discrimination	Obtained a settlement for a 61 year old, African-American Fraud Investigator of a bank who was discharged by her younger, Caucasian supervisor for allegedly poor performance after the client received numerous awards during her more than 30 years of service.	United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Quid Pro Quo Sexual Harassment; Retaliation; Unpaid Suspension	Obtained a settlement for a female Account Manager of a collection agency who was placed on unpaid suspension after she reported to Human Resources that its male CEO sexually harassed her by verbally propositioning her for sex in exchange for more pay and texting shirtless photos of himself to her cell phone.	Out-of-Court Settlement
Breach of the Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing; Family and Medical Leave Act Retaliation; Perceived Disability Discrimination	Obtained a settlement for a director in a billing and collection company who was owed a large commission on a multi-million dollar contract and was discharged five days after informing his boss he would need time off for shoulder surgery.	Out-of-Court Settlement
Pregnancy and Disability Discrimination; Reduction in Pay and Forced Resignation	Obtained a settlement for a Senior Registered Client Service Associate of a Fortune 100 financial services firm forced to resign after a reduction in her pay and a transfer from a desk to a cubicle shortly after she returned from disability and maternity leaves after a difficult pregnancy.	United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Involuntary Layoff; Perceived Disability Discrimination in Employment	Procured a settlement for a Sales Assistant for a global financial services firm who was laid off less than a month after she disclosed the fact that she might be bipolar.	United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
	Chemical, Pharmaceutical, and Technology Industries
Genetic Information and Disability Discrimination	Obtained a settlement for a Software Consultant discharged over the telephone seven days after he informed his manager by e-mail that he just had a cancerous tumor removed from his bladder and would need additional outpatient treatments before work for six weeks.	United States District Court For the District of Minnesota
Breach of Contract; Wage Payment and Collection Act; Merger; Breach of the Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing	Assisted as local counsel in obtaining a six figure settlement for the President of a software sales start-up company who was wrongfully discharged by its CEO to avoid paying him a Retention Bonus and other earned compensation after the employer merged with a competitor.	Delaware Superior Court
Retaliation; Race Discrimination; 42 U.S.C. § 1981; Title VII	Obtained a settlement for an African-American Senior Operations Engineer employed by a global chemical company for 17 years who was discharged by a Caucasian just 8 months after he became his manager and just 2 months after the client reported to Human Resources race discrimination by his Caucasian peer who twice called an African-American technician, “boy.”	United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Age Discrimination; Forced Resignation	Procured a settlement for a 58 year old executive of a global chemical company told he would be fired if he did not retire.	United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Denial of Promotion; Retaliation; Involuntary Transfer; Sex and Age Discrimination	Won an EEOC determination of cause for discrimination and eventually procured a settlement for a 48 year old female executive of a global chemical company denied a promotion and involuntarily transferred to another department after she complained of sex and age discrimination by her male manager.	United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Pregnancy Discrimination; Demotion	Procured a settlement for a female Chief Financial Officer of a global chemical intermediates company who was demoted while on pregnancy leave.	United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Racial Harassment and Retaliation; Unpaid Leave	Procured a six figure settlement package for an African-American executive placed on unpaid leave from a global pharmaceutical company after she reported racial harassment in the workplace by her Caucasian supervisors.	Delaware Department Of Labor Division of Industrial Affairs
Sexual Orientation Discrimination; Denial of Promotion	Obtained a promotion for a homosexual Biochemist previously denied multiple times in favor of less senior, heterosexual peers despite excellent performance evaluations and recommendations from her direct supervisor and his boss.	Delaware Department Of Labor Division of Industrial Affairs
Quid Pro Quo Sexual Harassment; Pregnancy Discrimination; Retaliation; Reduction in Force	Procured a settlement for a female Lab Technician whose job was eliminated as part of an alleged reduction in force by the married male Executive Director of a global Research and Development organization after he impregnated her and she returned from pregnancy leave and ended his affair with her.	United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Retaliation; Perceived Disability Discrimination in Employment; Termination of Employment	Procured a settlement for a Purchasing Agent of a textile company who was fired two days after she complained to human resources that her manager’s bullying caused her to have panic attacks.	United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
	Medical, Healthcare, and Insurance Industries
Severance; Negotiation	Negotiated a severance package of more than 20 months’ base salary worth in excess of half of a million dollars for the President of a health insurance company without asserting any legal claims.	Out-of-Court Settlement
Age Discrimination; Sex Discrimination; Unpaid Administrative Leave; Performance Improvement Plan	Obtained a settlement for an award-winning, 50 year old, female Director of a healthcare system arising from her younger, male supervisor’s placement of her on a 5 month performance improvement plan (“PIP”), placement of her on unpaid administrative leave, and discharge of her less than 4 months after issuing her the 5 month PIP.	United States District Court For the District of Delaware
Family and Medical Leave Act; Intermittent FMLA Leave; Interference; Discharge	Obtained a settlement for the Premium Analyst of an health insurance company who was issued a Final Written Warning for overuse of FMLA time, retroactively denied intermittent medical leave two days after she used it, and then discharged the same day.	Out-of-Court Settlement
Pay Disparity; Age Discrimination; Delaware Whistle Blowers’ Protection Act	Obtained a settlement for a Nursing Home Dietician who was paid less than her younger peers and then discharged after she responded to a survey by the State Department of Health that resulted in the employer receiving deficiencies from the state and federal governments.	United States District Court For the District of Delaware
	Legal, Accounting, and Real Estate Industries
National Origin Discrimination; Ethnic Harassment; Retaliation	Negotiated a severance of salary and health benefits for seven months for an immigrant Operations Manager of a real estate company who reported ethnic discrimination to Human Resources after her supervisor mocked her foreign accent.	United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Breach of Contract; Quantum Meruit	Won a bench verdict in the trial of an Accountant whose long-time employer failed to deduct and remit to the IRS his social security and Medicare taxes for a period of five years and then sued him after it had to pay the government on his behalf. Judgment was entered for the employee, and all claims against him were dismissed.	Court of Common Pleas, New Castle County, Delaware
Hostile Work Environment; Symbolic Harassment; Racial and Sexual Harassment; and Retaliation	Procured a settlement for an African-American female Mortgage Underwriter who after complaining about black dildos being placed on her desk, was demoted, transferred to another state with no compensation for the increased commute and travel expenses, and forced to resign.	United States District Court For the District of Delaware
Constructive Discharge (Forced Resignation); Sexual Harassment and National Origin Discrimination	Procured a settlement for a Hispanic, female Leasing Assistant of an apartment management company who was forced to resign after being physically and verbally sexually harassed for four months and then criticized for her “Puerto Rican attitude” by the president of an apartment management company.	United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Fourteenth Amendment Right to Privacy and First Amendment Rights of Association and Free Speech and Right to Petition the Government for Redress of Grievances	Obtained a settlement for an Attorney whose constitutional right to privacy was violated when his confidential medical information was released to the news media by local government officials in retaliation for exercising his First Amendment rights to associate with his clients and speak out against the public officials’ illegal actions.	United States District Court For the District of Delaware
Sexual Harassment; Retaliation; Discharge	Obtained a settlement for a 28 year old female Paralegal who was discharged just 5 months after she reported physical and verbal sexual harassment in the workplace by her male supervisor.	United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Client Testimonials

“I will definitely recommend you to healthcare professionals or anyone else who comes across a similar employment problem in Delaware. Lawyers handling these kinds of cases are hard to come by in Delaware.” – DB

“Losing your job of many years is an emotional and stressful situation to go through. You made me feel I was not going through it by myself. You are definitely in the right line of work. God bless you and your family. Once again, thank you for taking my case personally.” – BW & TW

“You are the best lawyer I have ever worked with. I won’t forget it.” – MW

“Thank you for everything. You certainly knew which points to discuss and prepare me well for responding [at the hearing].” -FF

“John [LaRosa] represented me in an employment matter. He was professional, responsive and clearly discussed all the details and possible outcomes of my case. I highly recommend John.” – SB

“John LaRosa helped me review and negotiate my employer separation agreement to a successful outcome. He is an extremely professional and experienced attorney and is very responsive and thoughtful in his counsel. I would recommend him for any employment matter.” – WC

“Mr. LaRosa was extremely knowledgeable and thorough throughout the entire process. He professionally assessed the strength of my case and successfully negotiated a settlement with my employer. I especially appreciated his honesty and ease of contact.” – TM

“I cannot even begin to express how I am feeling right now. You are an astonishing lawyer. It seemed at first things were looking bleak at the beginning, but with your expertise and persistence, the outcome was extraordinary. It was great!” – LJ