2020 Annual Labor & Employment Law Symposium

Andrea Baran Related seminars and products

US Equal Employment Opportunity Commiss

Andrea B. Baran is a civil rights attorney with over twenty years’ experience in the employment discrimination field. She is currently the Regional Attorney of the EEOC’s St. Louis District, where she has served since July 2014. With attorneys and staff in St. Louis, Kansas City, and Oklahoma City, she and her team are responsible for the agency’s litigation throughout Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and southern Illinois. During fiscal year 2020, which ended in September, her team obtained over $3 million in monetary relief for victims of employment discrimination and entered into consent decrees insuring improved workplace policies and practices that will eliminate and prevent unlawful discrimination for hundreds of people nationwide.

Andrea began her career with the EEOC as a Trial Attorney in the Kansas City Area Office in 1999 and worked as a Supervisory Trial Attorney in the Phoenix District Office from 2010 to 2014. She is a frequent presenter at both internal and external training and CLE programs. As a Trial Attorney, she received the EEOC Chair’s Excellence in Leadership Award for her work on EEOC v. Walgreen Co., a systemic race discrimination case, and the Chair’s CORE award for her work on EEOC v. Rent-a-Center, a systemic sex discrimination case.

Andrea received her Juris Doctor from Washington University in St. Louis and her undergraduate degree in government and economics from Smith College. Prior to joining the Commission, Andrea worked in private practice in Kansas City, Missouri.

Julianne Germinder Related seminars and products

TGH Litigation LLC

Julianne Germinder is one of the three founders and principals at TGH Litigation LLC in Columbia. TGH Litigation was formed in January 2017 and primarily represents individuals in civil rights and discrimination matters. In addition, the firm represents employees and students in administrative actions and does other civil litigation. Prior to founding TGH Litigation, Germinder was the employment team leader in the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, Litigation Division where she worked for approximately seven years. Germinder has other private practice experience at both large and small law firms in Missouri. Germinder is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, and a graduate of the University of Missouri. 

Sheena Hamilton Related seminars and products

Dowd Bennett LLP

Sheena R. Hamilton is a partner at Dowd Bennett LLP in St. Louis, Missouri. She concentrates on employment litigation and corporate internal investigations. Primarily, Ms. Hamilton defends employers in state and federal courts and before administrative agencies. She tries cases alleging employment discrimination, harassment and retaliation, as well as wage and hour disputes, to verdict and through appeals.  

Ms. Hamilton regularly speaks and writes on employment law. She presents to attorneys and human resources professionals on topics such as maintaining a respectful workplace, conducting workplace investigations, creating and implementing privacy policies, and applying rules of evidence and procedure. An author of more than 20 articles in publications such as the Missouri Employment Law Letter, Missouri Business, St. Louis Lawyer and TYL, Ms. Hamilton also has been quoted as an authority on matters involving employment and labor law by The New York Times, Law360, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM®), and the ABA Journal.

For her work, she was awarded the Women in Justice Award titled Litigation Practitioner in 2017 by Missouri Lawyers Weekly and the John C. Shepherd Professionalism Award in 2019 by the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis.  

Ms. Hamilton is a member of the board of governors for the American Bar Association, vice chair of the Labor and Employment Law Committee for The Missouri Bar, and a member of the board of directors for the United Way of Greater St. Louis.  

Prior to joining Dowd Bennett, she clerked for the then Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.

Joshua Pierson Related seminars and products

Silverstein Wolf, LLC

Joshua Pierson received his JD from Washington University School of Law, and his B.M. from The Conservatory of Music at Lynn University. Josh is a committed and passionate advocate for his clients. He routinely litigates in state and federal court, arguing before trial courts and courts of appeal in Missouri and Illinois. Josh also counsels individuals not involved in litigation, negotiating severance agreements, non-compete agreements, and other employment contracts. He was voted a Missouri/Kansas Superlawyers, “Rising Star” (2017). He is a member of the National Employment Lawyers Association of St. Louis, Board Member, 2017-2019; Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys; Missouri Bar, Labor & Employment Committee; and the Missouri Bar, Legislative Review Committee.

Eric Playter Related seminars and products

Playter & Playter, LLC

Eric is a reliable, experienced attorney dedicated to giving clients reliable legal support. While he is able to assist with all areas of civil litigation, he specifically specializes in personal injury and wrongful death cases. Formerly, Eric practiced civil defense litigation; for almost a decade, he represented some of the largest companies in the area, and obtained valuable skills and insight into how these entities approach legal battles. His desire to help others eventually led to him changing his career trajectory; now, he primarily dedicates himself to representing clients who have been injured—or otherwise experience loss—due to the negligence of another individual.

Eric has obtained a number of awards and distinctions over the years. He was named as a Rising Star (or a top young attorney in Kansas and Missouri) for five consecutive years by Super Lawyers magazine, a distinct only 2.5% of lawyers in the area can claim. In addition, he was given the Lon O. Hocker Award in 2019—an award that honors exemplary young trial lawyers.

Outside of work, Eric spends much of his time playing golf, flying, and spending time with his family.

Kyle Russell Related seminars and products

Jackson Lewis, P.C.

Kyle B. Russell is the Office Managing Principal of the Overland Park, Kansas, and Kansas City, Missouri, offices of Jackson Lewis P.C. He represents employers in administrative charges and lawsuits involving a wide variety of statutory and common law discrimination and retaliation cases.

Mr. Russell has also defended wage and hour collective and class actions involving alleged misclassification, off-the-clock work, failure to pay the proper overtime rate, and failure to pay wages when due. He also has extensive experience prosecuting violations of covenants not to compete by former employees. In addition to employment litigation, Mr. Russell has commercial litigation experience defending multi-district and state-law consumer class actions and governmental investigations.

Mr. Russell has experience training managers on a wide variety of employment law issues, including harassment, discrimination, retaliation, workplace violence, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Family & Medical Leave Act. He has also advised employers with respect to the implementation of nationwide arbitration agreement programs.

Prior to joining Jackson Lewis, Mr. Russell practiced at a midwest law firm and previously spent eight years as in-house counsel for litigation, records management and legal systems for a Fortune 500 diversified financial services company, where he was responsible for developing and implementing records management, litigation hold and consumer arbitration programs.