Amy L. Bess is the Chair of Vedder Price’s global Labor and Employment practice group and a Member of the Firm’s Board of Directors. Her employment litigation experience includes the representation of employers before U.S. state and federal courts and administrative agencies, defending against claims of race, sex, disability and age discrimination; sexual harassment; whistleblower retaliation; restrictive-covenant disputes; wrongful termination; and wage and hour violations. She regularly counsels clients in all of these areas, drafts and negotiates employment and severance agreements, conducts on-site workplace investigations, presents training seminars and speaks to employer groups on avoiding workplace problems. Ms. Bess also has experience advising clients regarding their public accommodation obligations under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act and representing clients in litigation involving related claims.
Ms. Bess has extensive first-chair bench trial, jury trial and arbitration experience. She also is experienced in the defense of complex class action litigation, including wage and hour collective actions and pattern or practice litigation brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Recently, Ms. Bess has published and spoken extensively and conducted trainings and investigations for employers on sexual harassment issues in connection with the #MeToo movement.
Zachary D. Fasman is a Partner in the Labor & Employment Law Department of Proskauer Rose LLP, resident in the New York office. Zach focuses his practice on representing employers in all aspects of labor and employment law, including labor-management relations, employment litigation and counseling.
Zach has extensive trial and appellate experience in employment litigation, having handled hundreds of employment law cases ranging from nationwide class actions to jury trials of individual discrimination claims. He has argued numerous employment and labor cases in both state and federal appellate courts, including two successful arguments before the United States Supreme Court.
Zach’s labor-management relations practice encompasses advising employers during representation campaigns, collective bargaining, labor arbitrations and all forms of counseling regarding union and employee relations as well as employment at will and related employment issues. He has negotiated collective bargaining agreements with most major U.S. labor unions and also has substantial experience appearing before the National Labor Relations Board, where he tried the second longest case in NLRB history. In addition, Zach provides day-to-day counseling and advice to employers on a wide range of issues including complex labor and employment law issues in mergers and acquisitions, the intersection between labor and antitrust law, federal preemption, and the arbitration of statutory claims.
Having practiced in Washington for many years, Zach has testified before the U.S. Congress and the EEOC on multiple occasions and has worked extensively with Congress and the White House, on behalf of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other organizations, on numerous pieces of legislation. He is a long time member of the U.S. Chamber’s Labor Relations Committee and has submitted many amicus curiae briefs on behalf of the Chamber and other organizations to the U.S. Supreme Court on labor and employment law issues.
A noted author and sought-after speaker on labor and employment issues, Zach co-chairs the Practicing Law Institute’s Annual Employment Law Institute and has written numerous articles in the New York Law Journal and a wide variety of other publications. He has repeatedly been ranked in Band One by Chambers USA and Chambers Global and is a long-time Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. He also is a member of the Advisory Board of New York University Law School’s Center for Labor and Employment Law, teaches employment law to members of the federal judiciary through the Federal Judicial Center, and has been included in every edition of Best Lawyers in America. In 2015, he was selected as one of New York’s Top 100 lawyers and was selected to Lawdragon’s Hall of Fame in Labor Law for career accomplishments.
