Michelle Barrett Falconer

Michelle Barrett Falconer regularly advises management clients on disability accommodation issues, the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and similar state laws, and other leaves of absence. In that capacity, she has helped national and global clients, as well as clients with operations based solely in California, to develop leaves of absence and disability accommodation policies, procedures, forms, as well as to create process-oriented solutions to comply with local laws. She regularly assists clients with benchmarking and best practices to achieve their diversity and inclusion objectives, as well as to facilitate effective change management surrounding such initiatives. She previously served as the National Co-Chair of Littler’s Leaves of Absence and Disability Accommodation Practice Group

She also advises, represents, and trains management clients in various other areas of employment and labor law, including:

• Discrimination, harassment, and retaliation
• Wrongful termination
• Employee handbooks and related personnel policies
• Policy and various paid time off benefits changes and related strategy issues
• Class action litigation involving complex wage and hour issues
• Union representation elections and decertifications
• Collective bargaining

She has represented a variety of employers in federal and state court litigation, in employment arbitrations, before the National Labor Relations Board, and before other state and federal agencies. Her clients include many large tech industry corporations.

Michelle is also a founding member of Littler’s COVID-19 Task Force. Using her prior (pre-pandemic) advice and counsel experience to leverage “common sense” solutions, she regularly advises clients on navigating federal, state and local COVID-19 related restrictions and reopening requirements.

Prior to law school, Michelle worked as a Human Resources Representative for one of the largest privately held agri-business firms in the United States, where she developed training programs and dual language tests for employers and evaluated internal human resources and employee relations practices. This experience helps her partner closely with HR teams to solve complex problems, which often present multidimensional issues.