Adam H. Gates

Adam counsels and defends employers, including manufacturers, health care facilities, food processing plants, energy utilities, and trucking companies. He helps his clients work through challenging management issues and provides options that allow them to accomplish their goals while minimizing exposure. He also defends them against charges filed with the EEOC and Department of Labor, regularly conducts internal investigations, drafts employment agreements, enforces restrictive covenants, and handles disputes in litigation and arbitration. In addition, Adam has defended manufacturers, food processors and waste management companies in collective actions brought under the Fair Labor Standards Act in which plaintiffs claimed they were owed compensation for unpaid overtime, meal and rest breaks, travel to their work sites, and donning & doffing clothing and protective gear. He has extensive experience in employment-based class and collective action matters. In the course of representing one of Mississippi's largest manufacturers, Adam helped defend the company in an employment discrimination class action that was severed into 80 individual cases. He played an extensive role in arbitrating more than 60 of them, presenting numerous opening and closing arguments, and examining hundreds of witnesses. Adam also has experience with general commercial litigation, including contract disputes, premises liability claims and litigation involving former executives.