NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Morrison Cohen LLP announced today that Keith A. Markel has been elected to join Jeffrey P. Englander as co-chair of the firm’s enhanced Labor and Employment Law Department.

Strongly committed to its clients’ increasing employment needs and challenges, Morrison Cohen is enhancing and expanding its Labor and Employment Law Department. The team counsels businesses of all sizes and individuals in connection with their day-to-day employment concerns, focusing not only on the many federal, state and local workplace laws and regulations, but on each employer’s business and operational objectives, as well as addressing issues specific to management and senior-level employees.

The department’s comprehensive approach includes strategic counseling, preventative guidance, training, and representation in formal proceedings before federal and state courts, in arbitration forums, and before various administrative agencies.

The Labor and Employment Law Department has a particular focus on the rapidly evolving New York state and New York City employment laws, regularly advising clients on new employment laws and guidelines. Among the team’s current priorities is advising and counseling clients nationwide on various mandatory sexual harassment training laws that take effect in 2019.

“Along with our firm’s highly regarded Executive Compensation & Benefits Department, MoCo’s Labor and Employment Law Department provides our clients with commercial and pragmatic advice and perspective with respect to all of their employment-related legal needs,” Morrison Cohen Chairman David Scherl said. “With decades of concentrated experience with labor and employment issues between them, Keith and Jeff are able to provide our clients with practical solutions and strategies to the varied employment issues that they regularly come across in connection with their day-to-day operations and needs across almost every major industry.”

Markel has more than two decades of employment law experience representing institutional clients, hedge funds, private equity firms, restaurants, hospitality companies, technology companies, marketing and public relations firms and various other businesses as well as senior-level executives working in those industries in a wide range of employment litigation matters, including FINRA arbitration claims, state and federal court actions involving discrimination claims (from sexual harassment to discrimination on the basis of race, age, gender, nationality, and disability), constructive discharge claims, breach of contract and quasi-contract claims, misclassification claims, labor law claims, and wage and hour claims. He also routinely represents employers of all sizes in federal, state and local administrative and agency proceedings, including both the federal and state Department of Labor.

Englander has more than 43 years of continuous experience in a broad range of labor and employment law matters. Having started his career in the representation of parties in union organizational and unfair labor practice proceedings before the National Labor Relations Board, he has continued to represent employers in a variety of industries in similar matters as well as collective bargaining and grievance administration. He is also experienced in the litigation of employment discrimination, wage and hour and related matters before federal and state courts and administrative tribunals at the federal, state and local levels. Englander also represents clients before federal and state agencies that enforce occupational safety and other workplace regulations and has for many years, assisted in the investigation of workplace claims for myriad firm clients and provided sound advice to a broad cross-section of firm clients seeking prompt answers to workplace issues and scenarios. He is a strong advocate of alternative dispute resolution and has assisted in the negotiation of innumerable mediated settlements, avoiding protracted litigation and favorably resolving such matters to clients’ advantage.

Together with their colleagues, Englander and Markel will continue to provide a full range of support to the firm’s significant and widely varied client base in virtually all forms of labor and employment law matters.

About Morrison Cohen LLP

Morrison Cohen LLP is one of New York’s leading full-service mid-size commercial law firms. The firm was named to Vault’s 2019 “Best Midsize Law Firms to Work For” and to Vault’s inaugural ranking as one of the “15 Best Midsize Law Firms in New York.” For three consecutive years, the firm was named to The National Law Journal’s Midsize Hot List. Morrison Cohen offers deep experience and senior-level attorney attention at rational billing rates. The firm provides a full array of highly sophisticated corporate, capital markets, business litigation, real estate, bankruptcy and reorganization, compensation, benefits and employment, and other commercial, transactional, and individual client legal services.