Mr. Deering has extensive experience representing employers in successfully avoiding and defending a broad range of employment-related claims. His focus areas include employment discrimination, wrongful discharge, retaliation and harassment, whistleblower issues, restrictive covenants, wage-hour matters (including class and collective actions) and workplace safety. Mr. Deering has litigated such matters throughout Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas.
In addition, Mr. Deering regularly provides counseling to employers on matters of employee discipline and termination, enforcement and implementation of employment policies, workplace investigations and reductions in force. He has written extensively on issues in the labor and employment law field, and is a regular contributing chapter editor of Employment Discrimination Law, The Developing Labor Law, The Fair Labor Standards Act, and The Family & Medical Leave Act (BNA Books), the principal treatises devoted to labor and employment law issues in the United States.
Mr. Deering graduated magna cum laude from the Cumberland School of Law (Samford University) in 1997. While in law school, he served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Cumberland Law Review, was a member of the Moot Court Board, and was selected as a Cordell Hull Fellow. He is also a member of Curia Honoris, Phi Delta Phi, and Omicron Delta Kappa leadership honorary, and is a charter member of the Birmingham Inn of the American Inns of Court.
Experience
- Successfully represented clients in numerous FLSA collective actions
- Won summary judgment in numerous discrimination, harassment and retaliation cases under federal and state law for clients in many business industries, including manufacturing, construction, healthcare, retail, hospitality, utility, education, transportation, among others
- Successfully upheld the enforcement of a restrictive covenant at the Alabama Supreme Court
- Successfully defended multi-plaintiff sexual harassment and race discrimination cases
- Successfully secured a TRO against a client’s competitor under the Alabama Trade Secrets Act
- Successfully represented clients in preliminary injunction hearings and cases involving business competition and trade secrets
- Successfully defended employer-clients in OSHA catastrophe and fatality investigations, as well as OSHA citation contests
- Sustained claim of pre-emption of Alabama retaliatory discharge claim under Section 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act
- Qui tam and retaliation claim representation of government contractor under federal False Claims Act
- Successfully defended employers in multiple whistleblower cases under various federal statutes
Alabama
Florida
District of Columbia
U.S. Court of Appeals, Eleventh and District of Columbia Circuits
U.S. District Court, Middle, Northern and Southern Districts of Alabama
U.S. District Court, Northern and Southern Districts of Florida
U.S. District Court, Eastern and Northern Districts of Texas
Education and Honors
- Editor-in-Chief, Cumberland Law Review
- Member of the Moot Court Board
- Cordell Hull Fellow
- Curia Honoris
- Phi Delta Phi
- Omicron Delta Kappa
- Law clerk to the Honorable Edwin L. Nelson, United States District Judge for the Northern District of Alabama
- Graduate, Alabama State Bar Leadership Forum (Class 6)
- Fellow, Labor and Employment Law Section of the American Bar Association
Professional Activities
- American Bar Association (Labor and Employment Law Section; Equal Employment Opportunity Committee; Federal Labor Standards Legislation Committee)
- Alabama State Bar Association (Labor and Employment Law Section)
- Florida State Bar Association (Labor and Employment Law Section)
- District of Columbia Bar Association
- Birmingham Bar Association
- Birmingham Inn of the American Inns of Court (Charter Member)
In The News
- February 18, 2011 - Birmingham Business Journal - "CSI Workplace: What Employers Should Know Before Launching an Investigation"
- 2009 - The Family and Medical Leave Act - "2009 Cumulative Supplement and forthcoming Second Edition (Chapter Editor, Chapters 1 & 11)"
- December 2000 - For the Defense - "Independent Contractors: Hostile Work Environment Claims by Independent Contractors"
- 1999/2002 - Employment Discrimination Law - "1999 and 2002 Supplements"
- 1998 - 28 Cumberland Law Review 361 - "Closing the Door on the Public’s Right to Know: Alabama’s Open Meetings Law After Dunn v. Alabama State University Board of Trustees"
- 1998 - 31 Suffolk University Law Review 59 - "Candor Toward the Tribunal: Should an Attorney Sacrifice Truth and Integrity for the Sake of the Client?"
- 1997 - 27 Cumberland Law Review 231 - "Same-Gender Sexual Harassment: A Need to Re-Examine the Legal Underpinnings of Title VII’s Ban on Discrimination “Because Of” Sex"