Laura Garger has extensive experience as both an employment litigator and counselor, having represented employers on a wide range of employment issues for her entire legal career. For the past 15 years, Laura has been a member of the Ogletree Deakins’ OFCCP Compliance, Government Contracting, and Reporting Practice Group, counseling and defending federal contractors and subcontractors throughout the United States on jurisdictional, compliance, and enforcement issues involving the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP).
As an OFCCP lawyer, Laura represents federal contractors in a broad range of industries around the country regarding the preparation, management, and defense of their affirmative action programs and related employment matters. These industries include: financial services, technology, food processing, manufacturing, transportation, healthcare, pharmaceutical, hospitality, educational, and retail and construction, among others. Laura regularly represents federal contractors in OFCCP compliance reviews and specializes in resolving systemic discrimination issues stemming from statistical disparities in hiring, promotion, termination, and compensation. She has extensive experience negotiating and defending allegations of back pay liability and other sanctions imposed by the OFCCP. Laura’s experience also includes complaint investigations by OFCCP alleging discrimination based on disability, veteran status, and class allegations based on other protected group statuses, and fashioning workable resolutions for the firm’s clients.
Laura works with employers to balance the implementation of best business practices and preventative strategies with affirmative action compliance and OFCCP regulations. She advises employers on pay equity analyses, best personnel practices, and development and training on diversity and sexual harassment. She also conducts specialized training for hiring managers, human resources, and talent acquisition on legal developments and changes in OFCCP regulations and directives.
Prior to joining Ogletree Deakins, Laura practiced law with major international law firms in Phoenix and Chicago. She is admitted to the Arizona, Illinois and Connecticut state bars, the Illinois Trial Bar (based on her trial experience), various federal district courts, and the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
