William (Bill) Duda is certified as a specialist in Employment and Labor Law by the South Carolina Supreme Court. For over ten years, Bill has been helping employers understand and comply with a broad range of employment laws, including Title VII, the ADA, the ADEA, the FMLA, the FLSA, trade secret law, restrictive covenants and workers’ compensation. He regularly represents management in employment-related litigation as well as in administrative matters before the EEOC and its state deferral agencies, the United States Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, and the South Carolina Workers’ Compensation Commission. Bill also handles Fair Housing Complaints before the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Before becoming a lawyer, Bill was a retail store manager. Bill's management experience provides him a realistic and practical approach to the legal challenges employers face.
Experience
Bill advises employers across many industries, including but not limited to national retailers and manufacturers, regional trucking firms, state and local banks, educational institutions, and more. Bill’s representation of employers in workers’ compensation cases is typically restricted to self-insured clients who understand the advantages of having a workers’ compensation lawyer who can also advise on the full complement of employment-related issues that are always intertwined in a workers’ compensation claim.
Bill’s work includes:
- Litigating employment-related cases
- Advising clients and training their employees in employment law
- Representing employers in workers’ compensation claims
- Drafting handbooks and policy manuals
- Drafting, enforcing and challenging non-compete agreements and other restrictive covenants
- Trade secret protection and litigation
- Performing wage/hour audits
- Representing property management companies in housing discrimination complaints
South Carolina
U.S. District Court, District of South Carolina
U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit
Education and Honors
- Certified Employment & Labor Law Specialist, South Carolina Supreme Court (2008)
Professional Activities
- South Carolina Bar
- Richland County Bar Association
- South Carolina Defense Trial Lawyers Association
- South Carolina Workers’ Compensation Education Association
- Midlands Technical College, Certificate in Employee Relations Law Series - "Handling Unemployment Claims" - Columbia - 2010/2011
- Midlands Technical College, Certificate in Employee Relations Law Series - "Federal/State Wage-Hour Laws" - Columbia - 2008/2011
- Midlands Technical College, Certificate in Employee Relations Law Series - "Lawful Requirements Under Workers’ Compensation" - Columbia - 2008/2011
- Counsel on Education in Management, FMLA Seminar - "The Tangled Web of the FMLA, ADA, Workers’ Comp, and Other Leave Laws: Pulling the Threads Apart" - Columbia - November 2007
- Ogletree Deakins Briefing - "Understanding the Workers’ Compensation Reform Bill" - Columbia and Charlestonq - August 2007
- South Carolina Chamber of Commerce - "The New Workers' Compensation Legislation" Seminar, "Specific Workers' Compensation Changes that Affect South Carolina Employers" - Columbia - July 2007
- SC Bar Publication Seminar, Labor and Employment Law for South Carolina Lawyers - "Title VII Enforcement" - Columbia - June 2007
- South Carolina Bankers’ School - "Personnel Law" - Columbia and Greenwood - 2007/2010
- National Business Institute - "Overtime Regulations" - Columbia - October 2005
- National Business Institute - "Understanding Compensation Guidelines" - Columbia - October 2005
- South Carolina Chamber of Commerce “10th Annual Workers’ Compensation Conference - "South Carolina Workers' Compensation Law - What Employers Need to Know for 2006" - Columbia - October 2005
In The News
- December 29, 2010 - SHRM.org - "Ruling May Lead to Rise in Use of E-Cigarettes"
- September 20, 2010 - South Carolina Lawyers Weekly - "Lawyers Update Businesses on Revamped Unemployment System"
- November 7, 2005 - South Carolina Lawyers Weekly - "Single-Day Incident Did Not Qualify as Repetitive Trauma Injury"
- August 9, 2004 - South Carolina Lawyers Weekly - "Permissive Handbook Language Disclaimer Kept Case from Jury"