Mr. Shapero joined Ogletree Deakins in 2018 as a Shareholder in the firm’s Seattle office after almost 20 years of experience providing labor law, employment law and employee benefits advice and counsel to employers in Washington, Oregon and Illinois.
Mr. Shapero is an experienced civil litigator and trial attorney with a strong record of summary judgment and trial victories in state and federal courts in Washington state. Mr. Shapero’s litigation experience includes matters involving alleged violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Washington Law Against Discrimination, the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Washington Minimum Wage Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and more. Mr. Shapero has successfully defended employers against claims asserted by a wide range of employees at every level in the organization, including claims by front-line employees, mid-level managers, licensed professional employees, and chief executive officers. Mr. Shapero also has considerable litigation experience in non-competition and trade secrets matters, where he has obtained temporary, preliminary and permanent injunctive relief on behalf of employers with concerns that former employees have violated non-competition or confidentiality agreements. Mr. Shapero is also experienced in labor arbitration and private arbitration matters.
In addition to his considerable experience in defending against single-plaintiff lawsuits, Mr. Shapero has led or participated on legal defense teams in wage/hour class-action lawsuits involving employee misclassification claims and other Washington state-law wage/hour claims. Mr. Shapero’s class-action litigation experience is primarily in the transportation and insurance sectors, and his work on class-action matters has led to the dismissal or settlement of several such lawsuits prior to class certification or formal class discovery.
Although Mr. Shapero is an experienced and successful litigator, much of his law practice is focused on helping employers avoid workplace conflict and post-employment litigation. In this respect, Mr. Shapero helps his clients adopt and implement sound human resources and people management practices, and also helps them take advantage of alternative-dispute resolution opportunities in litigated matters when appropriate. Before becoming an attorney, Mr. Shapero spent more than 15 years in risk-management, human resources and other staff and front-line manager roles in which he was often called upon to work with outside counsel in a variety of litigation and pre-litigation matters. Mr. Shapero is therefore particularly attuned to our clients’ interests in managing the risk and expense of litigation, and he incorporates this perspective into the guidance and advice he provides to employers.
Mr. Shapero’s advice-and-counsel practice includes most every area of workplace law, although his primary focus is on employment laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of protected characteristics; compliance with state and federal wage/hour laws (including those requiring the proper classification of employees and independent contractors); disability accommodation requirements; leave-of-absence laws and requirements; and trade/secrets and non-competition agreements.
