Joel Andersen

Representative Matters

Restrictive Covenant Litigation

• Cambria Company LLC v. Mohawk Industries, Inc., Dal-Tile Tennessee, LLC and Schumann (D. Minn.) – Successfully opposed motion for preliminary injunction alleging inevitable disclosure of trade secrets and breach of contractual confidentiality provision.

• Prime Therapeutics LLC v. Maxor National Pharmacy Services, LLC (D. Minn.) – Defeated injunction motion seeking to prevent high-level executive from becoming employed by competitor based on implementation of phased job duties negating alleged inevitable disclosure of trade secrets

• C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. v. Tu (D. Minn.) – Defeated motion for judgment on the pleadings arguing unenforceability of restrictive covenant agreement

• St. Jude Medical S.C., Inc. v. Suchomel (D. Minn.) – Defeated motion to dismiss term-of-years agreement as allegedly violating California public policy

• PCM Sales, Inc. v. [Employee] (C.D. Cal.) – Negotiated confidential settlement agreement requiring 10-month customer non-solicit for California employee based on stolen trade secrets

• Nilfisk, Inc. v. Liss (D. Minn.) – Obtained temporary restraining order prohibiting competing employment by former sales director employee

• TelCom Construction Inc. v. Michael Simon and MP Nexlevel, LLC (Minn. Dist. Ct.) – After replacing prior counsel, obtained vacation of previously entered temporary injunction and obtained summary judgment on non-compete and tortious interference claims.
• Achieved multimillion-dollar settlement during three-week jury trial involving claims for breach of non-solicitation agreement, tortious interference, and misappropriation of trade secrets.
• Prosecuted restrictive covenant claims against former sales and executive employees in Iowa, Minnesota, New York, and California for national media company.
• Enforced Minnesota forum-selection clause and non-solicitation agreement against former New Jersey sales manager.
• Obtained injunctions and monetary settlements against former sales employees of national technology company in California, New York, and Oregon.
• Enforced Minnesota forum-selection clause against California sales employee and imposed non-solicitation obligations.
• Reached favorable settlement for national insurance company after injunction hearing against former executives.
• Enforced non-competition agreements against former employees of Minnesota healthcare provider.
• Represented national printing company in defense of non-competition claims involving hiring of new executive employee.

Wage-and-Hour Litigation

• Represented national technology company in California, New York, and nationwide FLSA and state law hybrid action alleging meal and rest break, overtime, and derivative claims.
• Achieved favorable settlements for national restaurant chain in Minnesota, Illinois, and FLSA tip-sharing and unpaid overtime cases.
• Negotiated nuisance-value settlement in Florida off-the-clock wait staff class action.
• Represented national manufacturing company in California meal and rest break and off-the-clock case.
• Member of team that conducted company-wide wage-and-hour exemption classification audit of national medical device company Investigated harassment claims leading to termination of company CEO.
• Obtained early pre-discovery resolution for national clothing retailer in California meal and rest break and off-the-clock cases.
• Member of team that defended national utility company in Minnesota off-the-clock case, obtaining favorable settlement days before trial.

Employment Litigation

• Representing multiple defendants in plaintiff and defendant class action involving social media recruiting advertisements
• Represented national technology company in defense of race, gender, age, and disability claims by employees in New York, New Jersey, and California.
• Defended manufacturing client in nationwide putative class action alleging across-the-board age discrimination under Age Discrimination in Employment Act.
• Managed investigation of multiple members of executive team of national company involving whistleblower, harassment, and retaliation allegations.
• Represented financial services company in Eighth Circuit appeal of race discrimination claims.
• Represented janitorial services company in Eighth Circuit appeal of sexual harassment claims by eleven employees.
• Won summary judgment for retail grocer in disability discrimination and Family and Medical Leave Act litigation.
• Obtained affirmance of summary judgment for national energy company in Eighth Circuit appeal of Equal Pay Act claims of three employees.
• Member of team that defended client in putative class action alleging across-the-board age discrimination under Minnesota law.

Recognition and Honors

• Labor & Employment Star, Benchmark Litigation
• MSBA North Star Lawyer, 2013, 2014 and 2016

Publications and Presentations

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