Brett Burns

M. Brett Burns’s practice focuses on employment class actions, wage and hour class and collective actions, complex public accommodations litigation, and state and federal agency pattern or practice actions.

Brett represents employers in a complex employment, wage and hour, and public accommodations litigation in federal and state courts across the country. Brett’s experience includes collective action and multi-plaintiff public accommodations jury trials, and defending approximately 65 class, collective, and state and federal agency pattern or practice actions, including lawsuits filed by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Brett is admitted to practice in the United States Courts of Appeals for the Fifth, Sixth, and Ninth Circuits, the U.S. District Courts for the Northern, Central, Eastern, and Southern districts of California and the Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western Districts of Texas.

Experience:

• Representing a national retailer client in EEOC investigations presenting allegations that the use of criminal background checks during the hiring process has a disparate impact on minority applicants under Title VII (California, New York, Texas).
• Defending national casual dining and national retailer clients in nationwide FLSA collective actions presenting first impression “tip pooling,” “donning and doffing,” and misclassification claims, respectively (Fifth Circuit and Southern District of Texas, Northern District of Ohio, District of New Jersey).
• Defending national movie exhibitor clients in nationwide pattern or practice public accommodations cases filed by the U.S. Department of Justice presenting challenges to architectural designs under ADA Title III (Ninth Circuit and Central District of California, Ninth Circuit and District of Oregon, Sixth Circuit and Northern District of Ohio).
• Representing a national retailer client in a nationwide structured negotiations dispute presenting allegations that the use of personality assessments during the hiring process has a disparate impact on applicants with mental health disabilities under the ADA (California, Washington, D.C.).
• Defending multiple statewide wage and hour class and collective actions against national retailer, casual dining, financial services, movie exhibitor, manufacturing, and hospitality clients presenting meal period, rest break, reporting time pay, misclassification, off-the-clock, tip pooling, and other claims (Central District of California, Southern District of California, California Supreme Court, California Court of Appeal, multiple California Superior Courts (Alameda, Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego), Middle District of Florida, Southern District of Florida, Southern District of Texas).
• Defending multiple statewide class, multi-plaintiff, state agency pattern or practice, and structured negotiations public accommodations actions against national movie theater exhibitor clients concerning seeking to mandate new captioning, narrative description, and assistive listening technologies under ADA Title III and analogous state laws (Arizona, California, New York, Texas, Washington).
• Defending a national retailer client in a multi-year nationwide pattern or practice case filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission presenting race and national origin discrimination and harassment claims under Title VII (District of Arizona).
• Defending a national retail client in a national public accommodations class action presenting challenges to architectural designs and construction of parking facilities and accessible paths of travel under ADA Title III (Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia).
• Managing national and regional dockets of employment, wage and hour, and public accommodations litigation for multiple national clients (Arizona, California, Florida, Ohio, New York, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Washington, D.C.).
• Advising national clients on multiple employment, wage and hour, and public accommodations consulting projects (Arizona, California, Florida, Maryland, New York, Ohio, Texas, Virginia, Washington, Washington, D.C.).

EDUCATION:

• JD, The University of Texas School of Law, Member and Associate Editor, Texas Law Review, 1991
• BS, Texas A&M University, 1988

BAR ADMISSIONS:

• California
• Texas