Daniel Kaplan

Daniel A. Kaplan is a partner and litigation attorney with Foley & Lardner LLP and is co-chair of the firm’s Labor & Employment Practice. Daniel counsels employers in all aspects of the employer-employee relationship, including wage and hour, employment contracts, confidentiality and non-compete agreements, worker’s and unemployment compensation, family and medical leave, disability accommodations and compliance with the Americans with Disability Act, and all state, federal and local discrimination laws.

Daniel has experience litigating before various state and federal agencies, various state courts, and federal courts throughout the country, including the Supreme Court.

In addition, Daniel works with employers on employee and supervisor training and traditional labor matters, such as union organizing, collective bargaining, grievance processes and arbitration.

Daniel also has extensive experience in defending and advising employers on safety and health-related matters under the Occupational Safety & Health Act (OSHA). Daniel has defended employers in OSHA matters throughout the country and in over a dozen matters involving employee fatalities.

Daniel also regularly counsels employers on affirmative action obligations under Executive Order 11246, Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act and VEVRAA, affirmative action plans, AAP audits, and all matters involving the OFCCP.

Daniel has represented employers throughout the country on their AAP needs, including petitions to the OFCCP for functional plan development, defense of desk and on-site plan audits, and litigation.

Daniel’s wage and hour experience includes regularly representing national and international clients in federal and state courts, as well as the United States Supreme Court, on FLSA collective action claims and state wage and hour class actions claims.

Education :

Daniel earned his J.D. degree, cum laude, from the Marquette University Law School in 1992. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin – Madison in 1988.

Admissions and Professional Memberships :

Daniel served on the board of directors for the Wisconsin State Bar’s Labor & Employment Law Section (to which he had been elected on two separate occasions) and is a member of the Wisconsin State Bar.

He is admitted to practice before the state courts of Wisconsin, and the federal courts for the Western and Eastern District Courts of Wisconsin, the District Court of Utah, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court.

Representative Matters :

• Defend small food manufacturer with respect to an OSHA citation issued for alleged lack of guarding requirements.
• Represented and assisted international frozen food manufacturer and packager in an ongoing Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs audit involving multiple hundreds of employees and applicants for employment.
• Defend international food manufacturing company with operations in Madison, Wisconsin against an employee claim for emotional distress and punitive damages claim in Wisconsin state court through trial.
• Successful obtain summary judgment dismissing punitive damage claim and then successfully obtained directed verdict at the close of trial on the remaining emotional distress claim.
• Negotiated 3-year collective bargaining agreement on behalf of chemical and food additive client. Negotiations resulted in a modest 1-2% increase in wages with an associated significant reduction in the employer share of healthcare benefit obligations.