Terese Connolly

Ms. Terese M. Connolly is a partner in the firm’s Chicago office where she focuses her practice in the area of domestic and international labor and employment. She is a trusted advisor to her clients, with over a decade of experience advising and counseling multinational corporations in navigating the wide range of employment related issues that arise when managing a global workforce.

She provides day to day advice and counsel to multinational companies, conducts enterprise risk assessments, compliance audits, internal investigations, as well as provides training for management and employees on employment law, leave laws, anti-discrimination and harassment, diversity, and domestic and international labor and employment law compliance.

Ms. Connolly regularly represents clients in matters that arise under the ADA, ADEA, ERISA, FCRA, FCPA, FLSA, FMLA, NLRA, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, USERRA, WARN, and various state wage and hour, and discrimination laws. She routinely counsels clients on “best practices” involving hiring processes, discipline and dismissals, reductions in force and other expense reduction measures, disabilities, sexual harassment, wrongful discharge, employee privacy, drug testing and employee searches.

Ms. Connolly also assists clients with employee applications, offer letters, employment and executive contracts, handbooks and policies, at-will agreements, non-compete agreements, confidentiality and proprietary information agreements, separation and release agreements, secondment agreements, key employee retention agreements, services agreements, and other employment-related documents.

Ms. Connolly also regularly assists clients in providing advice and counseling on domestic and cross-border transaction issues involved in mergers and acquisitions, corporate reorganizations, outsourcing, and privacy transactions, as well as post-acquisition integration, global audits, and global codes of conduct. Other areas of law in which she counsels clients include:

• Affirmative Actions
• Employee Hiring/Discipline/Termination
• Handbooks and Personnel Policies
• Health & Safety Regulations/OSHA
• Unfair Competition and Trade Secrets
• Wage and Hour Regulations
• Labor & Employment Issues in Domestic and International Transactions (Outsourcing, M&A, Reorganizations, Post-Acquisition Integration)
• Labor Law – Union/Management Relations

EDUCATION:

• Chicago-Kent College of Law, J.D., with honors
• University of Illinois at Chicago, M.Ed.
• Eastern Illinois University, B.A.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

• Sheppard Mullin LLP
• Baker & McKenzie LLP (Chicago & Tokyo)
• Littler Mendelson PC

BAR ADMISSION:

• Illinois
• U.S. Northern District of Illinois

MEMBERSHIPS :

• American Bar Association, Commission on Women Liaison, 2012 – present
• Chicago Bar Association, Alliance for Women, Executive Board Member, 2012 – present
• Illinois State Bar Association
• Kent College of Law Women Alumnae Networking Group – Legal Ladies Lunching, Co-Founder, 2006 – present

Representative Experience :

• Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Advised on domestic and international employment issues related to divestiture of data protection business for client involving 475 employees and 29 international jurisdictions.
  • Provided labor and employment advice to global manufacturing company in connection with $1.2 billion acquisition of a food and beverage industry packaging company.
  • Assisted a global supplier of telecommunications networking equipment, software and services with employment issues associated with the transfer of employees to several countries in connection with the client’s $770 million asset purchase of a hard asset technology company.
• Counseling
  • Advised a Fortune 50 banking and financial services corporation on a 50-country global employment audit involving multiple business lines.
  • Advised security service company on its standardization and implementation strategy of non-compete and non-solicit agreements in nearly all 50 states.
• Litigation
  • Successfully defended appeal of Title VII action claiming reverse race discrimination in the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
  • Obtained jury verdict of $2.3 million in defamation trial.