Benjamin Wyatt has extensive experience assisting employees who believe their rights have been violated through wrongful termination or other hostile workplace actions including harassment, discrimination, and retaliation. Ben also assists employees in evaluating legal wage & hour obligations and addressing potential violations of applicable pay requirements. Ben earned his Juris Doctor from Yale Law School and is President of the Cheshire County Bar Association. He is admitted to the bars of NH, VT, MA and CT.
Since 2015
Since 2005
Since 2011
Since 2016
Since 2016
Since 2006
Since 2012
2014 - Current
Law Offices of Wyatt & Associates PLLC
Wyatt & Associates assists a diverse set of employers – ranging from growing start-ups, to non-profits and government entities, to national companies – in strategically navigating through their human capital opportunities and challenges. Some of the services we provide include: • Employment Services: Employment handbook drafting, wage & hour auditing and solutions, development of employment agreements and consulting contracts • Real-Time Human Resources Advice: Answering time sensitive legal questions, running investigations, providing counsel concerning problematic employees and HR questions • Preventing and Managing Discrimination Lawsuits: Responding to threatened litigation, hard-nosed negotiation of solutions, aggressive representation in litigation when needed • Manager & Employee Training: Harassment prevention, performance management, legal compliance, HR best practices, and more • Union Negotiations: Representation in high stakes negotiations, handling of grievances and arbitrations, response to labor organizing • Strategic HR Services: Compensation strategies, performance management systems, organizational re-structuring, retention and professional development support, employee satisfaction assessment, and executive coaching
2009 - 2014
C&S Wholesale Grocers Inc
• Serve as lead in-house employment lawyer for national 14,000 employee company with over $21 billion dollars in annual revenue. • Manage defense of all employment-related lawsuits & discrimination charges filed against the Company, including both individual suits and class actions. • Consistently generated seven figure annual savings by reducing legal fees associated with employment-related litigation by 80%. • Achieved 40% drop in the number of EEOC and state agency discrimination claims filed against the Company through proactive management of sensitive employment situations. Eliminated all legal fees associated with discrimination charge defense (representing six figure annual savings) by coordinating the in-house defense of all discrimination charges. • Direct manager of paralegal team providing support to labor, employment, and corporate litigation. • Provide extensive direction and advice to human resources professionals at over thirty-five facilities around the country concerning employment policies & practices, hiring, firing, discipline, and performance management decisions, and legal compliance. • Serve as chief in-house legal counsel vetting ERISA-compliant benefit plans, including summary plan descriptions and other related disclosures. Advise in-house benefit plan administrators related to fiduciary responsibilities. • Composed and provided numerous trainings, including litigation risk mitigation, investigation techniques, employee performance management, and prevention of discrimination & harassment. • Lead highly sensitive audits and investigations concerning potential misconduct and other legal compliance issues. • Managed labor relations for unionized bargaining units together representing over 650 employees. • Negotiated collective bargaining agreements. • Actively managed grievances and led the successful defense of numerous arbitrations.
2005 - 2009
Goodwin Procter LLP
• Defended national clients in FLSA and ADEA collective actions involving highly complex discovery processes and significant motion practice. Acted as primary liaison to numerous trial experts. • Served as senior associate supervising trial team of 3 junior associates and 3 paralegals which represented plaintiff-employer in successful fiduciary breach/non-solicitation trial. After winning a preliminary injunction following a two week trial, helped to negotiate eight-figure settlement on behalf of client. • Defended employers in employment discrimination cases before state and federal courts and agencies. • Represented plaintiffs and defendants in numerous restrictive covenant cases. • Engaged in intellectual property & commercial litigation. • Took and defended nearly fifty depositions throughout the country. • Represented employers in successful mediations and directly negotiated settlements with opposing counsel. • Drafted numerous complaints & answers, position statements, dispositive motions, and appeals briefs. • Provided extensive advisory and policy development services, ranging from counseling on hiring and terminations to development of employee handbooks. • Provided employment advice for major business transactions. • Represented employers in union election campaigns and hearings before the NLRB. • Provided pro bono advisory services to solar energy and education non-profits. Secured political asylum for political refugees & torture victims. • Represented labor & employment department on the Goodwin Associates Liaison Committee
2005
J.D.
2002
B.A.
high honors
Business Monadnock
Employee Benefits, Employment Contracts, Employment Discrimination, ERISA, Overtime & Unpaid Wages, Sexual Harassment, Whistleblower, Wrongful Termination
Business Contracts, Business Dissolution, Business Finance, Business Formation, Business Litigation, Franchising, Mergers & Acquisitions, Partnership & Shareholder Disputes
