Overview

As a brief writer for Littler CaseSmart – Litigation™, Bill Allen formulates and executes briefing strategy for cases. He evaluates and selects legal authority that supports the facts and circumstances of each case and prepares substantive briefs and motions, including complex dispositive motions, discovery motions and briefing concerning discovery and other strategic issues. Bill is based in Washington, D.C.

Previously a Littler Shareholder, Bill is an experienced labor and employment litigator with a focus on complex matters in the wage and hour and employment discrimination areas. He regularly represented clients in collective and class actions under the Fair Labor Standards Act and state wage and hour laws, including off-the-clock work, employee misclassification, joint employer status, meal and rest periods, termination pay, preliminary and postliminary activities, and the fluctuating workweek method for overtime compensation.

As part of his complex wage and hour practice, Bill has helped clients secure multi-district litigation (MDL) treatment, obtain decertification of a nationwide collective action, limit conditional certification of a proposed nationwide collective action, and obtain summary judgment. He also has experience with litigating individual and class action employment discrimination claims, participating in mediation and settlement negotiations, and preparing jury research exercises.

Bill has represented clients in complex unfair labor practice and compliance matters before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). For example, Bill represented a major grocery chain in a 79-day hearing that resulted in denial of a nationwide remedy sought by the NLRB’s General Counsel. He has also submitted unfair labor practice position statements and handled grievance arbitrations.

Prior to joining Littler, Bill was senior counsel with a prominent labor and employment practice group at another firm, where he represented employers in the retail, food production, pipeline construction, insurance, and cleaning services industries on a variety of labor and employment matters.

Bill also worked as an associate counsel at the Office of House Employment Counsel of the United States of House of Representatives, where he provided training and counseling to Congressional members and committees, participated in mediation and administrative hearings, litigated individual and class action employment discrimination cases in the U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and argued a constitutional immunity issue before an en banc panel of the D.C. Circuit.

While at the University of Virginia, Bill served three terms on the university’s Honor Committee.

Professional & Community Affiliations

Member

Labor and Employment Section

District of Columbia Bar

Member

Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington

Recognition

Named, Super Lawyer

Washington, DC

Super Lawyers

2013 and 2015

Order of the Coif

Recipient, William Michael Shermet Award

University of Virginia Darden School of Business

News, Analysis & Press

Managing the Employment Relationship in District of Columbia

Lexology

March 29, 2016

Inclement Weather Poses FLSA Challenges

Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)

January 28, 2015

Unionized Poultry Workers Not Entitled to Pay for Meal-Break Changing Time

Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)

April 9, 2014

Inclement-Weather Policies Help Employers in Stormy Seasons

Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)

January 28, 2014

Clothes Encounters of the Supreme Kind

Workforce Management

October 14, 2013

Citizens Financial wins overtime case in Pittsburgh

Thomson Reuters News & Insight

April 23, 2013

Books & Book Chapters

  • Looking Forward to 2014: Wage and Hour Collective and Class Actions, Employment Law 2014, Aspatore Books, 2014
  • District of Columbia, The Mid-Atlantic Employer, LexisNexis, 2012-2013
  • Class Certification Under Rule 23, Littler Mendelson on Employment Law Class Actions, Chapter 9, 2nd Ed., chapter co-editor, LexisNexis, 2012
  • Defending Employers in Complex Wage and Hour Litigation, Strategies for Employment Class and Collective Actions, Aspatore Books, 2012

Speaking Engagements

Common Employer Questions: Paycheck Protection Program and Emergency Disaster Injury Loans

Client Webinar

April 23, 2019

The Rise of Independent Contractors – Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss?

2018 Mid-Atlantic Employer Conference, Washington, D.C.

June 5, 2018

Pay Equity

2017 Mid-Atlantic Employer Conference, Washington, D.C.

June 6, 2017

Pay Equity: Planning for Change

2017 Mid-Atlantic Employer

June 6, 2017

Donning and Doffing and Other Pre/Post-Shift Activities and the Continuous Work Day

National Forum on Wage and Hour Claims and Class Actions, American Conference Institute (ACI)

January 30, 2014

Litigation Armoring – Building Advance Defenses to Common Wage and Hour Class and Individual Claims

Washington, DC

October 16, 2013

Avoiding Costly Litigation through the Proven Methods of Settlement and Mediation of Wage and Hour Claims

National Forum on Wage and Hour Claims and Class Actions - American Conference Institute (ACI)

January 25, 2013

A Defense Perspective: Mediating FLSA Cases and Administering Settlement Agreements

2012 Wage and Hour Seminar - Ohio Association for Justice

June 12, 2012

FLSA: Current Issues

Brown Bag Lunch Series - District of Columbia Bar

April 17, 2012

Education

  • J.D., University of Virginia School of Law, 1996
  • M.B.A., University of Virginia Darden School of Business, 1992
  • B.S., University of Virginia, 1988

Bar Admission

District of Columbia
Connecticut
Colorado
Maryland

Courts

  • U.S. Court of Appeals, 6th Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, 7th Circuit
  • U.S. District Court, District of Columbia
  • Superior Court of Connecticut, Hartford County
  • U.S. District Court, District of Colorado
  • U.S. District Court, District of Maryland