With workplaces reopening, much of the focus is on workplace safety issues and what kind of medical tests and inquiries are appropriate. These are important issues, and we’ll discuss them briefly, but there will be other challenges once employees return to work. Join us to discuss how to handle refusals to return to work, the types of requests for accommodation and/or leave that may arise, and what to do when an employee tests positive for COVID-19. We’ll also examine how COVID-19 interacts with traditional employment issues, such as wage and hour and harassment.

Maggie Spell, Jones Walker LLP

Maggie Spell is a partner in the Labor & Employment Practice Group. She helps clients resolve employment-related disputes and provides day-to-day compliance advice regarding workplace issues. Maggie focuses her practice on cases brought under federal, state, and local employment laws, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. She regularly offers wage and hour compliance advice and has represented employers in numerous Fair Labor Standards Act collective actions and state-law wage and hour class actions. Maggie’s litigation experience also includes defending employers in breach of contract and employment-related tort claims. She regularly defends employers and management before state and federal courts throughout the country at the trial and appellate levels, as well as before administrative bodies such as the US Department of Labor, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and similar state agencies.


Parker Kilgore, Jones Walker LLP

Parker Kilgore is a partner in the Litigation Practice Group. He focuses on business, commercial, employment, energy, and oil and gas disputes. Parker represents clients in a wide range of litigation matters in state and federal courts. He assists in prosecuting and defending claims of trade secret theft, unfair trade practices, non-compete violations, confidentiality violations, and computer fraud and abuse. Additionally, he advises clients on strategies to protect their trade secrets and confidential information. Parker drafts and enforces non-competition and non-solicitation agreements and has successfully obtained injunctive relief for clients seeking to protect their trade secrets and enforce their employment agreements. He also litigates complex commercial and employment matters that involve breach-of-contract claims, business torts, fraud claims, fiduciary duty actions, and wage disputes.