Greg Demers is a member of the employment, executive compensation, and employee benefits practice, supporting clients in a wide range of labor and employment matters. His practice includes pre-litigation counseling and risk assessment, deal support, litigation and dispute resolution.
Greg regularly represents employers in complex employment litigation matters. This includes disputes concerning restrictive covenants and trade secrets misappropriation, wage and hour and ERISA class actions, discrimination matters, whistleblower actions, and lawsuits brought by highly compensated senior executives. Greg’s advice is informed by a deep commercial litigation background. He has represented private equity firms and their portfolio companies, hedge funds, educational institutions, and individual officers and directors in a broad range of disputes.
Greg advises on various employment law issues that arise in corporate transactions, including deal diligence, transition planning, and the drafting of employment-related agreements. He also counsels companies and senior management on employment and executive compensation arrangements, including hiring, separations, employee transitions and restrictive covenants, and he has guided numerous employers through sensitive internal investigations.
In addition to his employment work, Greg also maintains an active pro bono practice. He has successfully represented asylum-seekers fleeing from political persecution, parents seeking custody of their children, and low-income tenants facing disability discrimination. Most recently, Greg defended a nonprofit social service provider against discrimination claims in Massachusetts Superior Court, obtaining a complete dismissal at the pleadings stage.
Prior to joining the firm, Greg clerked for Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and United States District Judge Michael Ponsor in the District of Massachusetts.
Experience
Restrictive Covenant Disputes
- Represented numerous private equity firms and portfolio companies in non-compete, non-solicit, and misappropriation disputes involving departing executives and other high-ranking employees.
- Represented logistics company in multi-jurisdictional trade secrets and non-compete litigation brought by purported industry competitor.
- First-chaired arbitration against former executive for violation of restrictive covenants, resulting in favorable settlement.
- Defended chemical company and a senior executive in state court non-compete litigation brought by former employer, defeating request for emergency temporary restraining order.
Other Disputes with Highly Compensated Executives
- First-chaired arbitration of executive compensation dispute with public company employee and obtained complete dismissal of the executive’s claims.
- Represented portfolio company in dispute with former executive concerning earn-out compensation and consulting benefits, resulting in a favorable settlement.
- Successfully defended board members in whistleblower action brought by former chief compliance officer upon termination.
Corporate Transactions and Executive Separations
- Represented private equity firm with respect to labor and employee issues in connection with its sale of a nationwide engineering firm.
- Represented asset manager in its acquisition of a multinational aviation company.
- Represented global investment management firm in connection with its acquisition of a dental service provider.
- Advised private equity firm in multiple separations and related negotiations with departing partners and analysts.
- Advised global investment management firm in negotiations with departing portfolio company executives.
Class Actions, Collective Actions and Other Complex Litigation
- Obtained dismissal of putative ERISA class action brought by plan participants in the Southern District of New York.
- Successfully defended against fiduciary duty litigation brought against benefits plan in federal court on behalf of 401K participants.
- Represented former public company officer in multi-pronged litigation, including a securities class action in federal district court and parallel regulatory inquiries into alleged accounting irregularities.
- Defended investment fund, general partner and limited partners in fraudulent conveyance litigation being pursued in both state and federal court. Successfully resolved breach of fiduciary duty claims against former portfolio company directors and officers in related litigation.
- Defended private equity firm and former directors and officers in multi-jurisdictional litigation in state and federal court alleging mismanagement and breach of fiduciary duty, resulting in a favorable resolution for our clients.
Internal Investigations
- Guided public company through internal investigation involving sensitive whistleblower and retaliation claims by former employee.
- Led internal investigation into allegations of misrepresentation by company executive.
- Conducted investigation on behalf of a special committee of a closely held company’s board of directors into allegations of self-dealing by executive officers.
- Obtained “no action” letters in various state and federal investigations against public company officers and directors related to alleged disclosure violations, insider trading and accounting fraud, among others.
- Conducted investigation on behalf of special committee of a public company board of directors in response to shareholder derivative demand concerning director compensation.
- Conducted investigation on behalf of medical device company into whistleblower allegations made by former member of senior management.
- Obtained “no action” letter following four-year SEC investigation into alleged disclosure violations by public company officer.