Attorneys Patricia Nemeth and Linda Burwell, founding partners of Detroit-based employment law firm Nemeth Burwell, P.C., and partners Anne Widlak and Susan Koval have been named to the Michigan Super Lawyers list for 2010 under their primary area of practice, Employment & Labor. Nemeth was again included on the top 50 Women Lawyers in Michigan section of the list. Additionally, of counsel attorney Ingrid Brey was named a Super Lawyer in her specialty area of immigration.
Patricia Nemeth founded Nemeth Burwell, a boutique employment law firm, in 1992. Since that time she and Linda Burwell, who joined Nemeth in 1994, have grown the firm to 13 attorneys and 27 total staff. Nemeth specializes in the labor and employment arena as a litigator, consultant, and negotiator. Her areas of expertise include reductions in force/layoffs and rehiring after layoffs, religious, ethnic, and gender discrimination, workplace harassment, wrongful discharge, union organizing activities and multi-party lawsuits. Industries served include healthcare, nursing homes, gaming, insurance, and government entities. Nemeth completed the mediation training required under the Michigan Court Rules in 2003 and serves as a certified mediator for all types of civil litigation matters, including employment.
Nemeth holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Michigan and a Juris Doctorate and LLM in Labor Law from Wayne State University School of Law. She is a member of the Michigan Bar and the Illinois Bar. Ms. Nemeth is a resident of St. Clair Shores.
Linda Burwell specializes in the labor and employment arena as a litigator, arbitrator and consultant and represents management in all aspects of labor and employment law. Her areas of expertise include wrongful discharge, discrimination, non-competition, harassment, interference with contract, equal pay, retaliation, whistleblowers, wage and hours, unfair labor practices, breach of contract, libel and slander, and invasion of privacy. She regularly counsels management on collective bargaining agreements, pre-employment, discipline, and pre-termination and post-termination matters. A nationally recognized speaker and author on employment law and risk management issues, Burwell often serves as the legal expert on panels involving employment laws.
Burwell holds a Juris Doctorate degree from Wayne State University School of Law and a Bachelor of Science degree from Michigan State University. She is a member of the Michigan, Federal, and the United States Supreme Court Bar. Burwell is a resident of Pleasant Ridge.
Anne Widlak is an employment law litigator and counselor. She has successfully defended cases in state and federal courts involving a comprehensive array of claims, including workplace harassment; discrimination based on age, disability, sex, race, national origin and other protected categories; retaliation; violations of the Family and Medical Leave Act; wrongful discharge; and intentional interference with an at-will employment relationship. She has extensive experience representing employers in the defense of discrimination charges filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Michigan Department of Civil Rights. Ms. Widlak has served as a panel Chairperson for the Michigan Attorney Discipline Board. She is a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America (LCA), a trial lawyer honorary society comprised of less than one-half of one percent of lawyers in the United States.
Widlak holds both a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts in English from Georgetown University. She earned her law degree from the Wayne State University School of Law. Ms. Widlak is a resident of Grosse Pointe Farms.
Susan D. Koval focuses her practice on employment litigation and arbitration and has extensive experience counseling private and public employers in employment and labor relations matters. She defends employers against claims such as wrongful discharge, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, breach of contract, FMLA and wage and hour claims, and class action lawsuits before federal and state courts and administrative agencies. Additionally, she has a strong federal practice, stemming from her early exposure to the federal courts as a judicial law clerk. Koval served as a special facilitator for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission mediation program and has been a presenter and guest lecturer for numerous employers and organizations on a variety of topics, including employment law, personnel records, and tort law for educators. She conducts workplace investigations and trains employers' workforces -- from entry level positions to high level executives and officers -- on discrimination and harassment in the workplace and other employment issues.
Koval holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from West Liberty State College and a Juris Doctorate from West Virginia University College of Law. Ms. Koval is a resident of Northville.
Brey focuses her practice exclusively on immigration law. Specifically, she represents employers who seek to employ foreign nationals within the United States. She also advises employers on worksite immigration compliance and enforcement issues. Brey is an active member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and has served as chair of AILA's Michigan Chapter, chair of the National Physician's Committee and on various national liaison committees, including the Department of Labor, Nebraska Service Center, and Department of State, where she was charged with liaisoning with the Waiver Review Division on J-1 visa waiver issues. In 2007, Brey acted as AILA liaison with the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City. She has published numerous articles on immigration law, including a chapter in the Institute of Continuing Legal Education's handbook, Employment Law in Michigan. In January, 2009 Brey's article, Immigration Law for the Employment Lawyer, appeared in the Michigan Bar Journal. She is a frequent speaker on immigration law and presents yearly at the national American Immigration Lawyers' Conference and other national immigration conferences throughout the U.S.
Brey holds a law degree, cum laude, from the Thomas M. Cooley Law School and a master's degree in labor law from the Georgetown University Law Center. She received her bachelor's degree in social science from Michigan State University.
She is a resident of Grosse Pointe Park.
Published: Fri, Oct 15, 2010
