"Congress is good to employment lawyers," says Will-iam E. Rachels Jr. In 1964, just before Rachels graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law and joined the Norfolk firm of Willcox & Savage, Congress passed provisions barring discriminatory hiring practices as part of a major civil rights law. Rachels sensed that a huge new field in law was about to blossom. Since then, Congress has added lots more to the stack of labor laws, including age discrimination rulings, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act and others. He’s had to master them all.

Photo by Mark Rhodes

Federal laws aside, Rachels, who works with employers, spends most of his time in one of two areas: litigation and counseling employers on ways to avoid conflicts with employees. The two are integrally related, he says. "Ideally, the counseling would avoid litigation, but we don’t always get a chance to get involved in counseling." Employment law has some parallels to domestic law, he notes. "These situations usually involve some stress on or breakup of the employment relationship." So tension and heightened emotions are sometimes unavoidable, but better communication can help in many cases.

Employers, for example, may have just cause for terminating an employee, but those reasons haven’t been readily understood by the employee. If that happens, it’s small wonder the employee feels he or she hasn’t been treated fairly. So Rachels has developed his one overriding theme for employment law: "If everybody is working from the same set of facts, there’s a better chance they’ll draw the same conclusions." He encourages employers to develop good human resources policies and to ensure employees know what’s expected of them.

Even though he represents the employer, Rachels is an advocate for fair treatment of employees. "Especially in discharge cases, employers need to preserve the dignity of the individual. Everybody has a certain worthiness that should be recognized." Such attributes win accolades from colleagues. Robert Tindall, vice president of human resources for Bon Secours Hampton Roads has been working with Rachels for 30 years, both at this position and a similar one at Sentara Healthcare. "When Rachels looks at a problem, he doesn’t just look at it from the legal side, but in terms of common sense and good human resource practices."

Not only is Rachels good in court, he’s good at strategy sessions. Tindall recalls an effort to unionize Sentara workers some years ago. "Bill was able to position us to completely turn the situation around," he says. "The important thing for us wasn’t to be anti-union, but to know that the employees had all the facts. They had only heard from the union organizers. He’s not only a great lawyer, but also a great strategist."

Rachels’ law partner, Thomas G. Johnson Jr., says Rachels’ ability to humanize situations helps make him a superb litigator. "It takes a unique person who can put a human face on a big company to win those cases. Bill has brought in winning cases where there was a lot of sympathy running in the employee’s favor. He can do it because during the week or two of trial, the jury figures out that he’s solid and genuine. We’ve all seen lawyers as phony as a $3 bill, but Bill’s not like that."

Indeed, it’s his friendliness and inquisitive nature that makes him a good icebreaker at social events. "If you want to go out with friends, you want Bill along. He enjoys people and he’ll strike up a conversation with anyone," he says.

Rachels describes himself more modestly. "I try to get through with reasoning. People don’t want a bombastic attorney. I try to see the other person’s vantage point." For example, Rachels spent 10 years on the board of directors for Norfolk State University, a predominantly African-American school. "It was a good experience to be a minority of the board. I can understand more about the African-American community and discrimination issues — still a major basis for many employee suits — as a result. I can’t walk in those moccasins, but I have been able to walk beside them and I have benefited."