by Lisa
Antonelli Bacon for Virginia Business December 2005
Eric Welter wasn’t drawn into labor and employment
law for the money or to try interesting cases. After
a few years of doing commercial litigation in the Washington,
D.C., office of Reed Smith, Welter simply wanted to
work in an office with fewer lawyers. “I was
mainly looking for a change of pace,” he says.
The opportunity came in 1994 in a
transfer to the firm’s Tysons Corner
office to handle labor and employment cases. As the only associate in that office,
Welter knew he would be the group’s go-to guy. “It sounded like a
chance to work for people who would mentor me, teach me, and give me a lot of
responsibility,” says Welter. Tired of the “document productions” endemic
to commercial litigation, he wanted to be a trial lawyer. He had no idea then
what he was jumping into; only that he’d be working with about a dozen
lawyers instead of 100. “It sounded to me like this was the chance to
get my hands dirty quickly.”
Welter’s hands have been dirty ever since. His responsibilities grew
quickly and, within three years, he had gone from taking depositions to standing
before
a judge arguing a major case. In fact, a case that he still considers one of
the biggest wins of his career came during that period, when a national motel
chain was facing a class-action suit filed by assistant managers who were demanding
millions of dollars for unpaid overtime. After traveling to the 35 states where
the chain had motels, Welter succeeded in having the case decertified.
Since opening the doors of Welter Law Firm in Herndon in 2002, he has traveled
the country handling labor and employment cases. In addition to being a strong
trial lawyer, Welter has won some cases without ever stepping foot in the courtroom.
For instance, he recalls how legwork benefited one client, a major national convenience
store chain that was being sued in Michigan for racial discrimination against
an employee.
After being convicted in criminal court of stealing a money order, the employee
sued the company. “It was a little worrisome at first, because she had
had another employee handle the money order,” he says. That employee wasn’t
helping Welter in his investigation. Welter already had done a full background
check, and he remembered seeing another name for the plaintiff in her personnel
file — a maiden name that she hadn’t given during discovery. “I
did my background check again in a far-off county in another state and found
a five-page rap sheet. After the deposition, I met with her lawyer and showed
him her rap sheet. The case went away.”
As someone who has delved deeply into circumstances involving labor/employment
disputes, Welter believes corporations would do themselves a favor if they
were more understanding of workers’ concerns. “So many disputes can be
avoided if people were handled in a different way,” he says. “Some
are going to happen anyway because they are [valid]. But there’s a place
between the two where maybe you wouldn’t have a lawsuit if employers
treated people differently, with more dignity.”
Tom Murphy of Hunton & Williams, has litigated with and against Welter. "Eric
is a modern-day Abraham Lincoln. The thing that lawyers look to characterize
Lincoln as a lawyer and as an individual is integrity. He walks the tightrope
between being an effective advocate for his client and still maintaining his
credibility and honesty with everyone he deals with. That's why he's really
sought out."
Like many areas of legal specialization, labor and employment law has seen
its share of changes, with a huge shift occurring just as Welter was entering
the
field. “I came in right after the Civil Rights Act of 1991 which opened
the door to compensatory and punitive damages,” he says. The result: “It
brought out a lot of attorneys to handle these cases for individuals. “
In the area of labor and employment law, the effects of change can be far reaching.
Consider the aftermath of the enactment of the Family and Medical Leave Act. “When
Congress passes a law like that, the whole landscape changes,” explains
Welter, “and litigation almost always follows.”
On the horizon, he predicts, possible additions to the Civil Rights Act of
1964, which prohibits discrimination due to race, creed, class or color. “There’s
always some talk about adding sexual preference or orientation,” he says. “In
the blink of an eye, Congress can create a whole new field of employment law.
A year from now, we might be facing huge challenges that we never envisioned.
That makes it an interesting field to be in.”
