Overview
WASHINGTON, DC (July 19, 2016) — International law firm McDermott Will & Emery today announced that preeminent litigator, Kerry Scanlon, has joined the firm’s DC office as head of McDermott’s US Labor & Employment Litigation practice. Mr. Scanlon will be joined by his colleague, Jeremy White, and together they will bring over 40 years of combined employment litigation experience to McDermott.
“We’re delighted to welcome such an experienced team,” said Lazar P. Raynal, global chair of McDermott’s Litigation Practice Group. “Kerry and Jeremy have consistently succeeded in high stakes litigation, including important class actions and employment discrimination cases. We look forward to integrating their talent with McDermott’s Litigation Practice Group.”
Earlier in his career, Mr. Scanlon became one of the federal government’s top civil rights lawyers. He served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice, where he helped develop and enforce the Clinton administration’s civil rights agenda, supervised the successful litigation of numerous groundbreaking civil rights cases and worked with top officials in other agencies on civil rights enforcement. Prior to his government service, he spent a combined 15 years with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, two of the nation’s most prominent civil rights organizations.
Mr. Scanlon has over 30 years of complex employment litigation experience representing a wide variety of corporations, non-profit organizations, public-private entities, educational institutions, and individuals. He has successfully defended some of the largest employment discrimination class actions with a client base consisting of Fortune 100 companies across various industries. As a team, Mr. Scanlon and Mr. White have counseled and represented a wide range of high-profile clients in the entertainment, pharmaceutical, and cosmetics industries.
“We are excited about the talent and litigation experience that Kerry and Jeremy will add to McDermott’s existing labor and employment capabilities,” said David E. Rogers, head of the firm’s Employee Benefits, Compensation, Labor & Employment Practice Group. “Their arrival will help bolster the full-service approach we offer clients by strengthening the litigation component of employment disputes.”
The team’s arrival continues the momentum behind the firm’s expansion of its Litigation Practice Group. In June 2015 McDermott brought on Kristin E. Michaels in Chicago as the Head of Labor & Employment for Corporate, Health and Private Equity Clients. Around that same time, McDermott also added two first-chair trial lawyers, Will Stute in the Washington, DC office and Terry Dee in the Chicago office. The hiring continued with the addition of business litigator, Alexis Werl, who joined as a partner in the Paris office in early 2016. More recently, in May 2016, cybersecurity and data privacy litigator, Michael Morgan, joined in the Los Angeles office as the co-leader of the firm’s Privacy and Data Protection practice. Mr. Scanlon and Mr. White will join forces with McDermott’s recent litigation hires to further strengthen and grow the Litigation Practice Group, a core area of focus for the firm.
Mr. Scanlon received his JD from Antioch Law School in 1977 after obtaining his undergraduate degree from Harvard in 1973. After college, he completed a Fulbright Fellowship at the University of Freiburg in Germany.
Mr. White received his JD from Washington University (St. Louis) School of Law in 2002 and clerked for the Honorable Judge Terry I. Adelman, US District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.
McDermott’s global litigation practice includes many recognized trial lawyers and specialized litigators in the United States, Europe and China (through a strategic alliance with MWE China Law Offices). McDermott advises clients from most industries and has earned a particularly strong reputation for helping major, multinational clients win big-ticket cases. The strength of McDermott lawyers is based on the fundamental principle that excellence in client service mandates deep substantive knowledge in a broad range of industries and areas of the law, and―when required―incomparable ability and success in the courtroom.
About McDermott Will & Emery
McDermott Will & Emery is a premier international law firm with a diversified business practice. Numbering more than 1,000 lawyers, we have offices in Boston, Brussels, Chicago, Dallas, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Miami, Milan, Munich, New York, Orange County, Paris, Rome, Seoul, Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C. Further extending our reach into Asia, we have a strategic alliance with MWE China Law Offices in Shanghai.
