Bert H. Ware Joins Schwartz Hannum PC
Schwartz Hannum PC is thrilled to announce that Bert H. Ware has joined the Firm as Senior Counsel.
Bert has a robust employment law background delivering actionable, experience-based and -tested, practical advice and guidance to clients, coupled with extensive litigation and investigations experience. He uses his considerable background as in-house and outside counsel to help C-Suite and other senior executives at for-profit and non-profit organizations navigate complicated and sensitive workplace law matters, with an acute sensitivity for legal problem solving, risk avoidance and mitigation, and crisis and reputational risk management.
Bert’s in-house and private practice experience includes the portfolio-based and single matter-defense of single- and multi-party employment-related litigation in federal and state courts, before federal and state fair employment practice agencies, including the EEOC, the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, and more than a dozen other state and federal agencies, as well as before AAA and FINRA arbitral panels, related conciliations, settlement and resolution negotiations, and mediations.
Bert has substantial practical in-house experience in designing and implementing enterprise-wide or business unit-specific on-boarding, senior executive contract negotiation, design, drafting, and execution, and background screening programs in coordination with sourcing and internal staffing teams, and corporate security organizations for existing business structures, as well as in the context of M&A acquisitions and integrations. Bert’s experience extends to senior executive performance management issues, the design and implementation of employee retention and goal achievement strategies during spin-offs, divestitures, or wind downs, off-boarding, RIFs, separation agreements, proactive protection, support of cyber-forensic review, and recapture of intellectual property, related strategies, negotiations and execution.
Bert works with clients on both neutral third-party impartial and client-directed investigations of alleged misconduct including claims of discrimination, bullying, harassment, hostile work environment, retaliation, threats of violence, and unprofessional workplace conduct issues, as well as policy violations. In addition, Bert has assisted clients in designing, building out, and training teams to put in place internal investigation functions.
Bert assists clients in diversity representation, complex civil rights reviews and employment law audits, as well as dispute resolution, workplace culture assessments examining allegations of race-, gender-, and age-based discrimination and harassment law. He works closely with clients with regard to confidential litigation assessments, internal legal vulnerability assessments, and assists clients in developing “best practice”, benchmarking, and diversity enhancement action plans.
Prior to joining Schwartz Hannum PC, Bert was Of Counsel in the Boston office of Jackson Lewis P.C, a Principal at Bressler Amery & Ross, P.C. in New York City, and served as a Senior Vice President and Assistant General Counsel for 20 years at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and its predecessor institutions. He was also a senior associate at Mintz Levin in Boston and an associate at LeBoeuf Lamb in New York, New York.
Bert is a graduate of New York University School of Law and Tufts University, cum laude.
He is an Advisory Board Member of the American Employment Law Council, and a member of the American Bar Association, the Association of Workplace Investigators, the Boston Bar Association, the Federal Bar Association, the Massachusetts State Bar Association, the New York University School of Law Black & Latino Alumni Association, the Practising Law Institute, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), The Partnership Alumni Association, and the Tufts University Alumni Association. He is also a member of Building Bridges Through Partnership – Boston, MA, a Board Member & Ethics Officer of the Acton-Boxborough United Way, and a member of the Boston Men’s Dinner Group. Bert previously served as Concord Academy’s Chair of the Parents’ Committee On Community & Equity and as a volunteer high school boys’ basketball referee at the Acton-Boxborough Community Education.
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Sarah H. Fay Honored As A Top Women Of Law By Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly
Schwartz Hannum PC is thrilled to announce that Sarah H. Fay has been honored as a Top Women of Law 2023 by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly. This award celebrates the achievements of exceptional women lawyers who are pioneers, educators, trailblazers and role models.
Sarah is Managing Partner and leader of the Education Practice group at SHPC, where she focuses on the legal needs of early child care programs, independent primary and secondary schools, and colleges and universities. She advises clients on all aspects of school operations, including student and parent issues, employment matters, governance issues, and crisis management.
Sarah has previously been selected as a Massachusetts Super Lawyers® Rising Star (2017 – 2022), and as an “Up and Coming Lawyer” by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly (2020). She is a graduate of New England Law, Boston (cum laude), and the University of Pennsylvania.
We are grateful to Sarah for all she does every day for clients and employees of SHPC. Please join us in congratulating her.
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Carolyn A. McMenemy Joins Schwartz Hannum PC
Schwartz Hannum PC is thrilled to announce that Carolyn A. McMenemy has joined the Firm. Carolyn counsels clients on a wide variety of legal matters.
Carolyn develops policies and procedures to ensure clients’ compliance with federal, state and local employment laws. She represents businesses, non-profit organizations, and educational institutions in litigation matters. Carolyn has extensive experience investigating complaints and grievances. She also assists clients with improving disciplinary policies and procedures, responding to claims of discrimination and harassment, employee termination and severance agreements, and relations with labor unions.
Prior to joining the Firm, Carolyn served as Labor Counsel for the Human Resources Division of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Carolyn has also served as Lead Counsel at the Massachusetts Office of the Inspector General and as an Assistant Borough Chief for the New York City Law Department.
Carolyn is a cum laude graduate of both Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and Boston University and a member of the Boston Bar Association, the Massachusetts LGBTQ Bar Association and the Women’s Bar Association Of Massachusetts.
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Schwartz Hannum PC Ranked In Chambers USA 2023 Sara Goldsmith Schwartz And William E. Hannum III Recognized As Leading Lawyers
Schwartz Hannum PC is thrilled to announce that Chambers USA has ranked Schwartz Hannum PC in Band 4 for the Labor & Employment – Massachusetts practice area. Schwartz Hannum PC is the only woman-owned law firm recognized by Chambers USA in the Labor & Employment – Massachusetts practice area.
One Chambers commentator said “Schwartz Hannum PC is always very quick to get back to us.”
Chambers USA has also recognized Sara Goldsmith Schwartz and William E. Hannum III as leading attorneys in labor and employment law in Massachusetts. This is the eighteenth consecutive year that Sara has been honored, and Will’s twelfth year being acknowledged by Chambers.
Chambers USA 2023 reports that “Sara is tough and super smart. She does a great job” and that Will is “A brilliant attorney who is very well respected.”
The rankings, which are determined by a rigorous process that includes a detailed written submission by the Firm and in-depth, objective research and interviews, were published in the recent Chambers USA 2023 guide. Chambers and Partners publishes guides worldwide, and has been a recognized leader in its field since 1990.
