Sam Morgan
Areas of Practice
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Employment Litigation, Advice and Counsel
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Private and Public Sector Employment Rights and Claims
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Age, Race, Gender and Disability Discrimination
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Sexual Harassment
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Retaliatory Discharge and Whistleblowers
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Non-Payment of Sales Commissions
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Non-Compete and Other Restrictive Covenants
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Employment Contracts
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Personnel Policies and Practices/Employee Handbooks
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Severance Agreements
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Misappropriation of Trade Secrets and Confidential Information
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Shareholder/Member/Partner Oppression
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Independent Investigations of Employee Discrimination and Harassment Complaints
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Arbitration and Alternative Dispute Resolution
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Neutral Mediation
Philosophy
Employment relationships are important.
To an individual employee, an employment relationship is typically their most important business relationship. For most people, their employment relationship is critical to continuing a career, maintaining health, life and disability insurance, saving for retirement, having the ability to handle a mortgage and car payment, college tuition, and continuing their lifestyle.
To an employer, employment relationships are crucial to continuing operation of their business. Payroll and employee benefits are typically the two largest expenses affecting the bottom line of an employer’s profit and loss statement. Employee development, productivity and reliability are crucial to the company’s ability to meet its obligations to its customers and clients. In many cases, an employer’s chances of success are directly related to the abilities and performance of its weakest employees.
The termination of an employment relationship is an upsetting event. It can be one of the most upsetting events in an individual employee’s life, especially if it is a long-term employment relationship. For employers, the termination of an employee is often a sign of a failure on their part - either in the initial hiring decision, or in communicating the rules and policies of the company, or in job training and the development of talent, or management’s ability to communicate the type of job performance that is expected.
For an employee who believes that he or she was wrongfully terminated from their job, a failed attempt to rectify that injustice can be just as upsetting as the termination itself. For the employer that believes it did everything correctly, being served with a wrongful discharge lawsuit can also be upsetting, in addition to being costly. The role of an employment lawyer is to attempt to avoid these upsetting scenarios.
Background
Since 1992, Sam Morgan’s law practice has focused on advising and representing both employees and employers in the broad range of employment law matters that arise under state or federal law. His practice is mostly devoted to advising and representing individual employees who have been discharged from their jobs, including individuals with employment contracts, and individuals who have experienced discrimination on the basis of their age, race, gender, disability, religious beliefs, veterans status or because they were a whistleblower. Sometimes these clients have experienced sexual, racial or ethnic-based harassment and/or have been discharged in retaliation for objecting to, reporting or complaining about that harassment. Many times, these clients have been offered severance or separation agreements, which need to be evaluated as an alternative to pursuing a lawsuit. Often, these severance agreements affect equity ownership, including stock option or grant awards, or continued membership in the company, and the termination is part of a campaign of minority shareholder/member oppression. Other clients have non-compete agreements that may stand in the way of their best, next employment opportunity, or they may have an unpaid-wages claim, ranging from unpaid sales commissions to unpaid overtime pay due to misclassification in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Mr. Morgan also provides management-side advice and counsel and defends employer-side clients against employment rights claims. This ranges from assisting with the development of employment policies and the drafting of an employee handbook, ongoing human resources advice and counsel, representation in administrative agencies, and defense in court and arbitration cases.
Mr. Morgan has represented clients in a variety of industries, including the automotive industry, manufacturers’ representatives, healthcare, advertising, banking and financial services, high tech, gaming and casinos, restaurants and hospitality, spirits and wine businesses, grocery and retail, and construction. He also has significant experience with public sector employment, and employment rights that arise under the United States Constitution and various federal and state statutes.
While he is located in Michigan, Mr. Morgan has handled cases in several other states, including Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, New York, Florida and Arkansas.
Mr. Morgan is an avid baseball and Detroit Tigers fan.
Honors and Accomplishments
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Best Lawyers in America, 2006–2023, Employment Law, Individuals, Management & Litigation
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Michigan Super Lawyers, 2006–2023, Plaintiff’s Employment Litigation
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Top 100 Michigan Super Lawyers – 2010–2017
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AV Rating (Preeminent), Martindale-Hubbell 2005–2023
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Fellow – College of Labor and Employment Lawyers
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DBusiness Magazine "Top Lawyers" - 2023
Memberships and Activities
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State Bar of Michigan
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State Bar of Michigan, Labor & Employment Law Section Council, 2012-2017
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National Employment Lawyers Association
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Novi Chamber of Commerce, Board of Directors/Executive Committee, 2011–2017,
Chairman, 2014 – 2016 -
Greater Farmington Area Chamber of Commerce
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Detroit Bar Association
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Macomb County Bar Association
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Oakland County Bar Association
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Federal Bar Association
Education
Detroit College of Law, J.D., 1984
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, B.A., 1981