Approachable. Smart. Progressive.

Gray Plant Mooty combines fresh, creative thinking and innovative strategies with a tradition of excellence. Quality is as important to us today as it was when the law firm was founded in 1866. Approximately 165 lawyers serve an impressive roster of regional, national and international clients from our offices in Minneapolis and St. Cloud, Minnesota and Washington, DC.

A firm's philosophy, however, is only words. The real value of Gray Plant Mooty is brought to life by its people. We consistently seek and retain the best people. Throughout our halls, impressive resumes abound, yet egos do not. Our lawyers work together, sharing ideas and experiences. Everyone at Gray Plant Mooty is focused on the same thing - rolling up our sleeves and getting the job done.

Employment Law

Today’s employers realize that employment law is changing rapidly. Courts and lawmakers are fashioning new rights and creating increasingly complicated laws and regulations. The economy is also altering the nature of employment relationships, requiring greater flexibility from both employers and employees.

Those changes bring with them expanded risks and liabilities. The Gray Plant Mooty Employment Law Team is ideally positioned to help business and nonprofit employers successfully navigate today’s challenging legal environment. Our assistance—individually suited to our clients’ needs—ranges from preventive counseling to complex litigation, including class-action litigation.

Minnesota’s Exclusive Member of the ELA

Gray Plant Mooty is now a member of the Employment Law Alliance (ELA), the world’s largest alliance of employment and labor lawyers. This global practice network is comprised of selected law firms that have distinguished themselves in the areas of employment and labor law. More than 1,000 labor and employment lawyers from all 50 states and over 150 U.S. cities, as well as international firms, have joined forces in the ELA to provide their employment law clients unprecedented resources and representation. Gray Plant Mooty is proud to be the exclusive Minnesota representative in the ELA.

Read more about how the Employment Law Alliance is serving Gray Plant Mooty's employment law clients.

Our Focus: Prevention & Beyond

Our primary efforts are directed at prevention. We regularly counsel clients on policies and procedures to help minimize the risk of employment liability. Calling upon our experience as litigators, we help them manage difficult personnel situations.

We also assist employers in projects beyond prevention, such as drafting employment-related agreements for corporate mergers and responding to Department of Labor audits. We represent our unionized employer clients in collective bargaining and grievance arbitration, and work closely with our non-union employer clients to help them remain union-free.

Keeping Our Clients Informed

Gray Plant Mooty’s lawyers offer a number of value-added programs to keep employers apprised of the latest legal developments:

our highly acclaimed client seminars (offered at no cost) provide employers legal updates, practical compliance strategies, and prevention measures

an array of employment-related training programs available to our clients feature topics such as harassment, workplace violence, workplace privacy, workplace diversity, managing employees with disabilities, and disciplinary techniques

our regularly published e-newsletter keeps clients up-to-date on breaking employment law issues
When Employment Disputes Happen

Despite even the best preventive efforts, employment claims may arise. When they do, we offer clients skilled and experienced litigators who provide high-quality, cost-effective representation. We practice in state and federal courts in Minnesota, the Eighth Circuit, and around the country. In addition, we offer in-depth understanding of EEOC, Department of Labor and state agency procedures, to help clients achieve successful dispute resolution.

We practice extensively in all areas of employment discrimination, and also handle cases involving non-compete agreements, wage and hour disputes, defamation, whistleblower claims, negligence, and contract disputes.

Gray Plant Mooty’s Employment & Labor Law Team is a vital component of our firm’s legal services. We work closely with colleagues from related legal areas to provide our clients excellent customer service and timely solutions for the challenges they face.

Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation

Successful businesses and organizations realize that their people are supremely valuable assets. They wisely utilize employee benefits, incentive and reward programs to attract and retain talented employees.

The areas of benefits and compensation, however, are fraught with rules and restrictions. Gray Plant Mooty’s Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Team helps clients create effective programs that work within this complicated and evolving legal framework.

A National Leader in the Field

We provide expertise on benefits and compensation issues to a large roster of clients, including Fortune 500 companies, closely held businesses, nonprofits and governmental entities. Our clients are located both in the Upper Midwest and around the country.

Our clients gain from the breadth of our team’s clientele. Because our clientele includes administrators, prototype sponsors and corporate trustees, we have a unique understanding of administrative concerns and can provide practical solutions to benefits and compensation problems.

A Wide Array of Benefit Plans and Compensation Services

Gray Plant Mooty’s practice encompasses:

traditional defined benefit plans

profit sharing

401(k) plans

ESOP plans and stock bonus plans

cash balance plans

tax-sheltered annuities and 403(b) plans

nonqualified deferred compensation programs and 457 plans

non-profit organization benefit and compensation arrangements

executive compensation arrangements, including incentive compensation and special issues such as intermediate sanction concerns

stock-based compensation arrangements

cafeteria plans

transportation fringe benefit plans

the full range of health and welfare plans and plan issues, including COBRA and HIPAA

In addition, our involvement in an increasing number of employee benefits litigation matters provides our clients with helpful perspective on emerging benefit issues.

Facing Challenges, Finding Opportunities—Areas in Which We Concentrate

Corporate executive compensation and benefits have become more restricted -- and increasingly scrutinized. Trusted legal support in this area is crucial. Gray Plant Mooty’s Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Team has solid experience in assisting clients to design programs that attract and retain top-level personnel. Those programs include deferred compensation, supplementary retirement, and performance-based incentive compensation plans.

Closely held, small- to medium-sized businesses looking for succession planning opportunities and ways to provide employee incentives look to our ESOP expertise for resources and solutions to maximize options in this area.

Continuous changes in the rules governing qualified retirement plans and other benefits present employers with both challenges and opportunities. We help clients design effective programs while staying in compliance with applicable rules and regulations.

Immigration Law

Business markets are increasingly global, and a growing number of U.S. companies must now look for talented employees beyond national borders. Immigration laws, however, are complex and are undergoing dramatic change. Corporations face a daunting array of options and obstacles as they seek to fill their employment needs. Individuals wanting to obtain temporary or permanent visas are affected as well.

Gray Plant Mooty’s Business Immigration Team offers experience and expertise in U.S. immigration law to clients facing these challenges. Our primary work is successfully guiding corporate clients through the complex world of visa petition procedures.

Immigration Services for Businesses

It’s vital for our business clients to find competent employees, whether in the U.S. or abroad. We consult regularly with businesses of all sizes regarding the recruitment and retention of foreign workers. We also help businesses obtain green cards or work visas for specific individuals.

Our Business Immigration Team assists companies with a full range of complex business and personal immigration needs, including immigrant, nonimmigrant and citizenship petitions. We regularly offer support in these areas:

temporary/permanent employment

permanent Residence and Green Cards

I-9 compliance for U.S. employers

naturalization

foreign students and exchange visitors

We counsel clients regarding Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and U.S. Department of Labor employment audit liabilities and sanctions under U.S. immigration laws. When necessary, we also represent employers charged with unauthorized workers or discrimination under the Immigration and Nationality Act. Our Immigration Team works closely with our firm’s related practice areas, such as International, Employment and Business Law, to best meet our clients’ needs.

Through a strategic alliance with Multilaw, a prominent international legal association, we are able to provide our clients with unprecedented and immediate access to qualified legal assistance in almost any foreign jurisdiction. As a member of Multilaw, we are connected to more than 60 independent law firms from over 50 countries worldwide. The network encompasses 4,500 lawyers in more than 130 commercial centers throughout Asia, Europe, Middle East, the Americas, Africa, and Australia/New Zealand.

Customized and Personal Service

Whether working for a corporation or an individual, we realize that immigration issues are ultimately personal. The successful resolution of the matter will affect people and their families, not just companies. We customize our services with that in mind.