Career
Barry focuses his litigation practice on the defense of high-stakes employment litigation. Much of his time is devoted to defending significant wage and hour claims. He has successfully defended scores of collective actions under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and class actions under the laws of many different states, including cases posing hundreds of millions or billions of dollars at issue. He maintains an active trial practice and has considerable experience in jury and bench trials of wage cases and other employment disputes. He also regularly handles employment-related appeals and has briefed and argued numerous appeals, including cases before the various federal Circuit Courts, the Massachusetts Appeals Court, and the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Several of those appeals have generated significant precedents on issues of first impression and helped to shape American employment law. Barry also provides counseling and compliance advice to employers on a wide variety of employment-related legal issues, including employee compensation, accommodation of disabled employees, workplace investigations, reductions in force, and terminations of employees in sensitive situations. He also oversees pay equity reviews and other workforce analyses designed to diagnose and remediate legal exposure before it gives rise to a dispute. His counseling work focuses not only on identifying employment practices that comply with the law, but also the design of solutions that maximize an employer’s flexibility in managing its business.
Personal
JD, Georgetown University Law Center, Cum laude; Georgetown Law Journal, editor
AB, Brown University, Magna cum laude
AM, Brown University