Bridget Romero

Career

“So much of what I do is about helping clients be better employers, and their companies better places to work,” said Bridget Romero. “Our clients want their workplaces to be good, healthy, thriving places where people can come and be their authentic selves and be great workers to further their goals and the goals of the business. I focus on helping clients achieve that.” Clients have raved that Bridget “is very responsive and provides excellent counsel, not only from a legal perspective but from a practical perspective as it relates to business needs. She is experienced, intuitive and an excellent communicator.”

Bridget Romero, a trusted adviser to large and midsize companies, is a partner in Lathrop GPM’s Employment and Labor group. Clients rely on her to guide them through some of the trickiest and most sensitive labor matters – such as employment and separation agreements, wage and hour/FLSA classifications, sick leave and drug testing policies. She has helped employers ensure they have dynamic workplaces against the backdrop of the most challenging employment environment in decades. Business owners, HR professionals and in-house lawyers trust her on a wide range of issues, including performance management and HR best practices and cutting-edge issues such as LGBTQ+ issues, ban-the-box legislation and AI issues. Clients she counsels range from large, international companies to mid-sized companies and non-profits.

Some of the key areas Bridget provides guidance on are:

Drafting and updating employee handbooks

Employment and separation agreements

EEOC investigations

HR best practices

Immigration issues

LGBTQ+ issues

NLRB issues

Performance management

Regulatory issues

Training services

Wage & hour/FLSA classifications

Workplace investigations

Bridget views herself as a strategic partner to clients. She is experienced with handling threats and challenges to clients’ businesses, balancing the need to handle matters in a cost-friendly, efficient manner while always keeping clients’ risk tolerance a central focus in any strategy. Clients have saved time and money due to unique checklists and processes Bridget has developed for handling employment issues. When prevention is not enough and legal issues arise, she seeks swift, pre-trial resolutions to minimize the disruption to business operations and fees that clients often face in such situations.

When litigation does arise, clients have confidence that Bridget will aggressively and effectively advocate their positions. For example, Bridget received complete defense verdicts on two occasions in employment discrimination and retaliation claims brought by former employers against one of the country’s largest employers. In both instances, the jury deliberated for less than an hour.

Bridget has handled countless administrative charges of employment discrimination before the EEOC, state and local agencies, and unfair labor practices charges before the NLRB. In one case, she convinced the EEOC that a matter the agency had “flagged” for possible litigation was meritless, and litigation by the EEOC was unwarranted after a protracted investigation conducted by the agency.

In addition to her work with clients, Bridget has served as the firm’s Personnel Counsel since 2014. In this role, she is responsible for developing preventive policies and procedures, as well as managing the firm’s employment issues as they arise. This experience has deepened Bridget’s understanding and compassion for the real-world issues facing clients, making her an extremely valuable ally in developing their employment-related strategies. Bridget is also active in the community and was recently appointed by Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas to chair the Commission for New Americans.

Practice Areas

Labor & Employment

Class Action Defense

ESG Guidance

Class, Collective & PAGA Representative Actions

Immigration

Employment Counseling & Personnel Management Advising

Training & Tools for Clients

Employment Litigation

Discrimination, Harassment & Abusive Conduct

General Business & Complex Commercial Litigation