William Dugan

Practice Areas

William (Bill) Dugan is a partner in Baker McKenzie’s Employment and Compensation Practice Group, residing in Chicago and New York, chair of the US Disputes Employment Group, co-chair of the North American Employment Disputes Group, and a member of the Steering Committee for the North American Employment and Compensation Practice. Bill has been recognized as a leader in labor and employment law by Chambers, he has been repeatedly recognized for his superior litigation defense in Super Lawyers, and Legal 500 has stated that Bill is a “master in the art of defending corporations in litigation.” Bill represents management in complex litigation in federal and state courts and other tribunals throughout the United States, including trade secret and restrictive covenant matters, class and collective actions, and labor arbitrations. Bill also counsels employers on a wide range of Labor and Employment issues.

Bill has extensive experience representing management in complex litigation before federal and state courts, administrative agencies and other tribunals throughout the United States. He routinely litigates against the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, defending clients in high-profile systemic cases, as well as class and collective actions under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, and state wage hour laws. Among his various class and collective actions, Bill has successfully defended a race pay and promotion class action against a significant not-for-profit; the largest gender pay and promotion case ever brought by the EEOC; the largest class pay and promotion class arbitration ever filed by the private plaintiffs' bar; Title III class litigation involving hundreds of stores for major retailers; and class actions involving independent insurance agents nationwide.

Bill also has significant trial experience, including a multi-plaintiff race discrimination and harassment lawsuit litigated for nine weeks to verdict before a Detroit, Michigan jury; a multi-plaintiff sex harassment and retaliation lawsuit litigated to verdict before a Chicago, Illinois jury; a breach of contract lawsuit litigated to verdict before an Ann Arbor, Michigan jury; the first sexual orientation lawsuit tried to verdict in Illinois; and an unfair labor practice hearing wherein nearly 100 unfair labor practice charges were litigated to verdict over 48 hearing days in Syracuse, New York.

Bill routinely represents clients in the financial industry, and regularly litigates before the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority achieving successful results, including a complete defense verdict in a FINRA arbitration where actual damages exceeded USD 50 million resulting in the General Counsel declaring after trial that "[he had] never met a better trial lawyer" than Bill Dugan.

Work Highlights

• Betts, et al. v. Costco Wholesale Corporation (E.D. MI). Multi-plaintiff race discrimination and harassment suit tried to verdict over nine weeks.

• Butler, et al. v. American Cable & Telephone, LLC (N.D. IL) FLSA, IWPCA and multiple separate class and collective claims.

• Copp, et al. v. American Enterprise Services Co. et al. (S.D. IA). Defeated class certification in breach of contract and FCRA suit involving 9,000 putative class members.

Expert in these Jurisdictions

USA

Languages Spoken

English

Education