Emily Travis is a labor & employment litigator in the Houston office of Locke Lord. She has measured experience in litigation and administrative complaints arising out of complaints of sexual harassment, discrimination, retaliation, wrongful termination, reasonable accommodation, FMLA, and FLSA (and Texas state law counterparts). Additionally, she assists clients in responding to employee complaints to the EEOC, TWC, OSHA, and NLRB, including preparation of position statements. Emily also works on employment agreements, severance agreements, arbitration agreements, independent contractor agreements, employee applications, employee policies and employee handbooks/manuals.
Emily is well versed in the numerous issues stemming from the COVID-19 outbreak, such as the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), stay-at-home and related orders, and all of their impacts on employers, employees and independent contractors, including critical infrastructure and essential services determinations, paid and unpaid leave, layoffs, pay reductions, reduced hours, furloughs, downsizings, expanded unemployment, and their interaction with numerous local, state and federal laws and regulations. Many of these issues have significant interactions with employee benefits, tax, Small Business Administration, and other issues, where we collaborate closely with our colleagues experienced in those practice areas.
Representative Experience
Second Chair in:
- Representing national refining company in four-week trial in Washington State against citations for violation of Washington’s process safety management regulations; representation required knowledge of regulatory requirements and factual and legal defenses and management of expert and fact witnesses and trial team
- Representing international cybersecurity company in obtaining injunctive relief against former employees and competitor company relating to misappropriation of trade secrets
- Assisting international chemical company with internal investigation following incident relating to release of hazardous materials, including conducting witness interviews and interfacing with governmental agencies
- Representing Grenadian exploration and production company and indemnified vendors in suit for misappropriation of trade secrets; granted special appearance on behalf of defendant
- Representing Norwegian software company in claims against U.S. subsidiary for breach of LLC Agreement and termination of agreement for distribution of software
- Representing international gas supplier in arbitration against customer for breach of gas supply agreement, with particular consideration to construction disputes and force majeure
- Representing former CEO of healthcare IT company in arbitration for breach of employment agreement and wrongful termination