FordHarrison LLP, one of the country’s largest management-side labor and employment law firms, is proud to announce that two of the firm’s attorneys were selected as 2020 Lawyer of the Year by Best Lawyers, the oldest and most respected peer-review publication in the legal profession. Shane T. Muñoz, partner in the firm’s Tampa office, was named Lawyer of the Year for Labor Law – Management for the Tampa area. Michael G. Prendergast, partner in the firm’s Jacksonville office, was named Lawyer of the Year for Employment Law – Management for the Jacksonville area. Their honors will be published in a special edition of Best Lawyers.
Only a single lawyer in each specialty in each community is being honored as the “Lawyer of the Year,” making this accolade particularly significant. Best Lawyers compiles its list of outstanding attorneys by conducting exhaustive peer-review surveys in which thousands of leading lawyers confidentially evaluated their professional peers. The lawyers being honored as “Lawyer of the Year’ have received particularly high ratings in the surveys by earning a high level of respect among their peers for the abilities, professionalism, and integrity.
Shane Muñoz is Board Certified in Florida as an expert in labor and employment law. Shane has an active civil trial and client counseling practice in labor and employment law and is certified as a Circuit Court Mediator in all judicial circuits in the State of Florida. Shane has successfully represented business organizations in a wide range of labor and employment matters, including wage and hour, employment discrimination, whistleblower, harassment, restrictive covenants, wage and hour, and other complex litigation including FLSA and ADEA collective actions. In addition, he is frequently retained to represent clients in federal, state and local investigations. Shane also has wide-ranging experience in representing clients in internal investigations involving alleged harassment, disparate treatment and other employee misconduct and has substantial experience in helping clients develop and implement employment policies and procedures designed to foster positive employee relations and to minimize legal risks.
Michael Prendergast helps private and public sector employers avoid and defend against potential and actual legal claims in the workplace. These include advice and litigation under laws addressing employment discrimination, harassment, whistleblower and other retaliation, disability accommodations, FMLA, and wage and hour issues. Mike also assists employers with union avoidance, union-management relations and related proceedings before the NLRB and the courts. In addition, Mike helps clients facing OSHA inspections and proceedings, and represents government contractors on affirmative action issues, OFCCP audits, and related Department of Labor litigation. Mike enjoys representing clients in a broad range of industries including construction, transportation, shipyards, paper and paper products, automotive, healthcare, food distribution, grocery and beverage, and religious institutions.
About Best Lawyers
Since it was first published in 1983, Best Lawyers has become universally regarded as the definitive guide to legal excellence. Because Best Lawyers is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey in which more than 52,000 leading attorneys cast over 5.5 million votes on the legal abilities of other lawyers in their practice areas, and because lawyers are not required or allowed to pay a fee to be listed, inclusion in Best Lawyers is considered a singular honor. Corporate Counsel magazine called Best Lawyers “the most respected referral list of attorneys in practice.”