William D. Edwards

Bill is a partner in Taft’s Employment and Labor Relations practice. He routinely represents employers in all aspects of the employment relationship. Bill has extensive experience representing employers in matters ranging from EEOC collective action litigation to single-plaintiff wrongful termination claims. Bill has also served as an outside investigator for multiple clients confronting internal complaints of discrimination. Prior to joining Taft, he served as the Employment and Labor practice group leader at a well-known regional law firm in Cleveland.

REPRESENTATIVE EXPERIENCE

• A national credit card company, accused of breach of fiduciary duty under ERISA for failing to provide spousal death benefit coverage to an employee (obtained dismissal of all claims, affirmed on appeal).
• A regional transportation authority accused of non-compliance with the ADA’s Accessibility provisions (obtained dismissal of all claims).
• A regional housing developer/builder accused by six different families and the Ohio Civil Rights Commission of discrimination on the basis of race by not offering favorable purchase terms to African-American buyers (obtained dismissal of all claims).
• A regional multi-family housing provider accused of gender discrimination in connection with the termination of a female employee (obtained dismissal of all claims, affirmed on appeal).
• A national multi-family housing provider accused of race discrimination in the leasing of apartment units to fair housing testers (obtained dismissal of all claims).
• A national multi-family housing developer, accused of constructing apartment buildings in non-compliance with the Fair Housing Act’s Accessibility provisions (obtained dismissal of all claims).
• A national television company accused of unlawful retaliation in response to an employee complaint of same-sex sexual harassment.
• A regional multi-family housing provider accused of unlawful retaliation in the eviction of plaintiff tenant (favorable jury verdict, affirmed on appeal).
• A national broker-dealer accused of unlawful race discrimination by a former employee (obtained reversal of $2.2 million jury verdict on appeal).
• A national apartment management company accused of the wrongful termination of an employee in violation of public policy (obtained dismissal of all claims).
• A global manufacturing company accused of improper denial of an employee promotion in violation of the FMLA and the Labor Management Relations Act (obtained dismissal of all claims).

REPORTED CASES

• Appeal of AECOM Technical Services, Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals, 2022 WL 661507, February 7, 2022 (Breach of Contract).
• Plain Local School District Board of Education v. DeWine, 486 F.Supp.3d 1173 (S.D. Ohio 2020) (Education).
• Chandler v. Cleveland Metropolitan School District, United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, 2019 WL 4394135, September 13, 2019 (Age and Disability Discrimination).
• Willis v. Cleveland Metropolitan School District, United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, 2018 WL 4283048, September 7, 2018 (Race Discrimination).
• Merletti v. E-Merging Technologies Group, Inc., 114 N.E.3d 334 (8th Dist. Ct. of Appeals 2018) (Shareholder Dispute).
• Housing Research & Advocacy Center v. WXZ Residential Group/Circle Lofts 118 LLC, United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, 2017 WL 1078956, March 22, 2017 (Housing Accessibility Discrimination).
• Hutchinson v. Sterling Management Ltd., United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, Southern Division, 2016 WL 4761947, September 13, 2016 (Housing Mold Claims).
• Guyton v. Exact Software North America, United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, July 21, 2016 (Age and Sex Discrimination).
• Yeager v. FirstEnergy Generation Corp., 777 F.3d 362 (6th Cir. 2015) (Religious Discrimination).
• Ross v. Rockwell Automation, Inc. et al., United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division, 2015 WL 3970128, June 30, 2015 (Sexual harassment, Hostile Work Environment).
• United States of America, et al. v. Ruth, United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, 2014 WL 1333188, March 31, 2014 (Housing Discrimination).
• Morrissette v. DFS Services LLC, 2013-Ohio-4336, 2013 WL 5451109 (10th Dist. App. Ct.) (Affirming dismissal of plaintiff’s age discrimination claims via summary judgment at trial court level).