Shannon Gatlin

Shannon serves as Principal and Head of the Labor and Employment Practice Group for Cokinos | Young, a premier construction law and civil litigation firm, and handles all employment law matters for his clients. Shannon advises clients nationwide on compliance with state and federal employment laws and mitigation of risk. He works closely with their senior leadership and HR personnel to respond to administrative charges, cease-and-desist notices, personnel record requests, demand letters, and litigation. In addition to drafting client internal policies, employee handbooks, and numerous types of employment-related contracts and agreements, Shannon oversees workplace investigations into employee allegations of employment and labor law violations, including claims of gender, race, religious, age, and disability discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wage and hour violations, and unfair labor practices. He also conducts compliance trainings for prevention of harassment, discrimination, and retaliation, as well as for educating supervisory and management level employees fair hiring, interviewing, and promotions practices. Shannon has been the lead counsel and supervisor of litigation teams defending clients in proceedings before the EEOC, the Department of Labor, the Texas Workforce Commission, and the NLRB, as well as managing litigation in state and federal courts. He also represents clients in arbitrations and mediations.

During each fall semester, Shannon teaches Employment Contracts: Basics, Drafting, & Negotiation, an elective practical skills course for second- and third-year law students that Shannon created from scratch based on suggestions and guidance from Professors Richard Carlson and David East and fellow Adjunct Professor Lisa Dahm. Shannon developed the course to provide law students with the opportunity to learn about the intricacies of negotiating and drafting employment agreements via hands-on in-course exercises and homework, after having learned earlier in the course about relevant legal theories and concepts applicable to employment agreements. The course is designed so that both students with no prior employment law coursework and those with extensive prior employment law coursework may substantially benefit from the course and operate on an essentially level playing field. The course provides students with a unique opportunity to experience how numerous contract and employment law principles and concepts translate into actual legal practice, building on learning about those concepts in the abstract. Students are provided an opportunity to explore such concepts as restrictive covenants, for-cause termination, various compensation types and schemes, and compliance with applicable federal and state employment law statutes when drafting assignments that can also serve as writing samples to present to potential employers once their time in law school ends.

After departing Alaniz Schraeder in advance of its dissolution mere months later, Shannon joined the respected midsize employment law and insurance defense firm of Martin Disiere Jefferson & Wisdom. During his time with Martin Disiere he worked closely with named partner Jack Wisdom and saw the primary focus of his practice shift from advice and counseling to litigation and adversarial proceedings. That being said, Shannon still provided clients with services related to prevention of lawsuits and administrative inquiries, such as advising employers on their obligations under COBRA and any statutory exemptions from the statute that might be applicable. In terms of litigation work during Shannon's brief tenure with Martin Disiere, he continued honing the deposition and discovery skills he had begun putting to use at Alaniz Schraeder, now getting the opportunity to conduct and defend depositions in class and collective action cases. Shannon also continued to find success through his motions and briefing practice, including a summary judgment victory in state court in a seven-figure employment contract litigation that withstood challenges all the way to the Texas Supreme Court, and victory in the administrative appeal of an Administrative Law Judge's ruling in an OSHA matter that was decided solely on the briefing of the parties.

At the conclusion of his judicial clerkship with the Texas Fourteenth Court of Appeals, Shannon joined the boutique labor and employment law firm of Alaniz & Schraeder in Houston, which would later become Alaniz Schraeder Linker Farris Mayes, LLP. Although technically a private law firm, Alaniz Schraeder primarily served as the de facto in-house labor and employment counsel for Nucor Corporation, a Fortune 250 steel manufacturer headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. During Shannon's tenure, Alaniz Schraeder handled 100% of Nucor's labor and employment issues for all of its facilities across 42 states, as well as occasional employment law duties for affiliated facilities in Canada and elsewhere in North America. Shannon began his time at Alaniz Schraeder as an Associate and was later promoted to Senior Associate in 2014 upon obtaining the status of Board Certified Specialist in Labor & Employment Law, issued by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Fewer than 700 Texas attorneys currently hold this distinction, with roughly two dozen or so newly obtaining this status each year. During his time at Alaniz Schraeder, Shannon performed many of the duties commonly associated with an in-house employment counsel role. Shannon often advised Nucor on day-to-day personnel issues related to hiring, discipline, promotions, and terminations. He also helped develop strategies to lawfully combat union organizing efforts. In terms of litigation duties, Shannon regularly drafted - and in many cases, argued - motions, briefs, and appellate and Supreme Court petitions. Shannon also served as a point of contact with Nucor's General Counsel, corporate management, and leadership at individual facilities, keeping them updated on pending proceedings and relevant changes to employment laws through memoranda and emails when appropriate. Shannon also provided various employment law trainings to both management and rank-and-file employees nationwide.

After graduating from Wake Forest University School of Law, Shannon made the bold decision to move to Houston upon accepting a one-year judicial clerkship with Associate Justice William J. Boyce of the Texas Fourteenth Court of Appeals despite having never set foot in Texas. During his year with the Court of Appeals, Shannon gained invaluable experience and insight into the judicial decision-making process and was given a great deal of autonomy and trust by Justice Boyce, who had to spend much of Shannon's first three months on the campaign trail. Over the course of his time as a Briefing Attorney, Shannon drafted roughly three dozen judicial opinions on behalf of Justice Boyce and the Court of Appeals, evenly split between civil and criminal cases. Of those opinions, not a single one was reversed or vacated by the Texas Supreme Court. Moving to Texas sight-unseen turned out to be a wonderful decision on a personal note, as well, as Shannon met his wife just a few months into his clerkship.

Shannon worked behind the scenes in television news for more than seven years between his undergraduate days at Duke University and pursuing his law degree at Wake Forest University School of Law. He began his TV news career during his final semester at Duke, breaking into the business as a member of the production crew for the local morning newscasts of WTVD-TV ABC 11 in Durham, North Carolina. Over the next two-plus years, Shannon learned how to perform each role on the production crew and sought promotion to the role of Director/Technical Director, the lead production role on live newscasts. Shannon would spend the final four-and-a-half years of his broadcast journalism career in this role. Some of his most memorable directing assignments included being in charge of the live broadcasts for both joyous occasions (Duke's on-campus celebration of the 2001 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship) and unspeakable tragedies (return to local evening newscasts on Sept. 12-14, 2001). In addition to directing live newscasts, Shannon also spent several years directing post-production of the Duke University coaches' shows for the football and men's basketball programs. At one point, Shannon was offered the opportunity to join the production team at ESPN in Bristol, Connecticut, but chose to remain with his beloved crew at WTVD.