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Shannon Liss-Riordan Shannon Liss-Riordan has been with the firm for almost ten years and has been a partner since 2002. Ms. Liss-Riordan’s practice concentrates on class action litigation involving failure to pay wages, overtime, gratuities, minimum wage, and misclassification of employees as independent contractors. In addition, she has achieved numerous successes on behalf of individual employees in claims of discrimination, retaliation, First Amendment violations, and other employment-related litigation. Ms. Liss-Riordan has represented thousands of servers in dozens of lawsuits against restaurants, hotels, and other establishments for depriving servers of the full proceeds of customer tips or service charges. In addition to obtaining close to twenty court-approved class action settlements on behalf of waitstaff, she has won many tips cases on summary judgment and has won jury verdicts in three of the first tips cases to go to trial, on behalf of function servers at the Hilltop Steak House (2006), waiters at the Federalist restaurant (2007), and skycaps at Logan Airport (2008). Ms. Liss-Riordan is representing cleaning workers in a number of cases alleging deceptive business practices and misclassification by national cleaning franchise companies. She is an active plaintiffs’ counsel in national litigation against FedEx Ground for misclassifying drivers as independent contractors. She has also successfully represented firefighters and police officers challenging the state’s entry-level civil service exam as having a disparate impact on minority applicants. Ms. Liss-Riordan is a frequent national and local lecturer on employment law and class action litigation for the American Bar Association, National Employment Lawyers Association, Massachusetts Bar Association, Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, and other continuing legal education organizations. She was selected for inclusion in Best Lawyers in America (2008); she was listed in the July 27, 2008, Boston Globe Magazine as one of "Boston's Best Lawyers"; she has been named a "Super Lawyer" by Boston Magazine each year since 2005; and she was named one of ten "Lawyers of the Year" by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly in 2002. Skycaps and waiters find a legal champion Attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan: major cases | in the news | education | bar & court admissions Trials Don DiFiore et al. v. American Airlines (U.S. Dist. Ct. Mass. 2008) (jury verdict in favor of skycaps, finding that airline violated state tips law and interfered with skycaps' relationship with passengers by charging $2 per bag and not allowing skycaps to keep the proceeds of the charge) Donald Benoit et al. v. The Federalist, Inc., (Suffolk Superior Court 2007) (jury verdict in favor of class of Federalist restaurant waitstaff who did not receive total proceeds of service charges added to function bills) Janet Calcagno et al. v. High Country Investor, Inc., (Essex Superior Court 2006) (approximately $2 million jury verdict in favor of class of Hilltop Steak House servers who did not receive total proceeds of service charges added to function bills and four lead plaintiffs who were terminated in retaliation for their complaints) Jacob Bradley et al. v. City of Lynn et al., 443 F.Supp.2d 145 (D.Mass. 2006) (following class action bench trial, court found that civil service exam had disparate impact on minorities, resulting in $2.15 million court-approved settlement, including the statewide hiring of more than 60 minority firefighters and police officers) Joseph Collins v. Commonwealth, (Suffolk Superior Court 2007) (jury verdict in favor of state police trooper who had been disqualified from employment because of his kidney transplant, resulting in judgment of more than $400,000) John Bingham v. Lynn Sand & Stone, 93-BEM-1491 (MCAD 2003) (finding of discrimination by MCAD after public hearing that company failed to hire African American truck driver applicant because of his race) Gilbert Hernandez v. Winthrop Printing Co. (Suffolk Superior Court 2002) (jury verdict in favor of Native American/Mexican plaintiff who was terminated in retaliation for complaining of race discrimination) John Sprague v. United Airlines, Inc., 2002 WL 1803733 (D. Mass 2002) (judgment of $1.1 million in a discrimination case brought by deaf airline mechanic who had been denied employment based on disability) Richard Dahill v. Boston Police Department, 434 Mass. 233 (2001) (Supreme Judicial Court decided that Massachusetts law would diverge from federal law in prohibiting discrimination against individuals with correctable disabilities, resulting in hiring of hearing-impaired police officer candidate and jury verdict of $850,000, excluding interest and fees) Appeals King et al. v. City of Boston, 71 Mass.App.Ct. 460 (2008) (Appeals Court reversed grant of summary judgment in sex discrimination suit, finding that plaintiffs could show that Boston Police Department discriminated against female superior officers by not providing them with separate locker rooms) Joseph Skirchak et al. v. Dynamics Research Corporation, Inc., 432 F.Supp.2d 175 (D.Mass. 2006), affirmed 508 F.3d 49 (1st Cir. 2007) (court held that class action waiver contained in employer’s mandatory arbitration policy was unenforceable and employees could pursue FLSA overtime claims in class arbitration) Beverly Cooney et al. v. Compass Group Foodservice, et al., 69 Mass.App.Ct. 632 (2007) (Appeals Court held that servers were entitled as a matter of law to receive proceeds of service charges added to function bills at Northeastern University’s Henderson House conference center, reversing lower court’s ruling that case presented fact issue for trial) Samantha Smith et al. v. Winter Place LLC d/b/a Locke-Ober Co., Inc., 447 Mass. 363 (2006) (Supreme Judicial Court held that employees are engaged in protected activity, and cannot be retaliated against, when they complain about alleged wage violations, even if they do not raise these complaints with the Attorney General) Richard Gasior v. Massachusetts General Hospital, 446 Mass. 645 (2006) (Supreme Judicial Court held that discrimination claim survives the death of the plaintiff, including claim for punitive damages) Coverall North America, Inc. v. Com’r of Div. of Unemployment, 447 Mass. 852 (2006) (amicus) (Supreme Judicial Court held that “franchisee” cleaning worker was employee entitled to unemployment compensation upon termination, not independent contractor) Other Significant Rulings Mark Johnson et al. v. Morton’s Restaurant Group (American Arbitration Association 2007) (arbitration award certifying national class of servers challenging restaurant chain’s policy of servers tipping out managers) Don DiFiore et al. v. American Airlines, Inc., 483 F.Supp.2d 121 (D.Mass. 2007) (skycaps’ claim that airline’s $2 baggage charge interfered with their tips was not preempted by Airline Deregulation Act, and employees could pursue claim under state tips law and common law) Manuel Fernandez et al. v. Four Seasons Hotel, Inc., (Suffolk Superior Court 2007) (court granted summary judgment in favor of plaintiff servers, holding that hotel’s distribution of a portion of banquet service charges to managers violated Massachusetts tips law) Paul Shea et al. v. Weston Golf Club, (Middlesex Superior Court 2007) (court granted summary judgment in favor of plaintiff servers, holding that private club’s failure to distribute to servers revenues listed as service charges on members’ bills violated Massachusetts tips law) Michalak et al. v. Boston Palm Corporation, 2004 WL 2915452 (court granted summary judgment in favor of plaintiff servers, holding that distribution of portions of function service charge to catering manager and kitchen staff violated Massachusetts tips law) Williamson et al. v. DT Management Co. d/b/a Boston Harbor Hotel, Inc., 2004 WL 1050582 (court held that hotel violated Massachusetts tips law by distributing portions of service charges to managers, assistant managers, and catering coordinators) O’Neill v. Commonwealth, 2002 WL 342675 (D.Mass. 2002), and Moore v. Commonwealth, (D. Mass. 2002) (preliminary injunctions ordering the reinstatement of two state police recruits who had been disqualified in violation of their First Amendment rights) Simms v. City of New York, 160 F.Supp.2d 398 (E.D.N.Y. 2001) (court granted partial summary judgment to plaintiff New York firefighter who had been placed on permanent light duty because of his diabetes, resulting in his return to full duty) Ex-editor challenges TripAdvisor labor policies FedEx driver dispute fueling ‘independent contractor’ litigation Female officers get 2d chance in suit over locker rooms Lawsuit challenges fairness of police test Arab-American drivers accuse FedEx bosses of discrimination FedEx Ground battles to keep using contractors Personal trainer sues Wellbridge Drivers win right to pursue discrimination case against FedEx Another Mass. franchisee sues cleaning firm Immigrants cry foul over cleaning franchises Will Patrick stand tall? Suit says Ritz illegally keeps some tip money Judge orders fire departments to offer jobs Wave of tip pooling lawsuits snares more operators Door opened for retaliation claims Judge says firefighter tests biased and unfair Four fired servers win lawsuit against Hilltop restaurant Steak house may be liable for $2.5m Cambridge health network faces suit over alleged worker wage violations Bittersweet victory Widow's fight lives on Broker denied overtime sues Smith Barney FedEx delivery drivers file suit Teamsters Hope to Lure FedEx Drivers Sexism alleged at hospital Immigrants cheated out of pay, suit says Atlanta waiters sue: tip-sharing to fund restaurant’s “incidental labor fund” Battling against inequities of rank 4 Sri Lankan trainees sue Hub firm A decade later, a trucker finally wins racial bias case Experts, Videos Were Key To Win in Disability-Bias Case Deaf mechanic wins employment suit against United Airlines 1st Amendment A Weapon In Cases Involving Public Workers Shift In Disability Law Key To $800K Verdict
Ms. Liss-Riordan was a law clerk for U.S. District Court Judge
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Shannon Liss-Riordan 617-367-7200, ext. 217 Practice Areas Represents employees in class action wage and hour litigation Represents employees in discrimination, First Amendment, wrongful termination, and other employment-related litigation Staff Assistant Joseph Hunt
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