Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz PC

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Business Technology

Baker Donelson maintains a multi-disciplinary group of lawyers to assist clients with the wide-ranging issues of business technology law. With more than 150 years of cumulative experience within the Business Technology Group, Baker Donelson draws upon all types of business transactions involving the purchase, sale and licensing of technology products and services.

One of our key strengths lies in our experience with both vendors and purchasers of technology, products and services. We understand the business drivers on both sides of a technology purchase or sale transaction and will use this knowledge to achieve the most favorable result for our clients.

Baker Donelson has assisted in educating thousands of its clients' employees in relevant aspects of business technology law. In addition to providing continuing education materials and extranet resources, we have created forms and manuals for legal staff and procurement executives. Baker Donelson attorneys also routinely act in a mentoring capacity to their clients' junior in-house legal and procurement staffs, which help those clients maximize their in-house capabilities to reduce the need for outside legal services for routine/repetitive business technology matters.

Representative Experience
* Corporate/IT Procurement
* Information Privacy and Security Management
* Outsourcing and Offshoring
* Emerging Companies
* eHealth/HealthIT
* Patent and technology licenses
* Intellectual property and technology acquisitions and divestments
* Joint ventures and strategic alliances
* Collaboration agreements
* Development, manufacturing and commercialization agreements
* Distribution, supply and OEM agreements
* Software licensing
* Internet law/E-Commerce
* Network agreements, including telecom, voice, data and related technologies
* Consulting agreements, including project management and labor related services
* Subscription service agreements (ASP/Software as a Service)

Special Recognition in Technology Area

Our Business Technology Group is recognized by academics, trade and professional directory authorities as having expertise in intellectual property and technology law. Our attorneys have been listed in Best Lawyers in America® since 2006 for the categories of Information Technology and Technology. They are often invited to develop continuing legal education programs on business technology transactions and to act as officers/directors of international consortia dealing with new issues created by the evolving digital environment. The Firm's attorneys have been at the forefront of the IT evolution, representing the first "IBM-PC clone" manufacturer in the United States in the 1980s and creating the first digital rights licensing system in the 1990s.

Labor & Employment

When you have labor and employment needs, you want a firm that listens to you, understands your business and services your entire company. Baker Donelson's labor and employment attorneys are dedicated to the practice of labor and employment issues, and can provide an integrated and experienced team of professionals to assist you in every other aspect of your legal business needs. We set ourselves apart by valuing your entire company – your intellectual property, shipping and logistics systems, real estate and equipment assets, corporate structure and everything else that makes your company what it is. And when it comes to your company's most valuable asset – your employees – our labor and employment attorneys are committed to counseling with and advocating for you every step of the way.

Clients look to Baker Donelson to ensure their compliance with employment-related laws and regulations such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, Family and Medical Leave Act, Equal Pay Act of 1963, Work Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, Drug Free Workplace Act of 1988 and the Fair Labor Standards Act, state fair employment practice acts and many others. We conduct human resource audits and have also developed extensive training programs for client supervisors and managers on union avoidance, workplace harassment prevention, FMLA management and drug-free workplace, among others.

We partner with clients to communicate with labor unions during the election phases of union campaigns, and we handle the negotiation of any labor agreements. For clients who have unions already representing their workforce, we pursue management's interests in all phases of the grievance and arbitration process.

When litigation arises, we first seek to understand our clients' goals, and then leverage our extensive experience in state and federal courts throughout the country to defend against wrongful discharge claims, various employment-related tort actions, and state and federal claims of unlawful discrimination. We represent our clients before all governmental bodies charged with the enforcement of employment statutes and policies, such as the National Labor Relations Board and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In response to the significant complications that the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act have brought to state workers' compensation claims, we have also developed an extensive workers' compensation defense practice.

Our Group was ranked as a leading labor and employment firm in our footprint by Chambers USA in 2011. In addition, we stand among the 2011 Best Lawyers in America's top ten firms in the nation for Employee Benefits Law and Workers' Compensation Law, and in the top fifteen for Labor and Employment Law. The Group regularly conducts industry-specific seminars and roundtables on relevant topics in the labor law arena, and distributes legal alerts and industry updates to clients and potential clients. And we don't just talk about best practices – we live it. Baker Donelson was named to FORTUNE magazine's 2011 and 2010 "100 Best Companies to Work For" and is consistently ranked as a "Best Place to Work" in many of our cities. We have also placed among the top 100 firms for diversity and women in MultiCultural Law magazine every year since 2005.

Our experience, reputation and proven cost-effective representation of our clients' labor and employment matters is well-known, and our ability to deliver more than just labor and employment services to our clients is one more way we have your company's best interests at heart.

Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz PC
420 N 20th St #1600
Birmingham AL 35203
Tel: 205 328-0480
Fax: 205 322-8007

The country's 73rd largest law firm, Baker Donelson offers 550+ attorneys & public policy advisors covering 30+ practice areas, seamlessly connected across 15 offices to serve virtually any legal need.