Erika Leonard

About Erika Leonard

Ms. Leonard is the Managing Shareholder of Ogletree Deakins\' Austin office. In nearly 19 years of practice, Ms. Leonard has successfully represented clients in dozens of wage and hour class and collective actions, numerous single-plaintiff employment discrimination cases, appellate litigation, and traditional labor matters. Ms. Leonard obtained a rare defense jury verdict in an FLSA and state law hybrid wage and hour action trial, and represented a major airline with regard to complex labor issues in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. Her employment law practice includes defending clients in the airline, telecommunications, retail, manufacturing, healthcare technology, and financial services industries in a wide range of employment matters, including wage and hour matters, discrimination suits and agency investigations, client compliance counseling, preparing employment handbooks, policies and agreements, and appellate practice. Ms. Leonard received her J.D. from Washington & Lee University School of Law, cum laude, in 2003 and her B.A. in Government from Dartmouth College in She is a member of the American Bar Association, Georgia Bar Association and State Bar of Texas. She is admitted to practice before the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, the United States District Courts for the Northern and Middle Districts of Georgia, the United States District Courts for the Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western Districts of Texas, and Georgia and Texas state courts. Ms. Leonard has been listed among the Best Lawyers in America publication since 2018, and is a Fellow in the Texas Bar Foundation.Ms. Leonard is a past Associate Editor for Employment Discrimination Law (Fifth Edition), and the First Supplement of that treatise. She has previously served as Coordinating Editor for the Third Supplement to Employment Discrimination Law (Fourth Edition). In addition, she has contributed to chapters in the Employment Law Deskbook for Human Resources Professionals, the California Business Law Deskbook, and Reductions in Force in Employment Law. She is a regular speaker and author on employment-law related topics.

Experience

1. Office Managing Shareholder

   Ogletree Deakins

   Jan 2020 — Present · Austin, TX, US

Education

• Dartmouth College

  BA, Government

  1995 — 1999

• Washington and Lee University School of Law

  JD, cum laude

  2000 — 2003

Skills

• Retaliation
• Appeals
• Legal Research
• Flsa
• Mediation
• Trial Practice
• Legal Writing
• Litigation
• Employment Law
• Collective Actions
• Class Actions
• Wage & Hour
• Appellate Practice
• Civil Litigation
• Employment Discrimination