Teresa Valderrama

About Teresa Valderrama

I provide advice and representation to employers as we work together to anticipate, prevent, and solve legal issues involving employees, contingent workers, and the evolving workplace, and to defend (or file) court actions involving workplace disputes and trade secrets. My experience includes compliance counseling, EEO and policy review, management training, policy and contract review, internal investigations, independent investigations, expert services, union avoidance, administrative and government proceedings, labor arbitrations, employment arbitrations, lawsuits, and appeals. My trial experience, in addition to hundreds of EEO, wage and hour, retaliation, and wrongful discharge claims and class/collective actions, includes various other civil claims, such as commercial fraud, RICO, tort, and contract disputes.I am proud to have served the Texas employment bar over a 12-year period as an elected member and, ultimately, as elected Chair, of the Labor & Employment Law Section of the Texas State Bar. Prior to that I served as a council member and officer of the Houston Bar Association Employment Law Section over three years. I am grateful to have been, and to continue to be, recognized by The Best Lawyers in America and the Chambers USA Guide America\'s Leading Business Lawyers every year since and 2004, respectively, including being previously named as a Houston Labor Law - Management \"Lawyer of the Year.\" I also have been named by Texas Monthly and Law & Politics as a \"Texas Super Lawyer\" consistently over the last 30+ years. I joined Fisher & Phillips as a lateral partner in 2015, am a member of the Firm’s Wage and Hour / Class Action, Corporate Governance and Internal Investigations, and Trade Secret / Employee Defection Practice Groups. defends clients in wage and hour lawsuits and collective actions, and represents employers in investigative and agency proceedings with the United States Department of Labor and other government agencies.I received my law degree from the University of Houston Law Center in 1988 (J.D. summa cum laude). My undergraduate degree is from Rice University (B.A, English and economics). While at the University of Houston Law School, I served for two terms as a law intern to the Hon. Carolyn King of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. I also have served as an adjunct professor of employment law at the University of Houston Law Center.

Experience

1. Partner

   Fisher Phillips

   Sep 2015 — Present · Houston, TX, US

Education

• University of Houston Law Center

  JD (summa cum laude), Law

  1985 — 1988

• Rice University

  BA, English/economics

  1979 — 1983

• Rice University

  Bachelor of Arts - BA, English Literature & Economics, dual major

Skills

• Commercial Litigation
• Employment Law
• Corporate Law
• Union Avoidance
• Discrimination
• Erisa
• Retaliation
• Arbitration
• Litigation
• Torts
• Dispute Resolution
• Trial Practice
• Whistleblower
• Appeals
• Class Actions
• Trade Secrets
• Non-Compete Agreements