Margaret M. Sheahan

Ms. Sheahan provides legal advice and representation to both private and public sector employers in all aspects of their workforce relationships.  She gives counsel aimed at preventing the kinds of employer-employee conflicts that lead to litigation or support union organizing efforts.  Her lodestar is to insure that her business clients’ employee relations policies and practices comply with all regulatory and other legal requirements, reflect the  “best practices” of the employee relations field and give effect to the client’s business goals.  She has extensive experience in:

• Defending workplace discrimination claims before concerned State and federal agencies and courts;
• Assisting employers in drafting affirmative action plans and defending them during OFCCP and State agency compliance and pre-award audits; 
• Conducting employer investigations of internal discrimination and harassment complaints and assisting in interactive explorations of accommodation alternatives;
• Providing workforce-wide harassment and other training as well as individualized managerial coaching on employee selection, evaluation and disciplinary procedures.
• Assisting employers to achieve and maintain compliance with federal and State compensation mandates by conducting internal audits of pay practices and exempt/non-exempt employee designations as well as defending federal and State government-initiated audits, administrative charges and judicial claims;
• Helping employers manage federal and State Family & Medical Leave Act obligations through defense of administrative and judicial claims and policy development, education and implementation;
• Working with employers to maintain an existing union-free status and resist union election campaign drives, to negotiate and implement collective bargaining contracts, to manage the grievance-arbitration process, to face union strike situations and defend unfair labor practice proceedings before the National Labor Relations Board, the Connecticut State Board of Labor Relations and the courts. 
• Guiding employers in protecting their investments in proprietary information and business development interests by devising, defending and prosecuting non-competition and confidentiality agreements.

In assisting our individual clients, Peg provides strong advice and counsel about employment contracts, severance agreements, rights and obligations under State and federal anti-discrimination laws, FMLA matters, pay and benefits rules, sex and other workplace harassment issues and non-competition/confidentiality agreements.  She also represents individuals before all concerned federal and State employment-related agencies and in court.

A 1980 graduate of the New York University School of Law, Peg is admitted to practice before the New York and Connecticut State Bars, the U.S. District Courts for the Southern District of New York and the District of Connecticut, the Second Circuit Court United States Court of Appeal and the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Professionally, Peg is a member of the Labor and Employment and General Practice Sections of the American Bar Association; the Labor and Employment, Civil Litigation and Federal Litigation Sections of the Connecticut Bar Association; the Labor and Employment Committee of the Greater Bridgeport Bar Association, of which she is a former chair; the Fairfield County Bar Association and the American Immigration Lawyers Association.  She has been rated “AV” by the Martindale-Hubble legal reference service and was given the status of Connecticut “Super Lawyer” in 2006 through 2011.

Peg has been a member of the award-winning workforce improvement board, The Workplace, Inc., since 2000, and serves on its Executive and Bylaws and Planning Committees. She also serves on the board of directors of the Bridgeport Regional Business Council, and was twice honored as the BRBC’s “Volunteer of the Year.” She is vice chair of the board of directors of the Women’s Business Development Council, an entrepreneurial educational organization. Ms. Sheahan has also served on the board of directors of the Stamford Shelter for the Homeless and is an active volunteer for the Center for Women and Families of Eastern Fairfield County, a domestic violence and sexual assault focused agency. This affiliation earned her  a United Way’s “Community Builder” award.

	Ms. Sheahan has been selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers directory for 2012   For a complete description of the selection process for inclusion in Best Lawyers, please refer to the following:  http://www.bestlawyers.com/About/BL_Methodology.aspx
	Ms. Sheahan has been selected as the United States Small Business Administration's 2011 Connecticut's Women in Business Champion of the Year. U.S. Small Business Administration.pdf
	In 2011, for the sixth consecutive year, Ms. Sheahan has been selected to the Connecticut Super Lawyers listing . Please click the Super Lawyers logo to view Super Lawyer profile.   For a complete description of the selection process for inclusion in Super Lawyers, please refer to the following:  http://www.superlawyers.com/connecticut/selection_details.html
	Ms. Sheahan was named as a "Top Lawyer" of Fairfield County in the practice of Labor and Employment Law and Litigation.