Burton Garland, Jr.

Burton Garland, Jr.

Shareholder, Ogletree Deakins

Mr. Garland practices all facets of labor and employment law. Mr. Garland’s labor law practice includes union avoidance counseling and campaigns, elections, objections to elections, R-Case strategy and litigation, collective bargaining, strikes and injunctions, arbitration, and unfair labor practice charges before the National Labor Relations Board.

Mr. Garland’s employment practice includes litigating employment discrimination matters under Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, Fair Labor Standards Act, the Federal False Claims Act, and the various state counterparts to these federal laws. Mr. Garland has extensive experience litigating high stakes matters in the context of motions seeking temporary restraining orders and other injunctive relief matters involving restrictive covenants (non-compete, non-solicit and confidentiality agreements); misappropriation of trade secrets; retaliation; tortious interference; unfair competition; and related claims. In addition to representing clients in federal and state court and before federal and state agencies, Mr. Garland’s practice includes advising clients on employment-related matters and drafting personnel policies, employment contracts, severance agreements, and employee handbooks. Mr. Garland also has significant experience in wage and hour class action defense and in FINRA arbitrations. Mr. Garland has appeared in federal and state courts and agencies throughout the country and is permanently admitted to practice law both in Missouri and Illinois.

Sam is an associate in the St. Louis office where his practice primarily focuses on representing employers in lawsuits involving claims of discrimination, retaliation, harassment, wrongful termination, trade secrets, and other employment-related claims.  In addition to litigating at the state and federal level, Sam represents employers in pre-litigation matters before administrative agencies and provides advice and counsel to employers, including drafting handbooks, personnel policies, and other employment-related documents.

Prior to joining Ogletree Deakins, Sam practiced Missouri Workers’ Compensation law for an insurance defense firm in St. Louis. Sam received his undergraduate degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and his law degree from Saint Louis University School of Law. While in law school, Sam served as an editor for the SLU Law Journal. Additionally, he gained experience interning for the Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, as well as a local civil plaintiff’s firm.

Coming Soon

Samuel Newman

Samuel Newman

Associate, Ogletree Deakins

Fred Falker

Fred Falker

President, Falker Consulting Group

Fred is the President of Falker Consulting Group, Inc., a consulting and human resource development training firm and former Director of Workforce Development for the Saint Louis Zoo. He has worked as an organizational development consultant for more than 30 years, helping organizations with performance management, customer service, and inclusion & diversity consulting and training.  At the Saint Louis Zoo, his work focused on helping the organization establish itself as one of the best places to work, serve and volunteer in the country.

Over the past twenty-five years, Fred has developed and introduced a fundamentally new and better approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion. This approach goes beyond today’s anti-racism and unconscious/implicit bias training. Instead of focusing on the differences between people, Fred focuses on the distance between them and the behaviors that drive connection, inclusion, and belonging.

Fred has partnered with Chapman & Co. Leadership Institute to develop a program called Include to bring distance paradigm thinking and behavioral change into organizations. Fred is also currently working on a book detailing this transformative way of thinking about inclusion and diversity titled, Seeing the Box: Connecting with People.

A few of the organizations Fred has served are Spire Inc., BJC Health System, SSM Health System, Bethesda Health System, Miles Laboratories, Boeing, Johnson and Johnson, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Commerce Bank, Ralston Purina, Donald C. Cook Nuclear Plant, Saint Louis Zoo and U.S. Department of Education.

The most important role leaders can play inside any organization is to operate intentionally to create conditions that will lead to an inclusive organizational culture. An inclusive culture is one where everybody feels that they matter and belong. And while inclusion is a condition for employees, something they either experience or do not, it henges on the acts and actions of leaders.

In this talk, I will cover the following:

  • What an inclusive culture feels like and why it is critically important
  • A framework for introducing, operationalizing, and sustaining culture change
  • The three levels of leading, self, team, and organization
  • Acts and actions, a playbook for individual leaders

Tanya Zion

Tanya Zion

Tanya is a results-driven leader with extensive experience in operations, change management, employee engagement, sales operations, and people development serving both Fortune 500 companies and startups across a broad range of industries. She specializes in process improvement, change management, and cross-functional team integration with the clients she serves. Her success in these areas has led her to be a sought-after resource.

Tanya’s broad career experience is perfectly fitted for the requirements of businesses. Her career began in the telecommunications industry selling and implementing over $5MM in services for projects of varying sizes. She was promoted to a regional sales trainer where she launched three regional training hubs and was responsible for double-digit sales growth through competitive replacement and new opportunity generation within the telecommunications industry. Her passion for entrepreneurial ventures led her to the executive suite of a startup business which resulted in an acquisition by a Fortune 500 company. Additionally, she has helped businesses achieve triple-digit year-over-year growth, launched products internationally, and managed broad-scale systems integrations within matrix organizations. Tanya has spent the last 10+ years consulting a variety of clients in the areas of strategic planning, change management, people development, information technology, and executive management. Tanya brings this wealth of experience and knowledge to each of her valued clients.

Tanya holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Indiana State University and a J.D. in Health Care Law from Indiana University. In addition, she holds a Yellow Belt in Lean Six Sigma and a certification in Mindfulness.

Employee retention is maximized by an organization’s ability to optimize the key elements of employee engagement. Employee retention is directly related to an employee being able to feel positive about these topics:

  • I know what is expected of me at work
  • My work contributes to overall company success
  • I have the tools and resources needed to do my job well
  • My opinions matter
  • I am competitively compensated for the work I do
  • Someone acknowledges the work I do for the organization
  • My manager advocates for our team
  • Teams in this organization work well together
  • I believe in the direction of our organization

Retention is optimized when every employee feels that they matter, the work they do is meaningful to the organization, and their voice is heard. Employee Opinion and Engagement Surveys (EOES) are the most effective way to gauge how employees perceive efforts around employee engagement. However, offering the survey is the first step, maximizing action on the feedback provided is a much more difficult endeavor.

In this talk, I will cover:

  • How surveys without measurable follow up actions can cause more harm than good
  • Why the topics of EOES surveys matter to the entire executive team and front-line managers
  • How to further elevate the voice of the employee in between surveys
  • The role leaders must play in prioritizing EOES elements of the company culture