Leann Walsh

Practice Areas

Leann Walsh is a partner in the firm's Labor, Employment, and Workplace Safety practice. She co-leads the firm’s OFCCP and Affirmative Action Compliance area of focus. She focuses on counseling domestic and international businesses and private equity firms and their portfolio companies on difficult employee relations issues, conducting internal employment investigations, and defending employers in civil and administration employment litigation matters. Her client base spans numerous industries and sizes, from not-for-profit organizations to start-up businesses to publicly traded companies, with concentrations in health care, technology, life science, and financial services.

She regularly advises clients regarding complex labor and employment issues relating to mergers and acquisitions and has advised on employment issues in hundreds of transactions during her career. She also helps to lead the firm's collaborative initiative between its employment law and corporate law practice groups.

Leann is dedicated to working with clients to ensure that they are able to accomplish their business objectives while remaining in compliance with employment laws and maintaining positive employee relations. She is passionate about providing clients both legal and practical business-related advice on improving their workplace culture, morale, diversity, inclusion, and equity. Throughout her career, Leann has worked with clients to help them successfully navigate through varying business climates—from economic downturns, layoffs, and furloughs, to rapid growth, expansion, and acquisitions.

Leann regularly advises clients regarding compliance issues relating to affirmative action programs, including the development and implementation of affirmative action plan documents. She also advises clients relating to compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, including examination accommodations and the accessibility of continuing professional education courses, websites, and physical buildings and facilities. Leann works with clients to resolve these issues with the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Office for Civil Rights, and private litigants.

Leann is a member of Moguls in HR, an exclusive network of the most successful female HR leaders worldwide.

Leann is also a member and article contributor to the American Health Lawyers Association, the nation's largest nonprofit educational organization devoted to legal issues in the health care field, and a member of the firm's collaborative initative between its health care and employment law practice groups.

Within the firm, Leann is a member of the Raleigh office's recruiting committee. She is also an active participant in the firm's Women in the Profession Committee and leads the committee's Raleigh office book club, which focuses on facilitating the professional, personal, and business development of its members while strengthening the professional bonds between them. Leann is also a member of the firm's Diversity Committee, and a vocal ally of the firm's LGBTQ affinity group.

Within the larger legal community, Leann is a member of the National Association of Women Lawyers, including its Women in Employment Law Group, empowering women in the legal profession and advocating for the equality of women under the law.

Leann is an alumni of the North Carolina Bar Association's 2020 Leadership Academy, an intensive leadership training program for young lawyers expected to become leaders within the legal profession, their firms, and their local, state, national, and international communities.

Professional Memberships

Leann is a member of the 2020 and 2021 North Carolina Pro Bono Honor Societies

Leann is currently a co-chair of the Membership Committee of the Labor & Employment Law Section of the North Carolina Bar Association; Leann also formerly served as co-chair of the Pro Bono Committee of the Labor & Employment Law Section of the North Carolina Bar Association

Leann is a member of the National Association of Women Lawyers, including its Women in Employment Law Group

Leann routinely provides pro bono employment law advice to nonprofit organizations throughout the United States, donating hundreds of hours of pro bono work throughout her career

Since March of 2017, has also been a member of the board of directors of the West End House Support, Inc., a nonprofit organization supporting the West End House Boys & Girls Club of Allston, Massachusetts

Leann served on the board of directors of the Wily Network, a non-profit organization working to improve college graduation outcomes for youth with foster care experience at four-year residential colleges, from 2016–2020, including serving as president and co-chair of the organization from 2017–2019. Leann currently serves as an advisory board member to the Wily Network.

From 2013–2018, Leann coordinated a law firm’s participation in the “Lawyer for the Day” Program in Boston Housing Court that provided pro bono legal aid to low-income tenants facing eviction

Publications

“OFCCP Clarifies Position in Favor of Attorney-Client Privilege in Revised Pay Equity Directive,” Pratt’s Government Contracting Law Report, December 2022

OFCCP and Federal Contractors Are Significant Focus of Recent Executive Branch Actions, Pratt’s Government Contracting Law Report, June 2022

“Choosing to Discriminate: When Patient Preference and Employee Rights Collide,” American Health Law Association, 15 November 2021.

“Workplace Violence and the General Duty Clause: Measures Health Care Employers Can Take to Reduce Their Liability and Protect Health Care Workers from Patient Aggression,” American Health Law Association, 15 April 2020.

“Drafting an Employment Dispute Settlement Agreement and Release,” Wolters Kluwer Smart Task.

“An Unpredictable Legal Landscape for Joint Employer Issues in the Health Care Industry,” American Health Lawyers Association, Labor and Employment Practice Group Briefing, 28 March 2019.

“Employee Duty of Loyalty; Covenant Not to Compete; Trade Secrets; and Tortious Interference,” Contributing editor, American Bar Association, Section of Labor and Employment Law State-by-State treatises, 2013-2016.

“Employee Privacy Laws: Massachusetts,” Practical Law Company, 11 September 2015.

“Proposed OSHA Workplace Data Program Could Lead to More Targeted Employer Inspections, Client Alert, 8 January 2014.

“In Harnett, First Circuit Rejects Bright Line “First Contact” Rule for Non-Solicitation Agreement,” Client Alert, 1 November 2013.

Education