Ryan Vann

Ryan is a founding partner of Cooley’s Chicago office and assists clients with labor and employment counseling, litigation and complex transactional needs. He guides employers through all phases of the employment cycle, including hiring considerations, restrictive covenants, disciplinary advice, leave management, employment separation and enforcement of restrictive covenant obligations. Ryan has substantial experience in both large-scale reductions in force and both high-profile routine individual employee separations. He has also led several misconduct investigations of high-level executives and guides employers through day-to-day issues and crisis counseling in emergency situations, including those arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ryan has litigated through verdict issues under the Fair Labor Standards Act and other state law pay disputes and has obtained summary judgment or reached favorable settlements in numerous state and federal discrimination cases. He has also obtained injunctive relief and damages in restrictive covenant enforcement and trade secret protection and successfully defended similar cases. Additionally, Ryan has guided employers through dozens of agency charges before the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the US Department of Labor.

Ryan also has extensive traditional labor law experience, including representing clients in National Labor Relations Board unfair labor practice proceedings, contractual arbitrations, representation proceedings and labor negotiations; advising clients during union organizing campaigns and on strike contingency planning; and providing day-to-day labor relations advice arising from mergers, acquisitions and other strategic alliances.

Publications:

• Quoted, “Can an Employer Fire Workers Who Are Scared to Return to the Office?” Society for Human Resource Management, March 1, 2021
• Quoted, “Lessons Learned from COVID-19 Lockdowns,” Society for Human Resource Management, January 22, 2021
• Author, “Get With the (Compliance) Program: NLRB Decisions Creating Difficulty for Employers Trying to Comply With Other Laws,” ABA Journal of Labor & Employment Law, Fall 2018
• Chapter Editor and Author, “The Developing Labor Law,” Bloomberg BNA (2009 – 2021)
• Chapter Editor and Author, “How to Take a Case Before the NLRB,” Bloomberg BNA (2008 – 2021)