Matthew Parker

My practice is focused on employment law, business litigation, and labor law. I counsel employers and human resources professionals on how to hire, fire, pay, manage, and negotiate with employees, I draft employment contracts, employee handbooks, non-compete agreements, and non-disclosure agreements, I conduct workplace investigations and trainings, I represent companies and individuals in federal and state courts, and I am also an experienced practitioner before administrative agencies such as the R.I. Commission for Human Rights, the R.I. Department of Labor, the National Labor Relations Board, and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Among other issues, I have litigated contract, insurance, and real estate disputes, benefits claims, discrimination claims, and wage disputes, collection actions, and tort actions.

I counsel clients concerning Title VII, the ADEA, the ADA, the FLSA, the FMLA, the NLRA, and state labor and employment laws and regulations.

I represent unionized employers in grievance arbitration hearings and in defense of unfair labor practice charges, I contest union representation petitions, and I have successfully handled unemployment and other agency appeals.

I have also also enforced and challenged various non-compete, non-solicitation, and non-disclosure agreements, and I have prosecuted and defended whistleblower and retaliation cases. Additionally, I have counseled several clients towards favorable settlements in confidential mediations.

In my “free" time, I am an editor of HR Hero's "Rhode Island Employment Law Letter," I chair the Labor Law and Employment Committee of the Rhode Island Bar Association, I am a competitive sailor and squash player, and I enjoy spending time with my wife and our two young children.