Contessa A. Brundridge is an associate in the St. Louis, Missouri, office of Jackson Lewis P.C. She is passionate about preventing workplace disputes, harassment, and litigation through effective partnership with employers on a day-to-day basis. Contessa regularly advises employers regarding all aspects of labor and employment matters including leave management, workplace training efforts, compliance with state and federal human rights laws, and state and federal wage-and-hour laws. When litigation arises, Contessa also rigorously defends employers before state and federal courts, administrative agencies and arbitrators in cases involving wrongful termination, discrimination, and wage and hour matters. Contessa’s practice includes representing employers with respect to labor-management relations matters and best practices at all phases of the collective bargaining process. She has also represented employers in successful discharge grievance arbitrations, several contract interpretation disputes, unfair labor practice charges, contract negotiations and union organizing campaigns for both private and public sector employers. She has represented clients before labor arbitrators, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Illinois Public Labor Relations Board, and the Food and Drug Administration. Contessa also represents clients in all phases of litigation, including jury and bench trials, dispositive motions, discovery, pre-trial strategy, and client counseling and best practices. Her experience includes conducting workplace investigations involving allegations of employee and managerial misconduct, discrimination, harassment, and retaliation. She regularly provides workplace training and day-to-day advice and counsel on all aspects of employment law issues for clients. While in law school, Contessa also served as the managing editor of the Journal of Dispute Resolution and was a member of numerous advocacy competition teams, including the National Trial Competition team and the ABA Labor & Employment Competition team. She was also awarded several honors for her scholastic achievement as well as her achievement in litigation and trial advocacy. Recently, Contessa authored a chapter in a labor law treatise regarding Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act.