ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Mark E. Papadopoulos, Isler Dare / Vienna
Mark E. Papadopoulos is a partner at Isler Dare, PC. He litigates cases and advises clients on a wide range of labor and employment matters, including those arising under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, and the Fair Labor Standards Act, as well as state workplace law such as restrictive covenants and common law torts. He frequently presents seminars on the Fair Labor Standards Act and related wage and hour topics.
Prior to joining Isler Dare in 2008, Mr. Papadopoulos worked for six years at the U.S. Department of Labor. From 2005 to 2008, he served as a Senior Policy Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Employment Standards where he assisted with a variety of wage and hour matters including federal regulations, legal guidance documents, and enforcement policy with a particular emphasis on matters involving the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act. Prior to this appointment, Mr. Papadopoulos practiced for three years in the Solicitor’s Office of the Department of Labor where he rendered advice and litigated cases on behalf of the Department.
Before his government service, Mr. Papadopoulos practiced civil litigation for three years in Washington, DC, with the firm of Gibson Dunn.
Mr. Papadopoulos graduated magna cum laude from Cornell Law School in 1998. After law school, he clerked for one year for the Honorable J.L. Edmondson on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta, Georgia.
Nicholas Woodfield, The Employment Law Group / Washington, DC
Nicholas Woodfield is a seasoned trial attorney specializing in civil litigation and appellate advocacy who has recovered millions of dollars for his clients. He is president of the Virginia Employment Lawyers Association, and he serves as the National Employment Lawyers Association’s Virginia State Advisory Representative to its Judicial Nominations Committee.
Mr. Woodfield’s successes have been recognized by various publications, including BNA’s Daily Labor Report, The National Law Journal, Human Resource Executive Online, and Employment Law360. Recently, Mr. Woodfield was quoted in Law360 regarding his precedent-setting victory in Randolph v. ADT, where the District Court of Maryland granted summary judgment for the employees, expanding protections for employees who report their employer for not paying them properly. He was also quoted in The National Law Journal about the seminal Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower case of Kalkunte v. DVI Financial Services, Inc., where the Department of Labor’s Administrative Review Board affirmed, for what appears to be the first time, a decision to award damages to a SOX plaintiff. Mr. Woodfield also earned accolades for redefining the scope of protections available to federal whistleblowers in the Federal Circuit’s decision in Drake v. Agency for International Development, 543 F.3d 1377 (Fed. Cir. 2008).
Mr. Woodfield regularly tries cases for The Employment Law Group® law firm in Montgomery County, Prince George’s County, the District of Columbia, and the Eastern District of Virginia, and in addition to bench trials and administrative hearings in EEO and MSPB matters, he regularly tries three- to four-week-long trials per year in state and federal court. He started his career in Birmingham, Alabama, practicing in Alabama’s and Florida’s state and federal courts, and in 1999 he matriculated at the University of Oxford in Oxford, England, where he undertook an academic course of study as a Visiting Postgraduate Student in Law. His research focused upon the common law defense of sovereign immunity and led him to Washington, DC, in the fall of 2000, where he practiced law with the law firm of Watson & Renner. While at Watson & Renner, Mr. Woodfield expanded his practice by representing electric utilities, manufacturers, telecommunications, and other industries in cancer claims, toxic torts, and environmental exposure claims. He also handled and tried medical malpractice cases for the firm. In 2002 he joined the Washington, DC, law firm of Hughes & Bentzen, PLLC as a partner, and by 2003 he limited his practice to employment matters. At the same time he committed himself to representing only employees who had been treated unfairly by their employers, and so he joined forces with The Employment Law Group® law firm in 2003.
Mr. Woodfield is admitted to practice law in the state and federal courts of Alabama, Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia, and in 2005 he was admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court. Most recently, Mr. Woodfield was admitted to the United States Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit.