ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Harris D. Butler, III, Butler Royals, PLC /
Richmond
Harris Butler primarily represents employees in individual and class employment matters on a wide range of issues. For well over 3 decades he has been a regular speaker at continuing legal education programs, lecturing on a variety of employment and civil litigation topics.
Peers have regularly ranked him as among the best trial lawyers in the region. In December, 2003, Virginia Business magazine’s annual Legal Elite ratings recognized him as the “Best Labor/Employment Lawyer” in Virginia. Virginia Super Lawyers has listed Mr. Butler among the Plaintiff’s Employment Super Lawyers from 2006-2019 and among its “Top 10,” “Top 50,” or “Top 100” Attorneys in Virginia for all categories. He is listed in The Best Lawyers in America in the field of Labor and Employment Law. Mr. Butler is a Fellow of American College of Trial Lawyers and serves on its State Committee. In 2016, Virginia Lawyers Weekly honored him in its Leaders in the Law awards.
Originally from Texas, Mr. Butler received a B.B.A. from Texas A&M University and his law degree from the University of Houston Law School. He practiced civil litigation/employment for five years in his native Houston and relocated to Richmond in 1986. Since that time, he has primarily practiced in Virginia state and federal courts.
Mr. Butler is licensed to practice before all state and federal trial and appellate courts in Virginia and Texas and the District of Columbia, and is a member of the bar of the United States Supreme Court. He is a member of the American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Virginia Trial Lawyers’ Association (VTLA), the Richmond, Virginia and American Bar Associations, National Employment Lawyers’ Association (NELA), has served on the Virginia CLE® Labor and Employment Committee, and has served on and chaired the NELA Virginia Affiliate, the VBA Labor and Employment Section Council, VBA Law Practice Management Section, and the VTLA Employment Law Section. From 2013-2017, he served as an adjunct professor of trial skills at the University of Richmond T.C. Williams School of Law.
Edward Lee Isler, IslerDare PC / Tysons
Edward Lee Isler is a founding Partner of the law firm of IslerDare PC in Tysons Corner-Vienna, Virginia. The firm’s practice is dedicated solely to the representation of management in labor and employment matters. A native of McLean, Virginia, Mr. Isler graduated in 1983 from the University of Virginia with a B.A. in Government and Economics. In 1987, he graduated from the College of William & Mary, Marshall-Wythe School of Law, where he served as a member of the Board of Editors of the William & Mary Law Review and was inducted into the Order of the Coif. Upon graduation, Mr. Isler served for a year as a judicial clerk to the Honorable James C. Turk, Chief Judge for the U.S. District Court, Western District of Virginia. Before establishing Isler Dare Ray Radcliffe & Connolly (previously Ray & Isler) in 1997, he spent seven years practicing labor and employment law in Washington, DC, with the national firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, and two years with a regional labor and employment firm.
From 2010-2012, Mr. Isler served a two-year term as the Chair of the Virginia Bar Association, Labor and Employment Law Section. He is a longstanding member of the Planning Committee for the Virginia CLE® Annual Employment Law Update Seminar. He is also a co-author of Virginia Employment Practices and Forms, co-author and co-editor of Virginia Business Torts, both published by the Virginia Law Foundation, and a co-author of the Virginia Wage and Hour Handbook, published by the Virginia Chamber of Commerce Legal Reference Series.
Mr. Isler has been named repeatedly by Virginia Business magazine as one of Virginia’s Legal Elite for employment law, and has been recognized by Chambers USA, The Best Lawyers in America, and Washingtonian magazine as one of the leading employment lawyers in Virginia. He also was recently recognized by SuperLawyers magazine as one of the top 50 lawyers in Virginia and as one of the Top 10 lawyers in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area.