Al Vreeland is a founding member of the firm. Al has represented employers in the entire range of employment litigation. His cases have ranged from the claims of a single disgruntled employee to statewide, regional, and nationwide attacks on his clients’ hiring, promotion, termination, pay and benefits practices. In addition to traditional employment and benefits claims, Al’s litigation practice includes cases involving unfair competition, breach of contract, trade secret misappropriation, and other issues involving incoming and departing employees. Al has defended clients across the country in courts from the Northeast (New York, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh) to the Midwest (Detroit, Chicago, Indianapolis and Cincinnati) to the West (Denver and San Diego) and, of course, throughout the Southeast (Nashville, New Orleans, Atlanta and Orlando).

In addition to his litigation practice, Al regularly counsels clients on preventive employment measures and on handling risk-laden employment decisions. His counseling practice has an emphasis on issues of corporate restructuring, such as sales, acquisitions and reductions-in-force. Al works with clients to analyze the risks of proposed corporate changes, including the risk of union accretion, employee benefit liability, WARN obligations, and adverse EEO impact.

Al is a frequent speaker and writer on issues of employment law. For more than thirty years, he has been the editor of the Southeast Employment Law Letter (formerly the Alabama Employment Law Letter) and a contributing editor of the Alabama Employer’s Desk Manual. His published works include “Internal Investigations” in HR Guide to Employment Law: A Practical Compliance Reference (BLR, 2013), How to Conduct Internal Investigations, (M. Lee Smith Publishers, 1999) and “The Breath of the Unfee’d Lawyer,” 90 U. Mich. L.R. 626 (1991).  Al is also an active member of the Wage & Hour Defense Institute and the Employers Counsel Network.

Born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Al received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University, where he was a teaching assistant in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. He received his law degree, with honors, from the University of Michigan Law School, where he was an editor of the Michigan Law Review.

Al has been listed in Chambers USA Guide to America’s Leading Lawyers for Business since 2005, Alabama Super Lawyers since 2008 and The Best Lawyers in America since 2008. He has consistently received Martindale-Hubbell’s highest peer review rating, AV® Preeminent™, for his very high ethical standards and legal ability. He has been recognized by U.S. News & World Reports’ Best Lawyers as the 2021 Lawyer of the Year in the area of Litigation – Labor and Employment, the 2020 Lawyer of the Year in the area of Employment Law – Management, and 2019 Lawyer of the Year in the area of Litigation – Labor and Employment.