Atlanta, GA

Juan Dawson has joined Stites & Harbison, PLLC’s Atlanta office as an attorney in the firm’s Torts & Insurance Practice Group. He brings experience dealing with complex regulatory matters representing clients in federal and state administrative proceedings, strengthening the firm’s capabilities in the Southeast and nationally.

Georgia’s Governor Brian Kemp made no secret that he would push for ambitious tort reform as part of this year’s state legislative agenda. Two Senate bills successfully made it through the session and await the Governor’s signature. The bills contain measures, which proponents and sponsors suggested were necessary to combat nuclear verdicts, reduce the costs of litigation, and control rising insurance premiums. Shannon Sprinkle and Evan Elam take a look at the bills in this Stites & Harbison Client Alert.

On April 1, 2025, in Lynwood Pickens v. Hamilton-Ryker IT Solutions, LLC, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals clarified what it means to pay a salary on a “weekly basis” under federal regulation 29 C.F.R. § 541.602(a) for purposes of classifying an employee as exempt from overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). In a divided opinion, the Sixth Circuit held that to be paid on a “weekly basis” means that an employee is paid for “a regular week’s worth of work.” As a result, the court held that an employer did not pay an employee on a “weekly basis”—and therefore owed the employee overtime—when the weekly guaranteed pay to the employee was only the equivalent of one day’s pay and the employee was paid an hourly rate for every hour worked beyond the first eight hours in the week.

Stites & Harbison, PLLC recently appointed attorney Robin E. McGuffin Chair of the firm’s Employment Law Service Group. McGuffin succeeds Shannon Antle Hamilton who has led the group for more than 20 years. Both Hamilton and McGuffin will continue their diverse legal practices in employment law.