Biography

Krista Green Pratt is a partner in the Labor & Employment Department in the Boston office of Seyfarth Shaw LLP. Her practice includes the representation of management in employment litigation matters before state and federal courts, at trial and appellate levels, as well as agencies including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination and the National Labor Relations Board. She also has significant experience in defending collective, class and hybrid actions under the Fair Labor Standards Act and state laws in federal and state courts.

As a member of the Wage & Hour Practice Group, Ms. Pratt has defended wage payment and tipping class actions under state law. She has also handled a variety of federal class and collective actions involving exempt status, salary basis test and independent contractor issues. In these actions, she has had success both in limiting class size and in defeating class certification. Ms. Pratt also provides advice to clients concerning wage and hour law compliance, and conducts workplace audits. She has wage and hour litigation and counseling experience in the manufacturing, professional services, technology and biosciences, financial services, retail, staffing, travel and hospitality industries.

Ms. Pratt also has extensive experience defending employment discrimination single and multi-plaintiff actions and employment-related breach of contract and tort claims. Recent successes include the defense, through appeal, of a high-profile religious discrimination claim brought against a national retailer. She also regularly represents parties in and advises clients on non-competition, non-solicitation and other restrictive covenant claims. She counsels clients on a wide variety of employment matters, including executive and employee contracts (with a focus on compliance with the Troubled Asset Relief Program limits on executive compensation), background checks, pre-hire testing, disability accommodation, family and medical leave, workplace investigations, training, performance assessment and discipline, workforce reductions, Sarbanes-Oxley and whistleblower claims, defamation, handbooks and policies, collective bargaining and union issues and terminations.

Education

J.D., Boston College Law School, magna cum laude (1999)
Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review

B.S., Cornell University, Industrial and Labor Relations (1996)

Admissions

• Massachusetts

Courts

• United States Supreme Court
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
• U. S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts
• U. S. District Court for the District of Connecticut