Michael S. Ferrell

Attorney Mike Ferrell provides clients with skilled, practical counseling on labor and employment matters to achieve their business and litigation objectives. He helps clients identify risks in the context of business decisions in order to minimize unnecessary exposure and be in the best position for a successful outcome in the event of litigation or a labor dispute.

His practice extends nationwide and includes employers in the financial services, health care, manufacturing, petroleum refining, retail, and transportation industries.

Mike’s experience includes:

• Representing employers before federal and state courts, administrative agencies, and private arbitrators in cases involving employment discrimination claims, wage-hour claims, employment contract disputes, the interpretation of collective bargaining agreements, and matters involving the National Labor Relations Act
• Successfully representing employers in collective bargaining negotiations, contract arbitrations, union organizing campaigns, decertification proceedings, unfair labor practice proceedings, corporate campaigns, strikes, and picketing disputes
• Regularly counseling employers on employment issues, including hiring, firing, and discipline-related decisions; wage-hour compliance; disability accommodation; the enforceability of non-compete and non-solicitation agreements; and reductions in force

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His pro bono work includes negotiating collective bargaining agreements for two Chicago nonprofits (one that provides services and support to people with disabilities and one that presents an annual musical festival), representing veterans before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, and representing asylum applicants in immigration court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

Before joining Epstein Becker Green, Mike was a Labor and Employment Partner at an international law firm.

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• The Best Lawyers in America^©: Labor Law – Management (2024, 2025)
• Chambers USA, America’s Leading Lawyers for Business: Illinois—Labor & Employment, "Leader in Their Field" (2024)
• The Legal 500 United States: Labor Management Relations (2020, 2021, 2024); Labor and Employment Disputes (Including Collective Actions): Defense (2021, 2023)

Education

• Loyola University Chicago School of Law (J.D., with honors, 2002)
  • Philip H. Corboy Fellow in Trial Advocacy
• Vanderbilt University (with honors, 1998)
• Texas A&M University (B.B.A., 1994)