Stephen Churchill
Attorney
Named one of 2019’s “Lawyers of the Year” by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, Steve has been handling employment law issues for over 25 years. Prior to launching Fair Work, P.C., he was a partner at a nationally-recognized employment firm, where he represented workers in individual and class action cases in Massachusetts and beyond. Before that, he directed the Employment Civil Rights Clinic at the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School. Earlier in his career, Steve worked as an associate and a partner at a law firm in Boston, handling a wide range of employment disputes.
Since 2007, he has also served on the faculty of Harvard Law School as a lecturer-on-law, teaching classes on advocacy skills, employment law enforcement strategies, and employment discrimination. He is a board member of Lawyers for Civil Rights, and a co-founder and board member of Fair Employment Project, Inc., a non-profit that seeks to deliver legal information and resources to victims of workplace discrimination.
In recent years, Steve has helped to obtain millions of dollars on behalf of thousands of workers, both through trials and settlements. He has represented employees with claims of unpaid wages, misclassification, retaliation, whistleblowing, discrimination, retaliation, wrongful denial of employee benefits, and more. In all of these cases, he is driven to hold employers accountable for their failure to follow the law and treat employees fairly. Sometimes a case can be resolved quickly, when all parties come to the table. Other times, it takes years of intense litigation, leading not only to trials but to multiple appeals. Steve is equally comfortable in all of these stages, from counseling and negotiating, to trials, to appeals.
Harvard Law School
J.D. - 1993
Stanford University
A.B. - 1988
Brookins v. Northeastern Univ., --- F. Supp. 3d ---, 2024 WL 1659507 (D. Mass. Apr. 17, 2024)
Carpaneda v. Domino's Pizza, Inc., 89 F. Supp. 3d 219 (D.Mass. 2015)
Carpaneda v. Domino's Pizza, Inc., 991 F. Supp. 2d 270 (D.Mass. 2014)
Craig v. Sterling Lion, LLC, 2016 WL 239299 (Mass. App. Ct. Jan. 21, 2016)
Cook v. Patient Edu, LLC, Amicus Brief, 465 Mass. 548 (2013)
D'Antuono v. C&G of Groton, Inc., 2011 WL 5878045 (D.Conn. Nov. 23, 2011)
Depianti v. Jan-Pro Franchising International, Inc., 465 Mass. 607 (2013)
Gonzalez v. XPO Last Mile, Inc., 2022 WL 95930 (D. Mass. Jan. 10, 2022)
Gammella v. P.F. Chang's China Bistro, Inc., 482 Mass. 1 (2019)
Gross v. Federal Express Corp. Long Term Disability Plan, 707 F. Supp. 2d 67 (D.Mass. 2010)
Jones v. City of Boston I, Amicus Brief, 752 F.3d 38 (1st Cir. 2014)
Jones v. City of Boston II, Amicus Brief, 845 F.3d 28 (1st Cir. 2016)
Lavery v. Restoration Hardware Long Term Disability Benefits Plan, 937 F.3d 71 (1st Cir. 2019)
Lopez v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 463 Mass. 696 (2012)
Malebranche v. Colonial Automotive Group, 2017 WL 5907557 (Mass. Super. Ct. Oct. 20, 2017)
Mogilevsky v. Wellbridge Club Management, Inc., 905 F. Supp. 2d 405 (D.Mass. 2012)
Mooney v. Domino's Pizza, Inc., 2016 WL 4576996 (D.Mass. Sep. 1, 2016)
Ouadani v. TF Final Mile LLC, 876 F.3d 31 (1st Cir. 2017)
Parham v. Wendy's Co., 2015 WL 1243535 (D.Mass. Mar. 17, 2015)
Prinzo v. Hannaford Bros. Co., LLC, 343 F.R.D. 250 (D. Mass. 2023)
Reeves v. PMLRA Pizza, Inc., 2016 WL 4076829 (D.Mass. Jul. 29, 2016)
Sellers v. Trustees of Boston College, --- F. Supp. 3d ---, 2024 WL 1586755 (D. Mass. Apr. 11, 2024)
Small v. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 584 F. Supp. 2d 284 (D.Mass. 2008)
Smith v. City of Boston, 144 F. Supp. 3d 177 (D.Mass. 2015)
Smith & Wollensky Restaurant Group, Inc. v. Passow, 831 F. Supp. 2d 390 (D.Mass. 2011)
Sullivan v. Sleepy's LLC, 482 Mass. 227 (2019)
Swanson v. Lord & Taylor, LLC, 2012 WL 3776450 (D.Mass. Aug. 28, 2012)
Torres v. Niche, Inc., 2013 WL 6655415 (D.Mass. Dec. 18, 2013)
Vitali v. Reit Management & Research, LLC, 88 Mass. App. Ct. 99 (2015)
Weiss v. Loomis, Sayles & Company, Inc., 97 Mass. App. Ct. 1 (2020)
Lawyer of the Year, Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly (2019)
Workers' Rights in the Balance, Harvard Law and Policy Review Blog, Oct., 2016
Arbitrating Employment Discrimination Cases (Or Not), Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education Employment Law Conference, December, 2013
Making Employment Civil Rights Real, Amicus (Online Supplemental to Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review), Oct., 2009
Recent Developments Under the Massachusetts Wage Act, Massachusetts Continuing Education Business Litigation Conference, Feb., 2003
A Fly in the Web: The Developing Law of Reasonable Accommodations, Boston Bar Journal, November / December, 2002
Recent Legislation, Bills, and Agency Materials & Selected Cases Under Other Employment Statutes, Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education Employment Law Conference, Dec., 2001
The Family and Medical Leave Act, Lorman Education Services, June, 2001
Selected Legislative and Regulatory Developments, Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education Employment Law Conference, Dec., 2000
Reasonable Accommodations in the Workplace: A Shared Responsibility, 80 Massachusetts Law Review 73, 1995
Speaker on panel on how to develop civil rights litigation, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights & Economic Justice, September 2018
Speaker on panel on sexual harassment, Harvard Law School, December 2017
Speaker for Wage & Hour Primer & Update, Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, May 2017
Speaker on panel about fee shifting in employment cases, Boston Bar Association, October 2016
Speaker on panel about developments under the Class Action Fairness Act, Boston Bar Association, February 2016
Faculty for training about wage and hour litigation, Volunteer Lawyers Project, January 2016
Speaker on panel about litigating under fee-shifting statutes, Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, October 2015
Speaker on panel about preventing and litigating wage and hour cases, Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, May 2015
Speaker on panel about mediating employment cases, Boston Bar Association, February 2015
Developments & trends in class action arbitration, National Employment Lawyers Association, 2013 to 2013
Speaker on panel about arbitrating discrimination and retaliation cases, Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, December 2013
Speaker on plenary panel about developments and trends in class action arbitration, National Employment Lawyers Association, March 2013
Speaker for program on AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion - Cases, Trends & Issues, Boston Bar Association, March 2012
Faculty for training on handling employment discrimination cases, Volunteer Lawyers Project, April 2009
Moderator for panel on employment law practice, Harvard Law School, November 2008
Moderator for Journal of Law & Gender annual conference, Harvard Law School, March 2008
Faculty for training on handling employment discrimination cases, Volunteer Lawyers Project, January 2008
Faculty, Lecturer-on-Law, Employment Law Workshop - Advocacy Skills, Harvard Law School, 2007 to Present
Faculty, Lecturer-on-Law, Employment Law Workshop - Strategies for Social Change, Harvard Law School, 2007 to Present
Faculty, Lecturer-on-Law, Employment Law Workshop - Employment Law Enforcement Strategies, Harvard Law School, 2007 to Present
Moderator for panel on small firms, Harvard Law School, November 2007
Faculty for practical skills workshop, section on employment law, Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, February 2005
Faculty for trial workshop, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission / Fair Employment Practices Agency, September, 2004
Presentation on Legal Considerations When Consulting in the Workplace, New England Society for Applied Psychologists, March 2003
Faculty for Annual Business Litigation Conference, Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, February 2002, 2003
Presentation on Dealing with Executive Issues, International Association of Consultants and Professional Recruiters, November 2002
Presenter for Time Off In Massachusetts: State and Federal Laws On Employee Leave, Vacations and Holidays, Lorman Education Services, June 2001, 2002
Faculty for Annual Employment Law Conference, Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, December 2000, 2001
Faculty for deposition workshop, Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, February 2001
Faculty for practical skills workshop, section on employment law, Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, January 1999
Faculty for deposition workshop, Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, January 1998
National Employment Lawyers Association, Member
National Lawyers' Guild, Member
Lawyers for Civil Rights, Board Member
Fair Employment Project, Co-Founder and Board Member
Massachusetts Employment Lawyers Association, Member
Massachusetts
United States Supreme Court
United States Court of Appeals - First Circuit
District of Massachusetts
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