mgmedoro@aspect-marketing.com
(440) 899-2242
Kim Hodges
Risk Management - Managing Legal Expenses
Session Description:
Learn strategies for managing costs related to legal projects that impact the HR budget in a manner consistent with the organization’s strategic goals, objectives and values. Learn the business value of prevention and how training, strategic policies, and HR responsiveness impacts the organization’s bottom line.
Speaker Bio:
Kim Hodges is a shareholder in the Memphis office and has practiced employment law and litigation for over sixteen years. Prior to joining Ogletree Deakins, Kim was lead counsel in Federal Express Corporation’s litigation and employment group and worked in various roles in the HR departments of ServiceMaster – TruGreen ChemLawn, Trailmobile, and Riceland Foods.
Throughout her sixteen years as a litigator, Kim amassed a wealth of employment and commercial litigation experience and defended corporate clients as first-chair counsel in state and federal courts across the United States. She has represented clients in appeals before the 3rd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 9th and 11th Circuit Courts of Appeal and also has experience defending clients in matters before the EEOC, the Department of Labor, and appeals before the Administrative Review Board.
Kim’s litigation experience runs the gamut of employment law and related issues, including: all types of employment discrimination and harassment, wage and hour, FLSA classification, state and federal disability discrimination and accommodation, public access for disabled individuals, FMLA leave and interference, ADEA, complex contracts, non-competition and non-solicitation agreements, trade secrets, whistleblower claims, tort claims, and antitrust/unfair competition.
Prior to becoming an attorney, Kim’s path towards becoming employment counselor had already begun. She worked in several HR departments assisting with wage and benefit surveys, employee satisfaction surveys, and general HR issues. Most notably, Kim worked as a corporate Training & Development Specialist with TruGreen ChemLawn, a ServiceMaster Company. In that role, Kim developed and facilitated training programs for front-line managers on issues such as: progressive discipline, union avoidance, EEO laws and regulations, and team-building techniques. In her practice as an attorney today, Kim enjoys providing similar training to help educate employers and managers on best practices for synchronizing legal requirements with the demands of the business.
Kim has been an invited speaker on employment law and litigation topics at bar and professional association seminars, such as “Litigation in the Corporate Arena” and “Trends in Age Discrimination Litigation.”