Kevin M. Cloutier, Partner, Sheppard Mullin

Kevin Cloutier is a partner in the Labor and Employment Practice Group, co-chair of the firm’s Non-Compete and Trade Secrets Team and the hiring partner for the firm’s Chicago office.
Areas of Practice

Mr. Cloutier’s practice focuses on all areas of labor and employment law, with an emphasis on employment-related litigation and proactive counseling of management-side clients. He is an experienced trial lawyer with first-chair trial experience before state and federal trial and appellate courts all over the country, arbitrators, FINRA, the National Labor Relations Board, and administrative agencies. He has successfully argued multiple law-changing and precedent-setting federal appeals on behalf of his clients.

Mr. Cloutier’s litigation experience includes defending employers of all sizes in class and collective actions, multi-plaintiff, and single plaintiff cases, including statutory discrimination and harassment claims, wage and hour claims, whistle-blower actions (Sarbanes-Oxley, False Claims Act and state whistleblower statutes), retaliatory discharge, white-collar criminal matters, traditional labor law, tort and contract claims, and ERISA benefits claims. He has considerable experience in prosecuting and defending actions involving the enforcement of restrictive covenants and non-competes, as well as unfair competition, employee raiding, and trade secret claims. Mr. Cloutier has successfully enforced restrictive covenant, non-compete and trade secret claims on behalf of his clients in more than 20 states.
In addition to his litigation experience, Mr. Cloutier operates as a general employment counselor to his clients and regularly advises and coaches human resource professionals and other business executives on how to comply with various human resources and employment laws. He counsels his clients and presents frequent training sessions on such crucial employment issues as harassment prevention and investigation, restrictive covenant, trade secret and non-compete situations, wage payment and overtime FLSA compliance, conducting effective workplace investigations, union avoidance and awareness, FMLA and time-off issues, reductions-in-force, labor disputes and general human resources strategies.

Mr. Cloutier also conducts internal investigations for his clients and regularly prepares employment agreements, non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements, employee handbooks and human resources policies. Finally, he counsels clients on the employment-related aspects of mergers, acquisitions, and other corporate transactions. Mr. Cloutier’s client base is broad and diverse and includes employers in construction services, eBusiness, energy, private equity, financial services (including hedge funds and fund of funds), retail, health care, pharmaceuticals, software development, insurance, and manufacturing.

Mr. Cloutier also frequently represents high-level executives in negotiations and agreement drafting arising out significant transactions or change-in-control arrangements, often in the context of private equity acquisitions.