William L. Doepken is a Member in the Labor and Employment Department. Mr. Doepken’s practice is concentrated in labor and employment relations law. He has broad experience in the entire range of employment-related practice areas in a variety of industries. He has negotiated labor agreements and handled and supervised grievance arbitrations for a large number of clients, with bargaining unit sizes from 40 to over 8,000 members. Mr. Doepken also has negotiated major Consent Decrees relating to both race and sex and was one of the architects of the largest ESOP in the United States.
Representative transactions in which Mr. Doepken has participated include:
- Successfully defended hundreds of discrimination charges for a multitude of clients.
- Negotiated employment and other agreements for top-level managers of corporate clients.
- Successfully litigated the enforcement of non-compete, confidentiality and trade secret agreements in highly competitive environments.
- Led the creation of the largest employee-owned company at that time in the United States. A key factor in the negotiations was a 22 percent reduction in employee costs.
- Represented the investment group that purchased the largest manufacturing facility of the largest U.S. telecommunications company.
- Represented the investment group that bought a steel plant from a Big Three auto company in all matters relating to separating its 6,000 employees and establishing new terms and conditions.
- Assisted one of the world’s largest and oldest investment banking firms in their attempt to acquire a major manufacturing company out of bankruptcy.
- Developed a divestiture strategy as it related to union and non-union employees of a major aluminum and chemical company during the sale of their non-core operations.
Mr. Doepken holds an AV® rating from Martindale-Hubbell.
J.D., West Virginia University College of Law, 1974
B.A., Wittenberg University, 1970
Pennsylvania and West Virginia
