Amy is known for investigating high-stakes employee complaints and developing trusting relationships while counseling clients through complex workplace issues.
Overview
Clients know they can turn to Amy for employment best practices and to manage risks inherent to navigating all facets of the employment relationship. Over the past few years, heightened division within the country has spilled over into heightened tension in the workplace. Employee complaints are on the rise, and clients turn to Amy to conduct thorough, thoughtful investigations that can be used to make smart employment decisions. Amy also counsels clients on reasonable accommodations, discrimination, harassment, equal pay, and related employee relations issues.
Amy helps clients develop policies that promote good employee-employer relationships. She advises on employment strategies and decisions, including issues involving the Minnesota Paid Leave Act (MPL), Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and federal and state anti-discrimination law such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), and the Minnesota Human Rights Act (MHRA). And when policies and practices are challenged, Amy represents employers and government contractors in audits and investigations by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights (MDHR), the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), and related government agencies.
A frequent speaker, Amy frequently presents to clients, industry groups, and other attorneys on a variety of topics, including Minnesota Paid Leave, disability discrimination and reasonable accommodations, conducting effective workplace investigations, harassment, and discrimination.
Amy is a volunteer attorney with the Children's Law Center, which provides free legal services to youth in foster care and other children navigating the legal and social services systems. She has also represented indigent clients in family law matters pro bono through the Deinard Legal Clinic consistently for more than 15 years.
Experience
Employment Counseling
- Amy serves akin to outside in-house counsel for employers of all sizes across industries, providing practical guidance that balances legal risk and business objectives. Amy strives to get her clients to "yes" in the most legally responsible manner. She regularly guides companies through complex issues involving disability and religious accommodations, reductions-in-force, employee classification problems, sensitive complaints/investigations, and other employee relations situations in a way that maintains a positive employer/employee relationship.
Employment Investigations
- In today's highly charged climate, Amy's investigation services have been in high demand. She has led investigations into sensitive employee complaints for clients in industries such as health care, professional services, hospitality, retail, banking, manufacturing, technology, non-profit, housing, automotive, brewing, and construction.
Employment Litigation
- Amy obtained summary judgment for a technology client on a breach of contract case brought by a former employee in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, and won affirmance before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
- Amy co-led a team navigating complex wage and hour issues in a class action lawsuit for an energy client, resulting in a favorable resolution that permitted the company to continue its preferred practices.
- Amy and a team led a trial in Minnesota state court that resulted in complete dismissal of a former employee's breach of contract claims against a manufacturing client.
- Amy regularly negotiates quiet and mutually beneficial exits with workers in high-risk employment situations, including with executive-level employees in industries such as health care and technology.
- Amy obtained summary judgment for a hospitality client on race and age discrimination claims brought by a terminated employee in federal court.
- Amy obtained summary judgment for a retail client on ADA and FMLA claims from a terminated employee in federal court.
News & Insights
News
Publications
"OFCCP Revises Directive on Pay Equity Audits/Compensation Analysis," Stinson's Government Contracting Blog, August 25, 2022
"OFCCP Adopts Two New Directives On Compliance Evaluations and Pay Equity Audits," Stinson's Government Contracting Blog, April 7, 2022
"Vaccinations Required for Covered Federal Contractor Employees by December 8," Stinson's Government Contracting Matters Blog, September 2021
"Onsite Federal Government Contractors Will Be Asked About Vaccination Status," Stinson's Government Contracting Matters Blog, September 2021
"The 2019 and 2020 EEO-1 Component 1 data collection is now open," Stinson's Government Contracting Blog, April 2021
"Contractors Should Prepare for Increased OFCCP Pay Scrutiny," Stinson's Government Contracting Blog, March 2021
"New Executive Order May Require Contractors to Review Their Diversity and Inclusion Trainings," Stinson's Government Contracting Blog, September 2020
"Government Contractors Susceptible to Increased Liability as Joint Employers After Court Strikes Portions of DOL’s New Joint-Employer Rule," Stinson's Government Contracting Blog, September 2020
"Are You Due for an OFCCP Audit?" Stinson's Government Contracting Blog, September 2020
"Updates on EEO-1 Reports, Non-Binary Self-Identification, and VETS-4212 Reports," Stinson's Government Contracting Blog, September 2020
"OFCCP Developments During the COVID-19 Pandemic," Stinson's Government Contracting Blog, July 2020
"Federal Contractors Must Update Voluntary Self-Identification of Disability Form," Stinson's Government Contracting Blog, May 2020
"End to EEO-1 Component 2 Pay Data Reporting for Now..." Stinson's Government Contracting Blog, March 2020
"OFCCP Proposes Clarifying Evidence Standards, Post-Audit Procedures in Regulations," Stinson's Government Contracting Blog, January 2020
"OFCCP Announces New 'Voluntary Enterprise-wide Review Program'," Stinson's Government Contracting Blog, March 2019
Co-author, "Chapter Five: Employee Notification and Employer Response," The FMLA Handbook, Minnesota Continuing Legal Education, 2012
"Blogging on Broken Glass: Why the Proposed Free Flow of Information Act Needs a Specific Test for Determining When Media Shield Laws Apply to Bloggers," 10 Minnesota Law Journal, Science & Technology 747, 2009
Speaking Engagements
"Workplace Investigations: Why We Do Them and Best Practices," New Challenges for HR in 2026, February 2026
Moderator, DEI Panel, TCSHRM July 2025 Legal Summit, Twin Cities Society for Human Resource Management, July 23, 2025
Minnesota CLE, July 2025: When Problematic Employee Behavior Stems from a Mental Health Condition
Twin Cities SHRM, July 2025: DEI Panel
Upper Midwest Employment Law Institute, May 2025: 2025 Minnesota Update; Minnesota's New Earned Sick and Safe Time and Paid Leave Laws
League of Resident Theaters, May 2025: The Future of DEI in a Shifting Legal Landscape
HR Lunch and Learn, February 2025: Minnesota Employment Law Update
"DEI Under Attack," New Challenges for HR in 2025, February 2025
Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, November 2024: AI Policy Landscape
HR Lunch and Learn, July 2024: Minnesota Employment Law Update
Upper Midwest Employment Law Institute, May 2024: 2024 Minnesota Update
"Affirmative Action & OFCCP Update," New Challenges for HR in 2024, February 2024
"OFCCP/Affirmative Action Update," New Challenges for HR in 2023, February 2023
Law in Everyday Life and the Importance of Pro Bono, Stinson LLP, October 2022
"Government Contracting Update," New Challenges for HR in 2022, February 2022
Recognitions
Recognitions
Recognized in The Best Lawyers in America® list, 2023-2026
Selected as a "Diversity and Inclusion Award" honoree by Minnesota Lawyer, 2022
Selected as "Notable Partner in Law" by Twin Cities Business, 2022
Selected as "Up and Coming Attorney" by Minnesota Lawyer, 2018
Selected to the Minnesota Super Lawyers Rising Stars list, 2014 - 2025, and the Super Lawyers List, 2026
Professional & Civic Activities
Professional & Civic Activities
Children's Law Center, Volunteer Attorney
Deinard Legal Clinic, Volunteer Attorney
American Bar Association
Minnesota State Bar Association
Minnesota Women Lawyers
Practices & Industries
Admissions
- Minnesota
- North Dakota
- U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
Education
University of Minnesota Law School, J.D., magna cum laude, 2010
- Order of the Coif
- Labor and Employment Concentration
- Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology, Lead Supervising Editor
Marquette University, Honors B.A., Journalism and Writing-Intensive English, summa cum laude, 2007
- Alpha Sigma Nu
- The Marquette Tribune, Reporter/Editor/Columnist
