Diane Geller Joins Gentry Locke as Partner
Date: 09/01/2008
Contact: Diane J. Geller - Partner
Phone: 540.983.9396
E-mail: diane_geller@gentrylocke.com
The Virginia law firm of Gentry Locke Rakes & Moore, LLP is pleased to announce that Diane J. Geller has joined its Labor and Employment and Business Law practice groups as partner.
Geller comes to Gentry Locke from Ruden McClosky, where she was a partner in the corporate and labor and employment practice in its Fort Lauderdale, Fla. and West Palm Beach, Fla. offices. Prior to Ruden McClosky, Geller served as General Counsel for a large, publicly traded company in the staffing and funding industry which provided employment services to more than 65,000 people nationally. She is licensed to practice in Florida, New York, and Tennessee, with licensing pending in Virginia.
Geller's prior substantial in-house experience has given her an inside perspective to clients' needs. She will continue to represent national staffing companies as well as both public and private corporations and partnerships in contract negotiations, employment and labor issues, franchise law, receivables financing, and general corporate matters. She also will represent clients in negotiating, structuring, and documenting the purchase or sale of a business.
Representing management, she has counseled clients on a variety of labor matters including the defense of sexual harassment charges and employment discrimination (race, sex, age, national origin, religion, and disability) lawsuits, Independent Contractor issues, unemployment agreements and covenants not to compete, unemployment compensation filings, and preparation of employee policy handbooks. Ms. Geller also has experience advising clients on union disputes and has successfully represented companies that have opposed union representation and decertified unions.
Geller has represented employers before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, National Labor Relations Board, New York State Human Rights Commission, the Broward County Human Rights Commission, and before various arbitration associations. She received a B.A. in 1975 from Long Island University-C.W. Post Center, and a juris doctor in 1978 from Hofstra University School of Law.