Overview
Barbara D’Aquila handles major business matters for employers, including class and significant multiple or single plaintiff litigation, counseling, corporate investigations, C-Suite employment issues, and other high-profile concerns. Known for trying cases, Barbara has litigated in federal and state courts and arbitrations throughout the U.S. and has obtained favorable verdicts, arbitration awards, and agency determinations, numerous successful summary judgments, precedent-setting appellate decisions, and highly beneficial settlements.
Barbara is the Secretary and a Board Member of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, the most distinguished body of the nation’s leading labor and employment lawyers, and the Chair of the Board of the American Employment Law Council, the nation’s top invitation-only organization of in-house and private practice management lawyers. She is a former Section Council Member of the American Bar Association (ABA) Section of Labor and Employment Law and a former Co-chair of the ABA’s Equal Employment Opportunity Committee. She has served on many panels with the top leaders in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and has attended numerous meetings at least annually with the leaders of the EEOC, the DOL, the Department of Justice, and/or the National Labor Relations Board. On behalf of employers, Barbara regularly interacts with top government officials at various agencies on contested matters and has handled high-profile cases with the DOL and the EEOC. She excels at helping companies manage crises, including disputes with government agencies.
Barbara started her career as a law clerk for the Minnesota Supreme Court and has worked in the labor and employment field for decades, including serving as a partner in one of the world’s largest global law firms before joining Fisher Phillips. She has extensive labor and employment and litigation experience, including federal court jury trials in Minnesota, Texas, and Iowa, state jury trials and arbitrations in Minnesota, and motion and appellate practice in federal courts and state courts in numerous states. Her keen knowledge of labor and employment law, tremendous forensic skills, strong business background, and experience in disputes involving other business law areas (e.g., intellectual property, tax, banking, product liability, trade secrets, criminal, and antitrust law) make her a tremendously valuable asset to corporate America.
Barbara has been repeatedly recognized by numerous groups, including Chambers USA, Best Lawyers, Benchmark Litigation, and Lawdragon/Human Resources Executive. She is a 2018 Corporate Employment Lawyers Hall of Fame recipient, an honor reserved for “legends” in the “corporate employment bar whose contributions to the field as well as their firms are unparalleled” and who have achieved “consistent recognition for all-around excellence in counseling clients, contributing to the bar and serving as a visionary to improve workplaces.” Chambers USA has previously described Barbara as a Band One lawyer who is “very practical, gets to the point quickly and is very knowledgeable” and is viewed by peers as “a go-to for complex matters.” She is known for being an “extremely intelligent and skilled litigator” with a “strong record for handling complex matters with success,” an “excellent brief writer, and a “good negotiator” whose “accounting background is also highly valued” and someone whom clients regard as “extremely responsive, technically knowledgeable and creative about practical solutions” and peers regard as “a bright and practical litigator” and “a much-valued member of the community.”