Honors and Awards
Honor

Caroline Powell Donelan and Howard M. Knee Named Leaders of Influence: Labor & Employment Attorneys by Los Angeles Business Journal

Los Angeles Business Journal

Blank Rome LLP is pleased to announce that partners Caroline Powell Donelan and Howard M. Knee have been named Leaders of Influence: Labor & Employment Attorneys by the Los Angeles Business Journal.

Chosen based on a "demonstration of impact made on the profession and Los Angeles community," the honorees include "the very best litigators and trial attorneys in the region" who are the attorneys "you want in your corner in court." In this inaugural supplement, each honoree is recognized with a brief profile that highlights details about their careers and recent successes they’ve achieved.

To view the 2022 Leaders of Influence: Labor & Employment Attorneys supplement, please click here.


Caroline's and Howard's honoree profiles, as published in the Los Angeles Business Journal, are copied in full below.

Caroline Powell Donelan
Partner, Labor & Employment
Blank Rome LLP

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Caroline Donelan counsels and defends businesses of all sizes in all areas of employment law compliance and litigation, including wage and hour class and representative actions, wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, trade secret disputes and data protection, competitive hiring, and alleged fiduciary breaches. Beyond litigation and counseling work, Donelan also routinely provides transactional support and advice on stock and asset purchase agreements.

As her clients will attest, Donelan’s practice transcends a typical employment lawyer’s. As “inside-outside” counsel, she becomes a trusted advisor in multiple areas of client operations including HR, legal compliance, and employee relations. Given her transactional experience, Donelan has business, not just legal, acumen which she leverages for clients in litigation and her proactive risk-management practice. She spends countless hours studying California litigation trends, particularly regarding wage and hour matters, and speaks on and attends expert panels on cutting-edge employment issues.


Howard M. Knee
Partner, Labor & Employment
Blank Rome LLP

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Howard Knee has handled over 100 trials, appearing before the United States Supreme Court, the California Supreme Court, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and various state courts of appeal. Knee has handled jury and bench trials in both federal and state courts, arbitrations, labor arbitrations, NLRB cases, and various administrative proceedings.

Knee represents high-profile companies in complex and high-stakes cases, including defending against discrimination and sexual harassment cases as well as wage and hour class actions and PAGA representative actions. He is known for the professional and intelligent way he approaches cases and innovative strategies he uses to defend clients. In 1978, he represented a class of women in a landmark sex discrimination case in the U.S. Supreme Court, Manhart v. City of Los Angeles, Dept. of Water & Power. Ruth Bader Ginsburg filed an amicus brief on behalf of Knee’s clients in the case.