Bethany Kaye Burnett is Employment Matters Counseling & Consulting’s San Francisco Partner, practicing both in California and Michigan. With over twenty years of combined employment law and human resources experience, Bethany focuses her practice at EMC2 on counseling employers regarding good employment practices; including hiring, discipline, policy, and termination issues. Bethany has practiced in state and federal court in Michigan and California, as well as before the United States Department of Labor, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, Employment and Social Development Canada, and their state and provincial equivalents. Bethany has worked with employers ranging from small, family-owned businesses to Fortune 10 companies, in numerous industries including biotechnology, transportation, hospitality, and retail.
Bethany also has extensive experience conducting workplace investigations, having conducted dozens of investigations on behalf of both private and public employers on subjects such as harassment, discrimination, bullying, retaliation, theft, and workplace violence. Bethany is proud to have been recommended by several prominent national law firms to provide investigation services.
Finally, Bethany also advises and represents individual executives with the negotiation of employment and separation agreements.
Prior Experience
Before returning to EMC2 as Of Counsel in 2018, Bethany was Senior Counsel, Labor and Employment for XPO Logistics, a global transportation and logistics leader, and one of the fastest growing companies in the Fortune 500. At XPO, Bethany provided day-to-day support to management and human resources with regard to the full range of employment issues, from applicant screening to enforcement of post-employment covenants. Bethany was further responsible for investigating and responding to all state and federal agency charges of discrimination and harassment in North America; as well as providing legal support to the Company’s federal contractor compliance programs. Bethany also managed single-plaintiff and complex litigation, and provided support to the Company’s labor relations team (training, election campaigns, and contract negotiations).
Prior to joining EMC2, where she was a Partner from 2005-2013, Bethany was a member of Cooley LLP’s Labor and Employment Group, where she provided employment litigation and counseling services to a variety of privately-held and publicly-traded corporate clients. At Cooley, Bethany advised founders, board members and human resources professionals through all stages of a company’s life cycle. Previously, Bethany had been an associate with the San Francisco office of Littler Mendelson, PC (“Littler”), the largest law firm in the United States devoted exclusively to representing management in employment, employee benefits and labor law matters. At Littler, Bethany worked with companies on employment litigation and traditional labor law matters. She was also an author and editor for the National Employer publications from 1998-2000.
Education
Bethany earned her Juris Doctorate, cum laude, from the University of San Francisco, School of Law, where she was Editor-in-Chief of The University of San Francisco Law Review and co-authored the comment, In Violation of Public Policy: Employment Law In California’s Second Appellate District, 31 U.S.F. L.Rev. 1017 (1997). Bethany earned her Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Prior to law school, Bethany was a Labor Relations Associate for the Ford Motor Company.
Publications & Presentations
Bethany regularly conducts training for her clients on wage and hour matters, workplace respect, sexual harassment prevention, and employment law compliance.
“Best Practices: Employee Handbooks” presented at Saline Area Chamber of Commerce, October 2012.
Memberships & Affiliations
Bethany is admitted to practice in California and Michigan.