Donald J. Anderson

Donald (DJ) Anderson represents employers in a wide range of workplace matters. He concentrates on defending clients in Department of Labor audits and investigations at both the state and federal level, including claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act and state wage and hour laws. DJ also regularly drafts and negotiates executive compensation agreements, employment contracts, separation and severance agreements, employee handbooks, and restrictive covenant agreements. He counsels employers on regulatory compliance with federal and state employment laws, including the FLSA, ADA, FMLA, Title VII and their state counterparts. He also assists employers on a near-daily basis in navigating and resolving complicated personnel issues, such as employee discipline, terminations and workplace policy development. DJ has defended employers against a broad range of statutory and common law claims, including wrongful termination, free speech retaliation, disability discrimination and retaliation, and overtime and unpaid wage disputes. He also has conducted independent internal workplace investigations and worked with clients to resolve employee grievances and complaints.

Prior to joining Pullman & Comley, DJ was with a national labor and employment law firm, where he first worked as a law clerk while in law school. Upon graduation, he served as term clerk for the Honorable Ingrid L. Moll at the Connecticut Appellate Court before returning to his previous firm as an associate.

While in law school, DJ gained valuable experience as a judicial intern to the Honorable Alfred V. Covello at the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut. He also was a Summer Fellow at the Connecticut Urban Legal Initiative, Inc., where he provided transactional legal services to nonprofit organizations, and completed an externship in the Commercial Transactions Law Group at a multinational insurance company. DJ was actively involved at UConn Law School as a Teaching and Research Assistant for multiple professors in the Legal Practice Department and the Student Research Paper (SRP) Editor for the Connecticut Insurance Law Journal.  He also held leadership roles in the Law School’s International Refugee Assistance Project, the Arts, Entertainment and Sports Law Society (AESLS), and its Mental Health Committee.

Office

Professional Affiliations

Connecticut Bar Association

Community Involvement

West Hartford youth basketball coach

Honors & Recognitions

University of Connecticut Scholar

William F. Starr Public Sector/Government Fellowship

Vincent A. Cino Scholar

University of Connecticut Law Fellowship

Thomas J. Staley Award

Connecticut Bar Association Labor and Employment Award

CALI Excellent for the Future Award in Legal Spanish

Employment Litigation and Administrative Defense

• Represents employers in employment discrimination, retaliation, and wrongful termination litigation in Connecticut state and federal courts, and defends administrative charges before the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, including claims arising under Title VII, the ADEA, the ADA, CFEPA, and related federal and state anti-discrimination statutes.
• Drafts and files responsive pleadings in administrative proceedings — including Answers, Responses to Schedule A and position statements—and manage all phases of the administrative investigation and conciliation process.
• Authored several successful dispositive motions in in cases involving discrimination, retaliation, and breach of employment agreement claims.
• Develops and executes pre-litigation resolution strategies on behalf of employer clients; settled several highly contentious cases.
• Conducts workplace investigations and advises employers on employee discipline, performance management, and termination decisions, including assessing legal exposure under anti-discrimination, whistleblower, and retaliation frameworks, and implementing litigation hold and document preservation protocols.

Wage and Hour Compliance and Litigation

• Advises employers on compliance with federal and state wage and hour laws, including the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the Davis-Bacon Act, Connecticut wage and hour statutes, prevailing wage requirements, overtime exemption classifications, and independent contractor versus employee classification issues.
• Drafts and conducts U.S. Department of Labor wage determination appeals on behalf of employers challenging prevailing wage rate classifications, and counsel clients on strategies for contesting adverse wage determinations in the construction and service industries.
• Obtained reversal of a six-figure CT Department of Labor wage assessment on behalf of a hospitality industry client.
• Obtained a 75% reduction of a U.S. Department of Labor wage assessment on behalf of a large landscaping client.
• Presents continuing legal education webinars on emerging labor and employment laws, wage and hour developments, including changes to prevailing wage rates, restrictive covenant enforceability, and exempt/nonexempt classification standards.

Labor Relations, Collective Bargaining, and Union Negotiations

• Serves as negotiator and outside labor counsel in collective bargaining agreement (CBA) negotiations on behalf of healthcare, social services, and municipal employers, including negotiating successor CBAs, drafting and exchanging contract proposals and counterproposals, and advising management bargaining committees on economic and non-economic terms such as wages, benefits, seniority, grievance procedures, and management-rights provisions.
• Advises public-sector and municipal clients on union negotiations under state collective bargaining statutes, including analyzing the enforceability and timeliness of union bargaining proposals, good-faith bargaining obligations under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), and the distinction between modified proposals and new proposals under Circuit Court precedent.
• Counsels employers on NLRA information-request obligations.
• Manages multi-step contractual grievance and arbitration processes on behalf of management, including drafting grievance responses at each step, advising on procedural timeliness and waiver arguments, maintaining grievance logs, and counseling clients on the strategic implications of advancing or settling grievances prior to arbitration.
• Develops and deliver union organizing response and labor relations training programs for employer management teams, including TIPS/FOE compliance training, lawful employer communication strategies during organizing campaigns, and supervisory awareness of NLRA Section 7 rights.
• Drafts and revises employee handbooks for unionized workplaces, ensuring consistency with CBA obligations, NLRA requirements, and applicable federal and state labor law standards.

Employment Counseling, Compliance, and Training

• Drafts, revises, and audits comprehensive employee handbooks and workplace policies for employers across diverse industries—including healthcare, hospitality, automotive, pet care, car wash, technology, food and beverage, and professional services—ensuring compliance with Connecticut employment law, FMLA, ADA, Title VII, FLSA, OSHA, and multi-state regulatory requirements.
• Advises employers on the full lifecycle of workplace policy development, including drug and alcohol testing programs, social media and electronic communications policies, employee confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements, anti-harassment and anti-discrimination policies, and sign-on bonus and clawback provisions.
• Counsels employers on reduction-in-force (RIF) planning, workforce restructuring, and mass layoff compliance, including preparing separation agreements and release documentation compliant with the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act (OWBPA) and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), and advising on WARN Act notification obligations.
• Reviews, drafts, and negotiates employment agreements, restrictive covenant agreements (including non-compete, non-solicitation, non-disclosure and confidentiality provisions), and independent contractor agreements for compliance with evolving multi-state enforceability standards.
• Provides day-to-day employment counseling to management on employee discipline, termination, performance improvement plans, leave and accommodation requests, internal complaint investigations, and regulatory compliance, serving as a trusted outside general counsel resource for human resources departments.

Speaking Engagements

Publications

Blog Posts