Shareholder
E-mail: dklein@k-plaw.com
Phone: 617.654.1789
Practice Areas: General Municipal, Employment and Labor, School/Education, Litigation
Attorney Darren Klein provides municipalities and school districts with legal representation, counseling and assistance in all facets of employment and labor law, school law, collective bargaining, personnel matters, human resources, and general municipal law. Attorney Klein is currently Chair of the Firm’s Labor and Employment Law and School Law Practice Groups. He represents clients before state and federal courts, labor arbitrators, retirement boards and numerous administrative agencies on such issues as employment discrimination, wrongful termination, organizing petitions, unfair labor practices, employee discipline, and contractual grievances. Attorney Klein also assists clients at many different stages of negotiating collective bargaining agreements and individual employment contracts, including serving as the lead negotiator for employers in a wide range of union negotiations. He also advises clients on managing and maintaining cost-effective health insurance and employee benefits. Attorney Klein provides clients with proactive counseling, including drafting and implementing policies that strive for maintaining a diverse, non-discriminatory and efficient workplace that encourages and allows for optimal job performance and production. Attorney Klein provides counseling that reduces clients’ risks, is fiscally responsible, and lowers overall employment costs.
Attorney Klein serves as primary contact for several towns, assisting them in a full array of general municipal issues, including town meeting, municipal charters and by-laws, conflict of interest, public records, the Open Meeting Law, and municipal finance.
Attorney Klein has also been hired as Special Counsel for specifically complicated labor cases and issues, including being the primary counsel in the successful defense for the City of Methuen in an arbitration that would have resulted in astronomical raises, with some police captains due to become among the highest-paid law enforcement officials in the country earning more than $500,000 base salary. The Arbitrator struck down all of the increases being sought by the Union in this matter.
- Negotiate collective bargaining agreements with numerous public employee unions including teachers, school administrators, police, fire fighters, public works, and library, over employment contracts and benefits. Actively involved in negotiations involving increases in employee health insurance contribution rates, co-pay amounts, and other health insurance plan design changes aimed at providing and maintaining affordable and effective health insurance.
- Advise and negotiate non-union employment contracts on behalf of employer with school and municipal officials and managers.
- Represent municipal and school employers before numerous administrative agencies and retirement boards, such as the MCAD and the Civil Service Commission, on matters involving such subjects as employee discipline, employment discrimination, and health insurance benefits.
- Represent clients in numerous labor arbitrations and mediations on issues of contract interpretation, employee discipline, and benefits administration. Also assist clients in processing and/or settling grievances at pre-litigation stages.
- Counsels clients on maintaining compliance with numerous federal and state labor and anti-discrimination laws and regulations.
- Advise clients on student record issues and various school law issues that arise under G.L. c. 70, 71, 72, 74 and 76.
- Provides counseling, formal training and seminars to clients on areas such as general and sexual harassment, hostile work environment, reasonable and public accommodation, disciplinary due process, new school regulations and required policies, anti-bullying, teacher and school administrator performance evaluations, conflicts of interest, and employment discrimination.
- Employment/Handicap Discrimination: City of New Bedford v. MCAD, 440 Mass. 450 (2003). SJC reversed MCAD’s decision to affirm arbitration award in favor of police officer, who claimed that decision to remove him from City’s SWAT teams was based upon unlawful handicap discrimination. In case of first impression, SJC adopted federal courts’ definition of “handicap” in ADA cases for purposes of claims under G.L. c.151B.
- Employment/Handicap Discrimination: Brienzo v. Town of Acushnet, 60 Mass.App.Ct. 917 (2004). After plaintiff’s claims for alleged handicap discrimination were dismissed by the MCAD for lack of probable cause, the Appeals Court held that plaintiff was not entitled to review by the Superior Court in the nature of certiorari.
- School Law/Civil Service/CORI Checks: McCarthy v. Town of Burlington/Burlington School Committee, 60 Mass.App.Ct. 914 (2004). After Civil Service Commission held that employer improperly considered criminal offender record information (CORI) to bypass a provisional employee who was seeking an appointment to become a permanent school building custodian, the Appeals Court overturned the decision of the Civil Service Commission and held that the town and its school committee could consider the custodian’s criminal offender record information.
AFSCME Union-Council 93, Boston, MA
Staff Counsel (1995-1997)
Represented members of statewide public sector union in all areas of employment and labor law. Duties involved employment litigation, counseling on all labor issues, and collective bargaining. Argued before various courts, Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, Labor Relations Commission and National Labor Relations Board. Caseload included employment discrimination charges, wrongful terminations, organizing petitions and unfair labor practices.
- Massachusetts Bar Association, Labor and Employment Section
- Chaired bipartisan committee for the Massachusetts Bar Association that drafted resolution on affirmative action and served on committee which revised Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination handicap regulations
- Anti-Defamation League – Co-Chaired Essex County Law and Education Day, 2008-2014; Received 2014 Jim Rudolph Volunteer Award, October, 2014.
- Massachusetts Bar
- U.S. District Court (Mass.)
Rutgers University School of Law
Juris Doctor, 1994
University of Rhode Island
Bachelor of Science, 1991
- “School Finance Legal Issues and Unfunded Mandates”, Joint Conference, Massachusetts Association of School Committees and Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, November 6, 2014
- “Best Practices: School District/Municipal Relations”, Joint Conference, Massachusetts Association of School Committees and Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, November 7, 2013
- “Requirements Under the Affordable Care Act”, Small Town Administrators of Massachusetts (“STAM”), October 17, 2013
- “Disciplinary Due Process”, Massachusetts Municipal Association, January, 2008
- “The Impact of Rising Health Insurance Costs on Collective Bargaining,” Joint Conference, Massachusetts Association of School Committees and Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, November 15, 2007
- “Labor Law Update,” IPMA Tri-State Conference, March 2007
- “Representing School Districts”, Joint Conference, Massachusetts Association of School Committees and Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, November 2005