Andrew S. Golub

Mr. Golub is one of Texas’ top employment lawyers.  Board Certified in Labor and Employment Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization since 1998, for more than 25 years his practice has focused primarily on employment and civil rights-related counseling and litigation.  He has represented individuals and small to medium-sized businesses in cases involving:

  • Race discrimination
  • Sex discrimination
  • Pregnancy discrimination
  • Sexual Harassment
  • National origin discrimination
  • Disability discrimination
  • Wage discrimination/Equal Pay Act
  • Hostile work environments because of race, sex, age, national origin, and disability
  • Religious discrimination
  • Employee benefits
  • Breach of contract
  • Theft of trade secrets
  • Non-compete agreements
  • Defamation
  • Free speech rights
  • Due process rights
  • Equal protection claims
  • Whistleblower rights

Mr. Golub has also represented graduate students, medical students, medical residents, medical fellows, and physicians throughout Texas in a variety of disciplinary matters, including appeals of  dismissal from academic programs.  He has also represented individuals and businesses in all kinds of business disputes, including matters involving copyright and antitrust law.

Mr. Golub has tried dozens of cases throughout the state and federal courts in Texas, and before arbitrators appointed by the American Arbitration Association.  He has also handled appeals before the state and federal appellate courts, including the Texas Supreme Court, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court.

Mr. Golub is considered to be one of the top employment lawyers in Houston and throughout the state of Texas.  The Texas Super Lawyers publication has rated him as one of the Top 100 lawyers in all of Houston, irrespective of practice areas.  He is a member of the Section Council of the State Bar of Texas Labor & Employment Law Section and a board member of the Texas Employment Lawyers Association.  He is a frequent continuing education speaker on a variety of topics relevant to employment law.

Representative matters include:

Sex Discrimination
  • Represented a young female attorney with a large national law firm who claimed that a firm partner drugged and sexually assaulted her at a hotel while they were traveling for business. The matter settled confidentially in mediation before a lawsuit was filed.
  • Represented a corporate executive whose boss, the company’s owner, had been sexually harassing her for years. His client had stacks of harassing emails in which the owner professed his love of and attraction to her, none of which she ever welcomed.  This matter settled confidentially in a pre-suit mediation.
  • Represented a female salesperson who had been harassed by the owner of the company where she worked. The owner had made many sexually-charged statements to her, implied to customers that she was a prostitute, and encouraged her to dress provocatively when making sales calls.  The last straw was when he groped her breasts in front of customers and other employees (including the company’s lawyer) at a work dinner.  This matter settled confidentially at mediation while the client’s charge was pending with the EEOC.
  • Represented a private university graduate student who had been sexually harassed by her dissertation advisor and then subjected to retaliation after she complained about the harassment.
  • Represented a University of Texas medical school professor in San Antonio who was being significantly underpaid because of her gender.  The jury ruled in his client’s favor.  Mr. Golub subsequently handled the appellate briefing leading to affirmance by the court of appeals.
Age Discrimination
  • Represented a senior executive with a medium-sized company who was terminated with a week of complaining about age discrimination. The matter settled during litigation.
  • Represented and obtained a substantial pre-suit settlement for a university department chairman who was terminated because of his age.
  • Represented and obtained a substantial settlement for an older, highly-qualified African-American worker who was passed over for a significant promotion. She served for nearly one year in the job on an Interim basis, but the employer ultimately gave the job to a white applicant who was half her age and who did not even meet the job’s minimum requirements.
  • Represented a former reporter with KHOU-TV in Houston, who was terminated because of his age.  The case was tried in arbitration.  The arbitrator ruled for the reporter, entering a substantial award of damages and legal fees.
Disability Discrimination/Disability Rights
  • Represented an employee who was terminated because of a disability and his request for medical leave. Discovery uncovered internal company documents showing animus towards the client because of his medical condition and his need for medical leave.  The matter settled in mediation for a substantial amount.
  • Represented a worker who was terminated due to a history of back problems, obtaining a substantial settlement in litigation.
  • Represented an employee with a neurological condition who was being discriminated against because of his condition and was then subjected to retaliation after he complained to the EEOC. This matter settled for a substantial but confidential amount before suit was filed.
  • Represented a white collar employee with a large company who experienced discrimination after attempting to return to work with a service animal, obtaining a substantial settlement before trial.
  • Represented a firefighter with Type 1 diabetes who was terminated after experiencing a hypoglycemic event while in the firehouse.
  • Represented a salesperson with kidney disease who worked for a small company. The client had a kidney transplant, which caused the company’s health insurance premiums to skyrocket.  The company explored every option to reduce the premiums, but to no avail.  So the client was fired, whereupon the owner immediately announced that with him gone “now we can get cheaper insurance”, which they proceeded to do.  The case settled in the courtroom on the first day of trial, moments before picking a jury.
  • As a law student intern in the late 1980’s, and continuing into the 1990’s as a licensed attorney, spearheaded a suit that ultimately invalidated a federal Medicaid regulation affecting thousands of disabled children in Connecticut.
Race Discrimination
  • Represented a woman of south Asian descent who, along with some friends, was denied entry into a local bar because, she was told, “There are too many Indians and we’ve reached out quota.”
  • Obtained a substantial settlement for a client who had been subjected to race discrimination while working for her employer. Golub managed to procure an affidavit from a former co-worker who provided first-hand testimony about management’s use of race-based slurs about the client and deliberately giving his client bad assignments in hopes that she would quit.
  • In tandem with the EEOC, settled a case for a restaurant worker who was subjected to racial epithets and slurs during the course of his employment.
  • Successfully represented a class of applicants for police and fire department jobs with the City of Houston, successfully arguing that the City’s hiring practices were, on their face, a violation of state civil service law and a pretext for race discrimination. That case led to entry of an agreed Consent Decree that substantially altered the City’s police and fire hiring practices.
  • Represented an African-American customer at a local Denny’s restaurant who was accosted and held at gunpoint by a security guard known by management to have engaged in racist conduct.
Religious Discrimination
  • Represented and obtained a substantial settlement for an employee who had been subjected to religious-based harassment during the course of her employment.
  • On several occasions has represented religiously-observant people (e.g., Seventh Day Adventists, Orthodox Jews) whose requests for religious accommodations because of sabbath or other observances have been refused.
Family & Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
  • Obtained a substantial settlement for an employee who was terminated just hours after requesting FMLA leave from his employer.
  • Representing a medical practice in defense of an FMLA case, he obtained a summary judgment on grounds that the practice was not covered by the statute.
  • Represented an employee with a medical condition who was threatened with termination and then fired for using FMLA leave.
  • Obtained a substantial settlement for the estate of a mentally-ill employee who committed suicide after his employer fired him instead of giving him leave under the FMLA to which he was entitled.
Overtime and Minimum Wage Violations
  • Has represented multiple individual employees in single-plaintiff overtime litigation.
  • Represented a class of construction workers in a collective action alleging overtime violations, leading to entry of a judgment for plaintiffs for more than $1.3 million.
  • Obtained a substantial judgment for minimum wage and overtime violations for a motel worker who was paid $20 per day under the table.
  • Represented numerous companies in a related industry in overtime collective actions filed in Texas and Florida. These cases involved a matter of first impression in that no court had ever considered whether the particular job performed by the plaintiffs was or was not exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
  • Tried and won an overtime against a local criminal defense attorney who had failed to pay his secretary overtime compensation, leading to a judgment of nearly $137,000.
Retaliation
  • Represented and obtained a substantial settlement for an executive who was terminated two days after complaining to company owner that she was being discriminated against by two other employee.
  • Represented a Houston-based company in federal court in Georgia over alleged retaliation. The case settled for nuisance value after Mr. Golub deposed the plaintiffs.
  • Obtained a confidential, pre-suit settlement for a former employee who was terminated three days after complaining that a supervisor was sexually harassing her and other female employees.
  • Represented the National Employment Lawyers Association and three other national civil rights organizations as amicus curiae in Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway v. White, a major retaliation case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court ruled unanimously in favor of the employee, Sheila White, and eight of the justices largely adopted the position advanced in NELA’s brief.
  • Represented a company manager who was fired shortly after objecting to rampant discrimination against the company’s employees of Vietnamese origin.
  • Represented an obtained a substantial settlement for a salesperson who was subjected to retaliation after complaining about rampant gender and age-based discrimination against her. The retaliation was witnessed by an HR representative who herself concluded that management’s conduct was retaliatory.
  • Later, represented and obtained a settlement for that same HR representative who was terminated shortly after the preceding case settled. The company told her it had been forced to settle the case because of her.  She immediately retained Mr. Golub to represent her interests.
  • Represented through trial and appeal a public employee who was subjected to retaliation after she, along with other women, made internal complaints of discrimination. The jury found retaliation after deliberating for only 45 minutes.
  • Represented the Plaintiff in Sandeep Rao v. Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, a free speech retaliation case.  Texas Tech had tried to expel a student enrolled in a joint MD/MBA program because of an article he wrote for the university’s newspaper. The injunction kept the student enrolled in school through to his graduation.  The case settled after the Amarillo Court of Appeals upheld the injunction.
Non-Compete/Non-Solicit/Theft of Trade Secrets
  • Represented an out-of-state employee who had just been sued in Houston for allegedly stealing trade secrets. In just three weeks he managed to convince the former employer that the lawsuit was factually meritless and to dismiss it outright.
  • Represented an employee accused of violating an agreement not to solicit former employees. After successfully obtaining summary judgment on grounds that the agreement was overly broad (and therefore unenforceable as written), the trial court entered an order reforming the agreement but awarding no damages or attorney’s fees.  The case then settled.
  • Represented an employee accused of breaching a multi-year non-compete agreement. After Mr. Golub took a single deposition of the employer, the parties agreed to reduce the non-compete limitation to just nine months
  • Defended a former executive at a manufacturing company who was sued in east Texas for alleged violations of a non-compete agreement and for allegedly misappropriating trade secrets. The firm convinced the court to transfer the case to Wisconsin, where the client’s new employer was based.  The case then settled after reaching that more favorable forum.
Employee Benefits
  • Represented the wife of a man who stricken by frontotemporal dementia while in his 40’s. Despite a few years having passed since the man was terminated from his last job, Mr. Golub was able to help this family secure long term disability benefits under the employer-provided disability policy in place when he was still working.
  • Represented a widow whose survivor pension benefits had been cut off by her husband’s former employer. The pension payments were restored following a single letter from Mr. Golub.
  • Represented a former corporate executive who had suffered a series of debilitating strokes but was denied benefits under his employer-provided disability insurance policy. Golub successfully represented the client in litigation and secured a substantial settlement for him.
  • In a case of first impression, successfully defended an airline pilot and his wife being sued by an airline retirement plan to return pension funds disbursed to the wife upon their divorce, prior to their later reconciliation and re-marriage. They, along with six other couples, were being sued. Golub quarterbacked the defense team’s legal theories, leading to the dismissal of all ERISA claims asserted against the defendants.  On appeal, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed in all respects.
  • Represented a former manager at a major corporation who had suffered cognitive impairments – commonly called in the medical literature as ‘chemo brain’ – following treatment for breast cancer. After her disability insurer denied benefits, Mr. Golub wrote a lengthy appeal letter on the client’s behalf.  The insurer then reversed its decision.
  • Represented a former welder suffering from peripheral neuropathy and other neurological deficits that were consistent with manganese poisoning from working with welding rods. The client had sought disability benefits, but his insurer denied his claim by saying there was no objective evidence that the client had any neurological problems.  Golub’s lengthy appeal letter pointed out the many references in the medical records to the client’s continuing neurological problems, including an objective nerve biopsy and a doctor’s observation that the client was “permanently disabled” and at constant risk for “sudden loss of consciousness.”  After receiving Mr. Golub’s appeal, the insurer reversed its decision.
  • Prevailed at trial for an industrial worker whose hand had been crushed in an on-the-job accident. The company had a self-insured disability insurance plan and, despite telling the client not to submit a long term disability claim until after being approved for social security benefits, it ultimately denied his claim as untimely.  Twenty minutes after the parties rested, the trial judge ruled from the bench in the client’s favor.  Golub successfully defended the win on appeal at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
  • Represented a class of Arkansas textile workers whose ERISA-regulated stock ownership plan was forced to purchase company stock for more than four times the stock’s actual value.
Breach of Contract
  • Represented a Houston-based real estate consulting firm accused by two New York-based employees of failing to pay more than $1.5 million in allegedly-promised bonuses. The employees threatened to file suit in Massachusetts, where the company had no operations, whereas their employment contracts required litigation in Houston.  Golub immediately filed a declaratory judgment action in Houston seeking a determination that the company had no contractual obligation to pay the employees any bonuses.  The case eventually settled with the employees releasing all their claims and paying Mr. Golub’s client tens of thousands of dollars towards its legal fees.
  • Successfully represented through trial a petrophysicist who was sued after leaving an independent contractor job without providing the required amount of advance notice. He had left because this employer had not paid him anything for his work and apparently did not intend to (at least until after he quit).  The case went to trial.  While the jury found that the client had technically breached his contract, it determined that the breach caused no damage.  Judgment was therefore entered for Mr. Golub’s client.
  • Represented a young analyst who worked for a real estate firm. Firm management encouraged all employees to develop business, assuring them that they would be paid on any deals they brought in.  After the client turned into one of the office’s largest rainmakers, the firm decided to fire him and not pay him on what turned out to be one of the office’s largest transactions that year.  The case was tried in arbitration.  The arbitrator ruled for Mr. Golub’s client, awarding damages and fees.
  • Represented a terminated telecom executive who, despite his three-year employment contract, was fired with more than 2 ½ years remaining in the term.  Following a multi-day arbitration hearing, the arbitrator awarded the executive all back pay and stock options due him through the contract’s term, along with attorney’s fees and costs.
Severance Agreements

Mr. Golub has represented dozens of senior executives and other employees in connection with severance negotiations, including:

 

  • the General Counsel and Secretary of a publicly-traded company in negotiations pertaining to his separation. These negotiations resulted in a separation payment of around $1.3 million;
  • the President and Chief Executive Officer of a local logistics company;
  • the Chief Commercial Officer of that same logistics company;
  • a Senior Vice President of a publicly-traded company;
  • a senior executive of a Texas-based bank; and
  • several departing executives of an internet startup.
Miscellaneous Cases
  • Defended a publicly-traded company in an arbitration proceeding brought by the company’s former Chief Executive Officer. The plaintiff claimed a breach of his employment contract, and also that he had been defamed in the company’s SEC filings.  The case settled on favorable terms to Mr. Golub’s client shortly after the arbitrator issued a key ruling agreeing with Mr. Golub’s arguments about the legal standard applicable to the former CEO’s defamation claim and the type of proof he needed (but which he lacked) to prove defamation.
  • Represented the coach of a U.S. Olympic team in a U.S. Olympic Committee arbitration involving an alleged breach of his employment contract. Because of unique aspects pertaining to USOC arbitrations, this case went from filing to trial in approximately three weeks.
  • Represented a prominent Houston entrepreneur who had been defamed on a nationally-syndicated news magazine show.
  • Successfully represented a foreign-born pharmacy student at a public university who – twice – was subjected to unwarranted academic dismissal proceedings. On both occasions the university relented and permitted the student to continue their studies.  The student ultimately graduated and is today a licensed and practicing pharmacist.
  • Successfully represented a public university professor who was denied tenure. The matter proceeded to a hearing before a committee of tenured professors, who ultimately recommended to the University that the client had not been fairly reconsidered and should be given a second opportunity.