R. Wayne Thorpe, Esq. has acted as mediator, arbitrator, or other neutral in dozens of employment and employee benefit cases, including class and collective actions; age, disability, gender, race discrimination; FLSA; sexual harassment; wrongful termination of employee benefits; ERISA; breach of contract; non-compete, non-solicit, and trade secret disputes; whistle-blower; Sarbanes-Oxley; breach of fiduciary duty, theft of corporate opportunity; bonuses and stock options; law firm disputes with former partners; severance agreements. Many of these cases have involved financial services, health care, legal, academic, technology, energy, and government executives and professionals. He is a member of the Employment section of the State Bar of Georgia.
Mr. Thorpe has been a full-time ADR neutral since 1998. He has served as mediator, arbitrator, facilitator, special master, and case evaluator in roughly 2000 cases in at least 15 states, including many high stakes and complex cases, class actions, MDL’s, and other large scale multi-party cases, and more than 500 arbitrations as sole arbitrator, panel chair, or party-appointed arbitrator.
Mr. Thorpe was named by the Best Lawyers in America publication as the 2015 Atlanta Arbitration Lawyer of the Year and the 2012 Atlanta Mediation Lawyer of the Year, and he has been recognized by International Who’s Who of Commercial Mediation, Best Lawyers in America and Georgia Super Lawyers for a number of years.
He is Past Chair of the ABA Dispute Resolution Section, and he has been a leader in ADR ethics and other policy matters both nationally and in Georgia for many years. He has also served as an adjunct professor and guest presenter in ADR courses in several law schools. Before he became a full-time neutral, Mr. Thorpe was a litigation partner in a large Atlanta law firm.
Representative Matters
- Mediation and arbitration of FLSA cases including collective actions
- Numerous disputes involving non-compete, non-solicitation, trade secret, fiduciary duty and similar issues in employment and buy/sell agreements
- Numerous race, national origin, age, disability, and gender discrimination cases (including reverse race discrimination)
- Mediations and arbitrations of cases involving partner withdrawal from law firms, including AmLaw 100 firms, involving race and gender discrimination, retirement and accounting disputes
- Multi-plaintiff, putative class actions alleging race and gender discrimination in pay, promotion, and conditions of employment
- Arbitrations and mediations in contract disputes between employers and former executives over severance, stock options, bonus payments, pension and other issues
- Arbitration of $100M claim by former CEO against Brazilian public company over severance payment
- Arbitrations of employment contract claims by private equity professionals and counterclaim for breach of confidentiality agreement
- Arbitration of employment contract claim by energy industry sales manager
- Mediation of relator's retaliation case in Memphis, TN alleging illegal off-label pharmaceutical marketing
- Sexual harassment cases (and cases involving terminations of employees for alleged harassment), some involving high profile individual defendants
- Mediations of disputes between hospitals and physicians concerning terminations of physicians and various other business and financial issues
- Sarbanes-Oxley claim against start-up biotech company brought by research physician employee
- Several mediations and arbitrations of cases involving physician practice break-ups
- Mediation/facilitation (with co-mediator) of corporate governance issues among officers and directors of large privately held health care company
- Mediation/facilitation of workplace personnel and professional dispute between two officer-level employees in Fortune 50 company
- Mediation of dispute between investment bank and senior management employees who left to start competing business and took most of their department with them; non-compete, non-solicit, and trade secret issues
- Mediation of dispute between architecture firm and several employees who departed to form competing firm; non-compete, non-solicit, and trade secret issues
- Age and gender discrimination case against media company brought by management/on-air employee
- Age and gender discrimination case brought by high level female manager against large financial services company
- Discrimination case brought by female broker against national securities brokerage firm
- Discrimination cases against academic institutions, both academic and clerical personnel
- Whistle-blower, defamation, and tortious interference claims against defense contractor
- Fraud and breach of fiduciary duty claim by trucking company against management employee for allegedly directing multi-million dollar maintenance work to himself and relatives
- Mediations of several high profile disputes involving senior management employees in federal and state government agencies
- Disputes over benefits under employee benefit plans
- EEOC case alleging ADA violation in industrial plant
- Employment dispute between internet start-up company and terminated senior manager
- Multi-plaintiff, national origin discrimination case against a bank
- Employment discrimination claims by pharmaceutical reps
- Suit by securities brokerage firm for collection on note arising from employment relationship, counterclaim for breach of employment contract
- Arbitration of claims by salesmen against car dealer for underpayment on various commissions and incentives
