Katharine Virginia Hartman

Katharine’s practice is focused on counseling employers on the full array of employment law issues, including employee discipline and termination, accommodations for medical and religious reasons, wage and hour compliance, and personnel policies and procedures. She also regularly conducts workplace investigations. Katharine devotes a significant amount of time to employment litigation, including the defense of wrongful discharge, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and wage and hour claims, and matters involving restrictive covenants, trade secrets, and employment contracts. Her practice also includes complex commercial litigation and the arbitration of labor disputes. Katharine’s guiding litigation philosophy is to resolve claims early and efficiently. She represents public and private employers across multiple industries and sectors, including financial services, healthcare, hospitality, transportation, education and manufacturing.

Katharine also serves as a Board Member, and as General Counsel, for the Urban League of Philadelphia.

Representative Experience

• Represented employers in individual and class/collective actions under the Fair Labor Standards Act and other wage and hour laws.
• Obtained dismissal of state court action on motion to dismiss based on novel theory that employer was a federal instrumentality and therefore not subject to state employment laws.
• Obtained favorable result on appeal, whereby the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court held that local anti-discrimination agency had no jurisdiction over regional transportation authority.
• Obtained summary judgment resulting in dismissal of all claims against a major metropolitan newspaper for race discrimination and harassment.
• Represented educational institution in action brought under Title IX.
• Represented employers in trade secret and restrictive covenant litigation, including defense of claims of tortious interference and violations of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
• Obtained dismissal of all claims brought against employer and majority shareholders on motion practice. The litigation was largely based on claims that the majority shareholders froze out the minority shareholders, and included claims for wrongful discharge, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, and false light/invasion of privacy.
• Providing daily employment law counseling to in-house counsel and human resources personnel.
• Conducting management training on labor and employment law issues relevant to workforce.
• Conducting harassment investigations.
• Drafting employee handbooks and updating policies based on changes in applicable law.

Professional & Community Activities

• Committee Member, Philadelphia Bar Association Federal Practice
• Board Member and General Counsel, Urban League of Philadelphia

• 08/05/13Dilworth Paxson Elects Two New Partners

• 10/17/13Expecting The Unexpected: Tackling Wage Issues and Protecting Employer’s Confidential Information and Client Relationships