Schwulst, John P.

Ashlea received her J.D. from the University of Kansas. Ashlea was awarded the James P. Mize Award for Trial Advocacy and the Robert F. Bennett Award for Public Service upon graduation. She clerked for the Honorable Judge Julie Robinson, United States District for the District of Kansas from 2005-2006. Ashlea received her B.A. degree from Kansas State University in Mass Communications and minors in German and Literature.  While at K-State, Ashlea acted as a University ambassador and was on the Board of the K-State Student Foundation.

Ashlea practices in complex employment litigation and as special counsel in large-scale bankruptcy adversary proceedings.  She litigates large wage and hour collective and class action on behalf of employees in unpaid overtime and minimum wage cases. Currently, Ashlea represents a number of classes of hourly employees in actions to recover “off the clock” work in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. In the last two years, Ashlea has tried and won two arbitrations where she recovered millions of dollars on behalf of employees.  The first involved a company that misclassified its account representatives as exempt from the FLSA.  The arbitration tribunal determined that the company owed back wages to each of the account representatives that opted-in to the case as well as a doubling of damages as liquidated damages. The second case involved a call center that failed to pay overtime to nearly 3,000 opt-in plaintiffs who were showing up to work before their shift and working after the end of the shift. The arbitration tribunal found that the company owed back wages and liquidated damages and further found that the violation was willful and awarded a third year of damages. Additionally, Ashlea represents several groups of employees affected by the recent mass layoffs occurring around the country for violations of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act.

Ashlea also works with bankruptcy estates and serves as special litigation counsel for Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustees, debtors in possession, and creditors in contingency fee litigation.  As special counsel for trustees, she prosecutes adversary proceedings to bring monies back into the estate in order to compensate creditors.  These typically include claims for fraudulent transfers, aiding and abetting, breach of fiduciary duties, conspiracy, re-characterizing debt instruments as equity, equitable subordination, products liability, and director/officer liability.

RECENT RESULTS

McFadden, et al. v. Corrections Corporation of America. This FLSA case alleges that Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), violated federal wage and hour laws by misclassifying its Lieutenants as exempt employees and consistently failed to accurately record all time worked. The case was settled in favor of the class members.

Beasley and Meyers, et al. v. GC Services L.P. Ashlea represents call center employees working in facilities across the country and operated by GC Services. The lawsuit alleges that GC Services has consistently violated federal and state wage and hour laws by failing to pay its call center employees all earned wages and overtime and by failing to accurately record all time worked pre-shift and post-shift and over their unpaid lunch breaks. The case was settled in favor of the class members.

De La Cruz, et al. v. Masco Retail Cabinet Group LLC. Stueve Siegel Hanson represents Account Representatives in a wage and hour collective action arbitration against Masco Retail Cabinet Group. The arbitration alleges that Masco consistently violated federal wage and hour laws by misclassifying its Account Representatives exempt from federal overtime laws and thus depriving them of all the wages they are owed. The arbitrator ruled in favor of the class members.

Sanchez and Poland, et al. v. Echosphere LLC and Dish Network LLC. This case is filed on behalf of customer service representatives and other telephone-dedicated employees for unpaid wages and overtime worked at call centers operated by Echosphere and Dish Network. The Arbitrator issued a Final Award finding that Dish failed to pay its employees overtime and awarded the class members damages in the amount of $2.9 million.

Investigation on behalf of Malloy, Bankruptcy Trustee for the Consolidated Bankruptcy Estate of Arrow Trucking Company. Stueve Siegel Hanson is working with the bankruptcy trustee in bringing claims to recover fraudulent transfers and claims for breach of fiduciary duty to Arrow Trucking. A settlement was reached in favor of the trustee.

Nicholson, et al. v. UTi Worldwide, Inc. and UTi Integrated Logistics, Inc. Ashlea represents forklift drivers at warehouse and shipping facilities operated by UTi Integrated Logistics and UTi Worldwide. The lawsuit alleges that federal and state wage and hour laws have been violated by failing to pay forklift drivers all earned wages and overtime due for worked performed pre-shift and post-shift. The case was settled in favor of the class members.

Sharpe, et al. v. APAC Customer Services, Inc. In this FLSA case, Ashlea represented call center employees across the country. The lawsuit alleged that APAC consistently violated federal and state wage and hours laws by failing to accurately record all time worked and failing to pay earned wages and overtime. The case concluded with a settlement on behalf of the customer service representatives.

Stull v. Kraft Foods Global, Inc. d/b/a Columbia Foods Company. Ashlea represented production employees in the wage and hour class action suit. The case was settled in favor of the class members.

Oddson v. Swift & Company. This suit was filed on behalf of Livestock Buyers for unpaid wages and overtime worked at Swift locations across the country. The suit alleged that Swift misclassified its Livestock Buyers as exempt from the federal overtime laws. The case was settled in favor of our client.

McLean, et al. v. CenturyTel of Missouri LLC. This lawsuit was settled in favor of call center employees for unpaid wages and overtime. This action alleged CenturyTel was in violation of federal wage and hour laws and included requiring employees to work “off the clock” by not paying for work performed pre-shift, post-shift, and during unpaid meal breaks.

Hernandez, et al. v. Texas Capital Bank, N.A. Ashlea assisted in this FLSA case against Texas Capital Bank for unpaid wages and overtime. This case was successfully settled in favor of the plaintiffs.

Wells Fargo Home Mortgage Overtime Litigation. Ashlea assisted in this FLSA case on behalf of Home Mortgage Consultants who worked for Wells Fargo. A settlement in the case is pending and awaiting approval from the Court.

Cabreros and Refuerzo et al. v. Spansion, LLC and Spansion, Inc. A settlement was reached in this bankruptcy case in favor of all Spansion employees who suffered an employment loss as a consequence of a mass layoff, plant closing, and/or termination that occurred at Spansion’s Sunnyvale, California site and who received less than 60 days advance notice of such actions. This is in direct violation of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act.

Howe v. Fleetwood Enterprises, Inc. This class action suit was settled in favor of former employees who worked for Fleetwood and who were terminated as a consequence of plant closings and/or a mass layoff and who were not provided 60 days advanced notice of such actions as required by the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act.