Keahn N. Morris

Areas of Practice

Keahn Morris is one of the go-to labor lawyers for the firm in the United States. Recently recognized by Super Lawyers as a "Rising Star", Keahn was identified as a top rated labor and employment attorney from 2014-2019. Keahn is highly responsive and an expert in his field. Keahn has deep experience across many industries, including healthcare, aerospace and defense, hospitality, retail, food and beverage, sporting and performing art venues, wine, manufacturing, transportation, construction, emerging growth, media and games, and the “gig” economy. Keahn’s practice is national in scope. Keahn advises companies, including Fortune 500 companies on strategic matters involving labor unions, including responding to union organizing drives and decertifications, union avoidance, strike preparation and avoidance, strike management, lockouts, outsourcing, and compliance with the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and the Railway Labor Act (RLA). He has handled large, nationwide corporate organizing campaigns and guided employers of all sizes through difficult labor situations involving collective actions, boycotts, picketing, and/or public relations battles by nearly all of the major unions in the United States. He has extensive experience handling labor arbitrations, unfair labor practice and representation cases before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the United States Courts of Appeals, and other federal court litigation involving labor issues, including seeking and defending injunctions. He is an expert on secondary boycotts and has successfully sued unions on behalf of employers, including recently obtaining a decision by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is now the leading case concerning illegal secondary boycotts and hot cargo agreements under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Keahn has represented employers in over 50 trials before the NLRB and arbitrators involving a variety of complex labor matters, including but not limited to alleged unlawful discharges/disciplines, unilateral changes, bad faith bargaining, plant closures and transfers of work, subcontracting, management rights, successorship issues, drug testing, surveillance, interrogations, threats, solicitation of grievances, and promises of benefits. For unionized clients, he has served as lead negotiator in many collective bargaining negotiations – in situations ranging from “hard bargaining” to recapture management rights to more collaborative negotiations – in all cases designed to assist clients in achieving their primary labor goals. In addition, he has significant experience supporting corporate transactions, including M&A deals and has worked closely with clients in restructuring deals to minimize labor-related risks and to maximize the value of the transaction from a labor perspective.

Keahn also represents employers in a wide range of employment actions in state and federal court and before governmental agencies, including disputes involving wage and hour class and PAGA actions, whistleblowing, wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, breach of contract, trade secrets, and unfair competition. Keahn regularly lectures on labor and employment-related topics, conducts management training, and counsels clients regarding compliance, workplace investigations, legislative and regulatory initiatives, reorganizations and reductions-in-force, preservation of management prerogatives, and social media issues.

Keahn has drafted hundreds of collective bargaining agreements, project labor agreements, labor peace agreements, employment contracts, and settlement agreements.

Prior to entering private practice, Keahn was a law clerk at the NLRB’s Division of Judges in San Francisco where he assisted judges with litigation related to the NLRA.

Keahn is a trial-ready litigator who knows how to resolve all forms of labor and employment-related disputes efficiently and effectively.

• Northern California Rising Star, Super Lawyers, 2014-2019

• National Retail Federation Committee on Employment Law – Millennials and Unions, San Francisco (April 2019)
• California Association of Health Facilities – Union Relations in the Healthcare Industry, Palm Springs (November 2018)
• Labor & Employment Law Update, Fall 2017 Seminar Series, San Francisco (October 2017)
• California Labor and Employment Law Update, California Association of Health Facilities Summer Conference, Long Beach (July 2016)
• Breakfast With Your Labor Lawyer, Spring 2017 Seminar Series, Palo Alto (May 2017)
• California Labor and Employment Law Update, California Association of Health Facilities Spring Legislative Conference, Sacramento (March 2016)
• Surveying the New Labor Law Landscape: A Rocky Road Ahead, San Francisco (May 2015)
• California Labor and Employment Law Update, California Association of Health Facilities Spring Legislative Conference, Sacramento (March 2015)
• Labor Roundtable: The New Joint Employer Standard Under the NLRB, San Francisco (December 2015)
• Labor Seminar Breakfast Series, New Developments Under the NLRB, San Francisco (December 2014)
• California Breakfast Series: California Workplace Law Update, San Francisco (December 2013)

• American Bar Association - Committee on Practice and Procedure Under the NLRA
• Bar Association of San Francisco
• California Association of Health Facilities (CAHF)
• California Bar Association