Keahn N. Morris

Keahn Morris is a partner in the Labor and Employment Practice Group in the firm's San Francisco office.

Areas of Practice

Keahn's practice focuses on all areas of labor and employment law, including counseling of management-side clients, traditional union/labor relations and employment litigation. He is an experienced trial lawyer with first-chair trial experience. He represents clients in numerous industries, including healthcare, transportation, aerospace and defense, retail, hospitality, food and beverage, sporting and entertainment venues, manufacturing, cannabis, agriculture, construction, technology and the “gig” economy.

Keahn has represented employers in over 50 trials/arbitrations before arbitrators, judges and various administrative agencies. He has extensive experience across the entire traditional union/labor field, including labor arbitrations, unfair labor practice and representation proceedings before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the United States courts of appeals, and other federal court litigation involving complex union/labor issues, including seeking and defending injunctions, as well as cases involving alleged unlawful discharges/disciplines, strike and bargaining disputes, union organizing campaigns, unilateral changes, plant closures and outsourcing of work, successorship issues, management rights, free speech, drug testing and invasion of privacy issues. He is an expert on secondary boycotts and has successfully sued unions on behalf of employers, including recently obtaining a decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which is now a leading case concerning illegal secondary boycotts and hot cargo agreements under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Keahn also represents employers in employment actions in state and federal court and before arbitrators and governmental agencies, including disputes involving wage and hour class actions, Private Attorney Generals Act (PAGA) actions, whistleblowing, wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, breach of contract, trade secrets and unfair competition.   

Keahn is a trusted advisor and regularly counsels corporate executives, in-house legal counsel, and human resources leaders, including those in the Fortune 500, as well as business associations, on matters such as labor strategy, union avoidance and responding to union-backed corporate organizing campaigns. He has experience advising companies during large, nationwide campaigns and has guided employers of all sizes through difficult labor relations issues involving union elections, union decertifications, strikes, lockouts, boycotts, picketing, collective actions and public relations battles by nearly all of the major unions in the United States. He regularly lectures at conferences/seminars and advises employers on crucial labor and employment-related topics such as conducting effective workplace investigations, workforce planning (including workforce growth, reorganizations, and reductions-in-force), employee recruiting and hiring practices, harassment prevention and investigation, wage and hour compliance, employee discipline and terminations, general labor relations and human resources strategies, and labor-related issues concerning development projects and planning commission hearings.

For unionized clients, Keahn negotiates collective bargaining agreements on behalf of employers – 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. He also negotiates project labor agreements and labor peace agreements on behalf of employers.

In addition, Keahn provides advice on labor-related issues concerning mergers and acquisitions, as well as bankruptcy deals, including advising on the structure of corporate transactions, NLRA successorship issues, decisional and effects bargaining obligations and withdrawal liability under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and the Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act (MPPAA).

Honors

Northern California Rising Star, Super Lawyers, 2014-2019

Articles

Labor & Employment Law Blog Posts

• "NLRB Reinstates Broad Deferral of Discrimination Cases to Arbitration, Overruling the Obama Board's 2014 Decision in Babcock & Wilcox," January 2, 2020
• "Employers May Now Forbid Employees Using Co. Email for Protected Concerted Activities, Forbid Employees from Discussing On-Going Workplace Investigations, and Cease Checking Off Union Dues," December 20, 2019 
• "Christmas Comes Early for Employers at the NLRB — New Election Procedures That Give Employers a Greater Opportunity to Mount Legal Challenges to Election Petitions and to Effectively Campaign Against Unionization," December 13, 2019 
• "AB 1291 Forces California Cannabis Companies To Sign “Labor Peace Agreements” With Unions, But Statute May be Unconstitutional," October 23, 2019 
• "An Employer’s Bargaining Table Complaints as to Poor Business Conditions Is Not a Claim of Poverty Entitling a Union to Business Sensitive Information," September 16, 2019 
• "More Good News From The Board: NLRB Scraps The Clear And Unmistakable Waiver Standard For The Contract Coverage Test When Deciding Unilateral Change Cases," September 11, 2019 
• "Employers May Not Have To Retain Racists, Sexists and Belligerently Disobedient Employees After All-The NLRB Appears Ready To Rethink Its Positions On Controversial Discipline-Related Doctrines," September 11, 2019
• "The NLRB Nixes Union Gerrymandering And Establishes A Three Step Test For Voting Unit Determinations," September 11, 2019 
• "The NLRB Rules That Employers May Bar Union Representatives From Their Property Even Though They Have Allowed Other Third Parties To Engage In Civic, Charitable Or Commercial Solicitations There," September 10, 2019 
• "An Employer’s Erroneous Announcement To Employees Declaring Them Independent Contractors Does Not, Standing Alone, Violate The NLRA," September 5, 2019 
• "The NLRB Holds That Employers May Implement Class Waivers in Response to Class Claims and Discipline Employees Who Refuse to Sign Them," August 15, 2019
• "Breaking with Tradition, The Current NLRB is on a Rulemaking Tear: Election Procedures, Recognition Bar, and 9(a) Collective Bargaining Relationships," August 13, 2019
• "The NLRB Confirms that Intermittent Strikes in Furtherance of the Same Goal are Unprotected," August 1, 2019
• "The NLRB Just Made It A Little Easier For Employees To Get Rid Of Their Union," July 16, 2019 
• "Which Are They? Independent Contractors Or Employees? Navigating The Conflicts Between State And Federal Law," July 2, 2019 
• "NLRB Limits Duty to Bargain Over Disciplinary Actions," June 28, 2019 
• "NLRB Limits Union Access Rights to “Public Spaces” of Employers," June 17, 2019 
• "It’s OK to Be Different- NLRB Rules That Union Represented Employees Are Not Entitled to Midterm Bargaining Over Same Paid Holiday Granted to Non-Represented Employees," June 6, 2019 
• "The NLRB Continues To Chip Away At Individual Protected Concerted Activity," April 23, 2019 
• "It’s Perfectly Clear Once Again— NLRB Limits “Perfectly Clear” Successor Exception," April 9, 2019 
• "NLRB’s Division of Advice Gives “Advice” As to the Application of Boeing — When a Work Rule/Employment Agreement is Facially Valid Under the NLRA in Union and Union Free Workplaces," March 22, 2019 
• "NLRB Issues Important Decision Regarding What Constitutes “Protected Concerted Activity” in Union and Union-Free Environments Under Federal Labor Law," January 17, 2019
• "Labor Board Back to Five Member Composition – What Obama-Era Precedent Is Next on the Chopping Block?," April 26, 2018
• "NLRB Asks D.C. Circuit to Revive Review of Joint Employer Standard Under BFI; Hy-Brand Decision Vacated Following NLRB Ethics Official’s Report," March 2, 2018
• "Considering Offering Severance Pay in Exchange for Certain Post-Employment Obligations? Think Again," February 20, 2018 
• "Striking A New Balance – The NLRB Abandons the Lutheran Heritage Test and Devises a New Standard for Assessing the Facial Validity of Neutral Work Rules," December 15, 2017 
• "NLRB Overrules Browning-Ferris Joint Employer Standard," December 15, 2017 
• "New Labor Board May Kill “Quickie Election” Rule; Requests Public RFI," December 13, 2017
• "New Labor Board GC Signals Overturning Obama-Era Rulings, But Anticipated Vacancies and Recusals Create Uncertainty," December 8, 2017 
• "House Approves Save Local Business Act – Bill To Overturn Controversial Joint Employer Ruling," November 8, 2017 
• "5 New Laws: California Governor Approves Employee-Friendly Laws," October 13, 2017 
• "Committee Approves Save Local Business Act – Redefining Joint Employer Liability," October 5, 2017 
• "Save Local Business Act Introduced in the House," September 19, 2017 
• "NLRB Orders Union To Drop Unlawful Grievance, to Dismiss Suit Seeking to Compel Neutral Employers to Arbitrate Grievance and to Pay The Employers’ Legal Fees and Defense Costs," June 5, 2017

Healthcare Law Blog Posts

• "California Superior Court Judge Orders Department of Public Health to Make Names and Personal Home Addresses of Approximately 180,000 Health Care Workers Available to SEIU; Union Organizing Activities Likely to Spike,"  May 17, 2018

Cannabis Law Blog Posts

• "AB 1291 Forces California Cannabis Companies To Sign “Labor Peace Agreements” With Unions, But Statute May be Unconstitutional," October 22, 2019

Real Estate, Land Use, & Environmental Law Blog Posts

• "Labor Development Impacting Developers, Contractors, and Landowners," May 22, 2019

Media Mentions

Speaking Engagements

• 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)

Events

Memberships

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