Ryan E. Griffin

Ryan Griffin provides creative legal advice and strong advocacy to unions and working people.

Ryan Griffin joined James & Hoffman in 2013 following a fellowship in the Service Employees International Union’s Legal Department, where he worked to expand and defend organizing rights and workplace protections for homecare workers excluded from most federal and state labor and employment laws including the NLRA and FLSA. Mr. Griffin currently advises, litigates, and negotiates on behalf of international and local unions and individuals employed in the public and private sectors and the international civil service.

Representative matters for Mr. Griffin include:

Impact litigation in support of union organizing including helping to develop the theories used in groundbreaking NLRB litigation seeking to hold McDonald’s accountable as the joint employer of its franchisees’ employees.

Advising international unions with respect to strategic organizing campaigns, legislative initiatives, and federal agency rulemaking proceedings.

Representing local unions in bargaining and in grievance and interest arbitrations.

Successfully defending unions against duty-of-fair representation claims at both the district court and appellate levels.

Whistleblower litigation under the False Claims Act and Anti-Kickback Statute in a suit leading to intervention by the Department of Justice and settlements worth more than $20 million.

Successfully defending whistleblowers in a case of first impression before the World Bank Administrative Tribunal, along with many other cases on behalf of international civil service employees in that Tribunal and other international dispute resolution forums.

Litigating pay disputes on behalf of federal employees in the Court of Federal Claims and the Federal Circuit.

Advising and representing public- and private-sector employees with respect to severance negotiations, non-compete agreements, settlement negotiations, mediation, and other individual employment matters.

Federal court wage-and-hour litigation on behalf of low-wage fast food and construction workers.

Mr. Griffin received his law degree from the University of Minnesota Law School in 2010, magna cum laude, and served as an Articles Editor on the Minnesota Law Review. While in law school, he worked for the Appellate Court Litigation Branch of the NLRB and for the Public Defender’s Office in St. Paul, Minnesota. Mr. Griffin received his B.A. from the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire in 2003, where he studied political science and music. He is a member of the Bars of the District of Columbia and Maryland. In 2023 and 2024, Ryan was named one of the 500 leading plaintiff employment and civil rights lawyers in the United States by Lawdragon.