Chris Marquardt, partner in the Atlanta office of Alston & Bird’s Labor & Employment Group, has been elected President of the Florida Bar Out-of-State Division for a one-year term beginning July 1, 2015.
There are approximately 14,000 lawyers licensed to practice law in Florida who live and practice in places other than the Sunshine State. The Out-of-State Division works to represent the interests of those members and keep them informed on relevant issues by monitoring legislative and bar proposals, to promote professionalism and competence of its members, and to provide networking and resource opportunities for its members.
Prior to being elected president, Marquardt held previous leadership positions in the Out-of-State Division, serving as its treasurer for the 2013-2014 term and president-elect during the 2014-2015 term. He is also a member of the Florida Bar’s Civil Rules Committee (2013-2016) and served on the Bar’s Leadership Academy Committee (2013-2015) and Hawkins Commission on Review of Discipline System (2011-2012). A native of the Tampa Bay area, Marquardt spent the first two years of his legal career as a law clerk to the Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida and has been an active member of the Florida Bar for almost 20 years.
Marquardt has wide-ranging experience litigating employment-related disputes in courts in both Florida and Georgia. He has litigated complex disputes for publicly traded companies, privately held corporations, small businesses, non-profits and individuals. He regularly litigates breach of contract, trade secret misappropriation, employment discrimination, wage and hour and tort cases and counsels clients on compliance with federal, state and local employment law. He negotiates collective bargaining agreements on behalf of unionized companies and handles administrative matters pending before the National Labor Relations Board, United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Department of Labor and Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights. He is recognized in the 2016 edition of The Best Lawyers in America® for Litigation: Labor and Employment.