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Q&A: Shannon Liss-Riordan Discusses Awuah and Other Issues

By ALM Staff | Law Journal Newsletters |
May 27, 2010

Shannon Liss-Riordan, partner at Lichten & Liss-Riordan, P.C. (Boston) is a nationally known employment-law attorney and has been named to the Chambers “Best Lawyers in America” in 2008, 2009, and 2010. Her practice concentrates on class action litigation involving failure to pay wages, overtime, gratuities, minimum wage, and misclassification of employees as independent contractors. She represented the plaintiffs in Awuah, et al. v. Coverall North America, Inc., in which U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young compared Coverall's franchising model to a Ponzi scheme.

While the judge's Ponzi comparison in Awuah attracted attention in the franchise industry, the greater impact of his ruling might be found elsewhere. In this Q&A, Liss-Riordan discusses Awuah, as well as the general significance of litigation about the classification of franchisees and wage-and-classification issues for employees of franchisees.

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