Hanna Norvell

Board certified in Labor and Employment Law, Hanna advises and litigates for employers in matters regarding executives, employees, or contractors, particularly regarding executive agreements, trade secret and restrictive covenant matters, and board or workplace investigations. Hanna also represents businesses in matters regarding accessibility for persons with disabilities, including due diligence for deals, defending claims, and proactive compliance for every type of building or feature, such as services and communications. Hanna handles multifamily housing Fair Housing compliance issues, including design and construction, discrimination, reasonable accommodations and modifications, and defends claims of FHA violations.

Hanna’s experience includes working with entities of various sizes and in every stage of development, from private-equity or family office-backed startups or new acquisitions to well-established global companies, in various industries, including energy, private equity, or other investment companies, software, financial services, real estate, telecommunications, food and beverage, manufacturing, biotechnology, health care, and hospitality.

Hanna has experience in drafting, enforcing, and litigating executive and other employment agreements, separation or severance agreements, executive compensation and benefits agreements, incentive, retention and severance plans, nondisclosure, nondisparagement, noncompetition, nonsolicitation, and nonhire agreements.

Hanna litigates claims regarding tortious interference, unfair competition, misappropriation of trade secrets and confidential information, breach of employment agreement or other contract, defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, retaliation, harassment, discrimination and whistleblower claims, wages and hours (Fair Labor Standards Act and other overtime and minimum wage laws), as well as public policy or contract-based claims, and any employment agency audits and enforcement actions.

Employers call on Hanna for practical advice and counsel regarding employment issues, decisions, and risks. This includes best practices and training and otherwise handling: trade secret protection and restrictive covenant drafting; internal and external investigations and audits; compliance reviews of diversity (DEI) or other employment programs; layoff and restructuring programs (including WARN Act), furloughs, voluntary separations or retirement programs; handling due diligence and representations regarding employment issues in mergers and acquisitions; classification issues including employees and contractors, as well as joint employment (co-employment) with staffing, or affiliated companies; disability, religious, gender, and pregnancy accommodations, and interactive process; leaves of absence (including FMLA, ADA and workers compensation); ethics, conflicts of interest, and related compliance training; workplace violence or misconduct; incentive compensation, bonus, and commission programs; background checks, applicant testing, artificial intelligence, and other hiring screens and processes; and multistate employer handbooks and policies and agreements.

• Guided boards of directors in expeditiously resolving executive terminations and resulting breach of contract claims through pre-lawsuit negotiations and mediation in the health care, biotech, and oilfield services industries.
• Asserted counter-claims regarding breaches of fiduciary duty and theft of trade secrets and obtained a voluntarily dismissal of an executive claim of an alleged breach of a severance agreement.
• Conducted a multistate internal investigation for a software company concerning the appropriate use of confidential and trade secret information belonging to that company, as well as that of other companies.
• Defended through trial a high-profile fraud and breach of contract claim brought against an energy company by a former executive, including obtaining an early dismissal of his whistleblower claim.
• Defended and obtained a dismissal for an oilfield services company in a U.S. Department of Labor investigation involving alleged misclassification of independent contractors.
• Audited sites in several states for a real estate development buyer during the transactional diligence period to identify accessibility issues under the ADA and local laws and to negotiate price credit for the cost of correcting the identified issues.
• For a national hotel group, negotiated the resolution of private claimant ADA class action claims regarding accessible features at hundreds of sites.
• Obtained a dismissal with no penalty of a multisite ADA Department of Justice investigation/claim regarding accessible parking issues.

• Best Lawyers in America®: Employment Law-Management and Litigation-Labor & Employment (2013-2026)
• Super Lawyers® Texas Rising Star, Employment & Labor and Employment Litigation: Defense (2004-2009, 2011)