Gulfstream Aerospace has been a  proud HunterMaclean client since 1978.

One of Savannah’s largest employers, Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation designs, develops, manufactures, markets, services and supports the world's most technologically advanced business-jet aircraft. HunterMaclean attorneys have worked with Gulfstream since it first moved to Savannah in 1967 with the encouragement and support of the late Malcolm R. Maclean, then a HunterMaclean partner and former Savannah mayor.  Throughout the business jet manufacturer’s mergers and acquisitions that have occurred over the years since then, HunterMaclean has continued to represent the company in matters as diverse as corporate finance, sales tax audits, and insurance disputes.

In recent years, HunterMaclean’s work with Gulfstream has focused on employment issues.  Gulfstream implemented a dispute resolution policy in 2002 for the efficient resolution of employment-related disputes.  Arbitration is the final step in the process.  Several current and former Gulfstream employees challenged the policy in federal district court, but HunterMaclean attorneys secured rulings in both the district court and the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals that upheld the policy and enforced arbitration.  The United States Supreme Court denied the employees’ petition for certiorari.

Walking a fine line between full-blown litigation about the legality of the dispute resolution process and a more focused effort to require the plaintiffs to arbitrate their specific claims, HunterMaclean attorneys established a detailed factual record showing that all of the plaintiffs received notice of the dispute resolution policy.  Careful not to contradict the policy’s underlying purpose to avoid protracted and expensive litigation, HunterMaclean attorneys were able to limit discovery and still convince the courts to compel arbitration, thereby defeating the plaintiffs’ efforts to vastly expand the scope of the lawsuit at an early stage of the proceedings.

The courts’ rulings set an important precedent for companies nationwide interested in implementing dispute resolution policies, including arbitration.  Legal Ingenuity for our employment law clients.