Gwen Lerner
	651.592.9850 gwen.lerner@gcl.com PRACTICE AREAS Employment Law Sexual Harassment Juvenile Law/Child Protection

PROFESSIONAL PROFILE
Gwen’s corporate employment law practice covers a broad range of employee relations matters, from sensitive individual employee problems to company-wide policies and strategic decisions. She joined the General Counsel, Ltd. in 1988, after serving as in-house employment counsel for Control Data Corporation and Land O’Lakes, Inc., where she also handled labeling, advertising and marketing of food products under federal and state regulations.

Gwen has supported Human Resources and Employee Benefits departments for these companies as well as GCL clients, advising them on complex workplace legal issues such as wage and hour determinations, reductions in force, medical and family leaves of absence, and many varieties of discrimination, all of which are affected by judicial decisions, changing laws and regulations. She has drafted key personnel documents, including employment, retention and separation agreements, independent contractor agreements, confidentiality and non-compete agreements, corporate employment policies and communications, and employee handbooks. As internal and external counsel, she also has handled sexual and other harassment investigations, and represented companies in discrimination and unemployment compensation administrative proceedings. In conjunction with outside experts, she has provided assistance with benefit plan administration and immigration matters as well as with employment litigation management.

At the beginning of her law career, Gwen served as law clerk to the late Honorable James C. Otis, Associate Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court, and was an associate with the Minneapolis firm of Gainsley, Squire and Korsh. Her interest in law stemmed from her prior career in the arts when she held the position of Registrar at Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.

As a faculty member of the Upper Midwest Employment Law Institute of the Minnesota State Bar Association’s Continuing Legal Education program, she has made presentations on workforce reductions, employee benefits litigation, employment terminations, the Americans with Disabilities Act, affirmative action and sexual harassment issues.

A two-term member of the Minnesota Lawyers Professional Responsibility Board from 1981 - 1987, Gwen also served on the Board of Directors of the Corporate Counsel Association of Minnesota from 1984 to 1988, including two years as Vice President for Public Affairs.

In 1990, she was appointed co-chair of the new State Bar Association Committee for Children, and she was active as a volunteer guardian ad litem in Ramsey County for twelve years. She is a founding member of the nonprofit Children's Law Center of Minnesota, organized in 1993 and dedicated to promoting the rights and interests of all children, especially those of color and with disabilities, in the judicial, child welfare, health care and education systems. Gwen was presented with the Minnesota State Bar Association 1994 President's Award with two other founding members for their work on this project, and she has served as a past president and member of its Board of Directors.

As a volunteer lawyer with the Children’s Law Center, she has devoted years of professional services to pro bono representation of children in Child Protection proceedings and has been participating actively as a member of the Minnesota Department of Corrections Advisory Task Force on the Female and Juvenile Offender in Corrections.

EDUCATION
J.D., cum laude, Hamline University School of Law, Editor-in-Chief, Law Review 1997-78,
Alumni Association President,1980-81
M.A., University of Minnesota, Art History
B.A., Barnard College (Attended, Smith College)

BAR ADMISSIONS
Minnesota Supreme Court, 1978
U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota, 1979

PRESENTATIONS
“Responding to an EEOC or MDHR Discrimination Charge; An In-House Counsel View,” Annual Upper Midwest Employment Law Institute, Minnesota CLE (1996)
“Reasonable Accommodation Under the ADA in Tough Situations,” panelist, Annual Upper Midwest Employment Law Institute, Minnesota CLE (1993)
“Affirmative Action – Explicit and Implicit Impact of the New Civil Rights Act,” The New Civil Rights Act, Minnesota CLE (1992)
“What’s an Employer to Do,” panelist, Harassment in the Workplace, Minnesota Institute of
Legal Education (1992)
“Tailoring Terminations for Difficult Employees,” Annual Upper Midwest Employment
Law Institute (1991)
“Employee Benefits Liability and Litigation,” co-presenter, Annual Midwest
Employment Law Institute (1989)

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
American Bar Association, Labor & Employment Section; Past Member, Children's Law Committee
Minnesota State Bar Association, Labor & Employment Section; Past Co-chair, Children & the Law Ramsey County Bar Association
Minnesota Women Lawyers, past member Judicial Elections Subcommittee
Corporate Counsel Association Board of Directors 1984-88
Minnesota Lawyers Professional Responsibility Board 1981-87

HONORS
150 Lives that Make a Difference, Hamline University, 2005
Distinguished Alumni Award, Hamline University School of Law 25th Anniversary (2000)
President’s Award, Minnesota State Bar Association (1994)

COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES
Hamline University Board of Trustees (1995-2003; 2004-Present);
Family and Children's Service, Board of Directors (2000-2009), Chair, Program Planning and Evaluation Committee;
Friends of the St. Paul Public Library Board of Trustees (2000-2009) Vice Chair, Programming; Minnesota Department of Corrections Advisory Task Force on the Female and Juvenile Offender in Corrections (2004-present);
Bet Shalom Congregation, Social Action Committee; Children's Law Center of Minnesota, Co-Founder, Past President (1995-1997), past Member Board of Directors, Volunteer Attorney;
Ramsey County Guardian ad Litem Program, Volunteer Guardian (1987-2002)
Schubert Club, St. Paul, Board of Directors, Personnel Committee Chair (1990-91)