Best Lawyers, the oldest and most respected peer-review publication in the legal profession, has named Stephen B. Lebau Baltimore's Best Labor & Employment Lawyer of the Year for 2012. A Founding Partner at Towson, MD-based Lebau & Neuworth (L&N), Lebau has practiced employment law for more than 20 years. During that time, he has represented employees in executive negotiations, tort and contract claims, wage-hour matters, and discrimination and harassment cases. Lebau also regularly provides counsel to his clients on employment agreement and separation packages. After working for one of Maryland's largest defense firms representing companies and management, Lebau co-founded L&N with Richard Neuworth in 1997. Since that time, the firm has become widely recognized as one of this region's leading laws firms in representing employees. The firm's core practice areas include employee rights, , pension and retirement benefits, health insurance, executive compensation and wage-hour, , disability benefits, false claims and whistleblowing. In the past year, Lebau has concluded successfully several wage-hour class actions and a significant False Claims Act case. He also has been assisting dozens of low-wage immigrant laborers obtain wages owed to them. "It's an honor to be recognized by my peers and included in such a prominent publication, particularly when most of my lawyer peers represent only employers and we are one of the few firms whom exclusively represent employees." says Lebau. Best Lawyers annually designates "Lawyers of the Year" in high-profile legal specialties in large legal communities. Only a single lawyer in each specialty in each community is honored as the "Lawyer of the Year." Best Lawyers compiles its lists of outstanding attorneys by conducting peer-review surveys in which thousands of lawyers confidentially evaluate their professional peers for their abilities, professionalism, and integrity. The current, 18th edition of The Best Lawyers in America is based on more than 3.9 million detailed evaluations of lawyers by other lawyers. Steven Naifeh, President of Best Lawyers, says, "We continue to believe – as we have believed for more than 25 years – that recognition by one's peers is the most meaningful form of praise in the legal profession. Lebau is a graduate of George Washington University and Georgetown Law School. He previously worked for two U.S. Senators and has testified before the Commissioners of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on alternative dispute resolution. A frequent speaker on employment and labor law issues, Lebau is also the author of numerous articles on employment law. For more information contact: Contact: Ray Weiss 443-451-7144 or rw****@***************es.com
