Biography
Chris Slaughter is the CEO of Steptoe & Johnson. He was elected to the position in 2020.
For over 25 years, Chris represented large and small employers in labor and employment law matters. He negotiated labor contracts with many different unions in industries including construction, energy, health care, hospitality, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and municipal government. Chris tried cases in state and federal courts, before administrative agencies, and before arbitrators. He advised employers concerning labor and employment law liabilities in mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures. He conducted sensitive investigations, and he assisted with corporate downsizing, facility closures, and reductions in force. He also represented clients on-site in the aftermath of serious workplace accidents and fatalities, and helped them navigate labor union organizing campaigns, strikes, and violent picketing.
As CEO of Steptoe & Johnson, Chris has driven the Firm’s strategic growth, opening five new offices in Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Texas since 2020. In that time, the Firm has significantly outpaced the Am Law 100-200 cohort of U.S. law firms in both revenue growth and lawyer headcount growth, all while increasing the Firm’s net income. This growth has broadened and deepened the Firm’s capabilities in many areas critical to the success of the Firm’s clients.
Chris often says, “culture is job one for me.” He is devoted to ensuring the Firm maintains its core values in both legacy and new offices. “We have been blessed with a cultural inheritance that is at once focused on excellence in all we do, and on treating one another well. We will strengthen our culture as we grow, not dilute it.”
Chris is named among The Best Lawyers in America® and Chambers USA America’s Leading Lawyers for Business. He is a fellow of both the West Virginia Bar Foundation and the American College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. He has served on and chaired the boards of several economic development, charitable, and community arts organizations, and held leadership roles in his church.
Chris and his wife, Nicole, a Swiss citizen who was born and raised in Africa, have four adult children and live in Culloden, West Virginia. They love to go on road trips together, searching the highways and byways of America for interesting sites and good food, and meeting new people.
Representative Experience
- Successfully prosecuted civil fraud action against a former corporate officer, obtaining a judgment and an award of attorneys’ fees and costs on behalf of a corporate client
- Negotiated labor agreements with a number of different unions
- Helped employers control strike-related mass picketing, violence, and property damage through agency and court litigation
- Defended employers in unfair labor practice charge litigation before the NLRB
- Helped employers defeat union organizing campaigns
- Represented employers in civil litigation arising from workplace accidents
- Advised employers in OSHA and MSHA citation contest cases and workplace accident investigations, including accidents causing serious injury and death
- Negotiated executive employment contracts with key employees
- Defended employers in discrimination, retaliation, and workplace injury litigation before state and federal courts and administrative agencies
- Assisted a large manufacturer through a reduction in force that impacted union and non-union employees, overseeing every aspect of the reduction from WARN Act notification to salaried employee evaluations to training managers to deliver the news to impacted employees
- Resolved a whistleblower case for a public entity after the key witness and decision maker was impeached and removed from his office by a public tribunal
- Advised employers engaged in strike contingency planning
- Negotiated the severance of the CEO of a large manufacturer
- Defended class actions presenting claims for benefits under employee benefit plans and claims for unpaid wages
- Defended a coal company from a seven-figure contract claim over liability for Coal Act obligations
Education
- J.D. University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law
- B.B.A. Marshall University
Memberships
- Member, U. S. Chamber of Commerce Labor Policy Committee
- Member, American Foundation for the Blind Advisory Council
- Member (Former Director and Chair, Associate Committee), Contractors’ Association of West Virginia
- Member, Commerce Lexington (Kentucky)
- Former Chair, Advantage Valley, Inc. Board of Directors
- Member (Former Chair), Board of Directors, Huntington Regional Chamber of Commerce
- Member, Kentucky Coal Association
- Member (Former Secretary/Treasurer), Board of Trustees, Huntington Museum of Art
- Kentucky and West Virginia Bar Associations
- Past President, Tri-State Society for Human Resource Management
Achievements
- Fellow, American College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, 2020
- Fellow, West Virginia Bar Foundation, 2019
- Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business – Labor & Employment (2006–Present)
- Best Lawyers® 2021 Charleston, WV, Labor Law – Management, Lawyer of the Year
- Best Lawyers® 2019 Charleston, WV, Employment Law – Management, Lawyer of the Year
- The Best Lawyers in America®, Employment Law – Management (2011-Present), Labor Law – Management (2011-Present), Litigation – Labor and Employment (2011-Present)
- Recognized in Law & Politics Magazine’s Virginia/West Virginia Super Lawyers®
Speaking Engagements
- June 2018: “Supreme Court Decision Hands Defeat to Public Sector Unions”
- May 2018: “Update on Labor Law Under the Trump Administration,” West Virginia Health Care Association Annual Meeting, Charleston, West Virginia
- March 2018: “NLRB Vacates Hy-Brand Decision”
Press Release