Kimberly N. Martin

A National Trial Lawyers Top 100 Civil Trial Lawyer in Georgia, Kimberly N. Martin co-founded the boutique law firm, Martin & Martin, in Atlanta, Georgia with the purpose of unapologetically aggressively fighting for what’s right. Kimberly graduated law school with honors from the University of Florida where she received the "Book Award" for employment law indicating the highest grade in the class solidifying her decision to pursue a career in employment law.

Prior to founding Martin & Martin, Kimberly worked at several large national and international law firms representing employers in arbitration and litigation involving all aspects of employment law including Charges of Discrimination at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC); sexual harassment, discrimination, and retaliation lawsuits filed in federal court; Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) violations; as well as overtime and wage claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) involving hundreds of employees across the country.

For five years, Kimberly not only provided litigation defense to large companies, she provided day to day legal advice and counsel to corporate vice presidents and in-house general and associate counsel on employment law and wage and hour law topics including sexual harassment investigations; FLSA job position exempt/non-exempt status audits; drafting non-compete and restrictive covenant agreements and non-disclosure agreements (NDA); drafting and negotiating severance agreements; providing legal counsel on determining reasonable accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA); performing due diligence in preparation of a corporate sale or purchase; and drafting corporate policies and procedures. Representing large employers throughout the country, Kimberly gained unique and invaluable knowledge and experience that she uses today at Martin & Martin, representing employees and a select number of small businesses in all areas of employment and wage & hour laws.

Using her unique background, at Martin & Martin, Kimberly has successfully litigated employment law cases on behalf of hundreds of employees including discrimination and retaliation cases involving disability and failure to provide reasonable accommodations under the ADA; age discrimination under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA); race, sex, and religion under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (Title VII); pregnancy under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA); unequal pay under the Equal Pay Act (EPA); protected leave taken under Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA); whistleblower and retaliation cases; and cases involving non-competes, restrictive covenants, and trade secrets.

Kimberly’s cases have received media attention including The New York Times report on one of Kimberly's age discrimination lawsuits that she filed against a major U.S. company on behalf of a class of workers who were terminated in a reduction of force (RIF). Kimberly was also lead trial counsel in obtaining the second highest jury verdict for sexual harassment and retaliation in Georgia for the year. Kimberly handles matters at the DOL, EEOC, mediation, arbitration, and litigation as well as negotiates severance and settlement agreements. Kimberly has also defended employees who have been sued by their former employers for breach of non-competes and restrictive covenants and alleged violations of federal and state trade secrets acts.

In addition to employment law matters, Kimberly focuses a significant amount of her time battling on behalf of her clients in wage and hour cases pursuant to the FLSA. She takes particular pride in recovering unpaid wages for workers who have not been paid properly. including cases involving unpaid minimum wage; unpaid overtime; unpaid wait and travel time; failure to provide uninterrupted meal and rest breaks; the misclassification of employees as exempt instead of nonexempt; the misclassification of workers as independent contractors instead of employees; the failure to pay workers for all hours worked; and the failure to pay overtime to nonexempt salaried employees and certain commissioned sales employees. Kimberly regularly handles tip pool violation cases involving servers, bussers, bartenders, and hosts/hostesses against restaurants that require employees to participate in illegal tip pools. She also represents groups of employees in class/collection actions.

Representing employees against employers who violate federal employment laws, Kimberly is an experienced litigator and trial attorney who truly believes that if it’s not right, you have to fight. On a daily basis, Kimberly is a fierce warrior for her clients who have been discriminated against, targeted for wrongful termination, or illegally denied their proper overtime pay. She has filed lawsuits against international, national, and Georgia companies including Home Depot, FedEx Ground, Chili’s Bar & Grill, Diligent Delivery Services, and Emory University.

Kimberly has been honored to represent single-income parents who are terminated for taking federally protected medical leave under the FMLA to take care of an ill or injured family member or the hourly worker who has not been paid their properly legally mandated time and a half overtime compensation for a fair day’s work under the FLSA or the worker who has been illegally classified as an independent contractor and denied proper wages and overtime pay for all hours worked or the worker with a disability simply requesting a reasonable accommodation for their disability to permit them to continue to perform their job as permitted under the ADA. She has proudly represented whistleblower employees targeted for termination after reporting sexual harassment, discrimination, or other violations of federal law.

Kimberly, like her partner, Tom, unapologetically aggressively fights for her clients to obtain the absolute best recovery. Kimberly prides herself on not running a "litigation mill" handling hundreds of cases hoping to win a few. Instead, Kimberly handles a few cases with the hopes of winning them all. This strategy allows her to give each of her cases highly specialized and individual attention as she fights in the best interests of her clients.

Additionally, Kimberly represents a select number of small business clients using her prior experience and background as an attorney at large law firms representing huge regional and national companies. She proudly provides the same quality of legal services to her small business clients that they would find at a large law firm without “churning the file” to create enormous legal bills. She routinely advises her small business clients on a myriad of legal matters including discrimination, retaliation, FLSA overtime classifications, ADA reasonable accommodation determinations, sexual harassment investigations, termination decisions, non-compete and restrictive covenants, severance agreements, and routine employment law matters. Kimberly also represents her small business clients at the EEOC and DOL levels, and at mediation, arbitration, and litigation.

With over 20 years of experience representing businesses, Kimberly is a seasoned litigator who knows that arbitration and litigation can be enormously costly to a small business – even when the small business is the successful party. Therefore, Kimberly and her partner offer their small business clients very reasonable hourly rates and monthly retainer agreements that provide their clients with access to them any time a legal issue arises or just when a small business client simply wants to “talk through” a termination or employment decision. Kimberly also proactively contacts their small business clients to keep them updated on relevant statutes, emerging law, and newly released court opinions that could impact their business practices. Kimberly is keenly aware that her small business clients have made significant sacrifices in order to create, develop, and run their businesses and she is honored to help protect those sacrifices.