Mark Floyd focuses his legal practice on providing advice and counsel to companies on the full range of labor and employment law matters.

Prior to joining FordHarrison, Mark was Executive Vice President, Crisis & Reputational Risk, for a global communications firm, advising clients on evolving workplace trends as well as the brand and public relations risks associated with issues related to labor relations and litigation. He previously led global in-house corporate labor and employment legal teams for public and privately held national and multinational companies, from rapid-growth high-profile disruptive start-ups to well-established Fortune 100 businesses. 

Mark also brings years of private practice labor and employment experience to FordHarrison as well. In addition to his legal work, and one reason his professional experience is unique, he also has led human resource departments where his focus has been developing and implementing global employee policies, practices, procedures, as well as an overall employee relations philosophy tied to, and reflective of, a mission-driven and value inspired culture. Mark's broad range of experience makes him perfectly suited for providing counsel in the full scope of labor and employment-related matters to all levels of management, executive management, and Board of Directors.

Mark's experience is truly global in scope with “on the ground, front-line” work in 48 states and the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and in over 30 countries, as well as remotely supporting and advising employers, managers, and supervisors in countless other countries, in all major global regions and sub-regions (Europe, MEA, APACx, India, China, LatAm, and North America). His experience has given Mark exposure to various “worker” models from the independent contractor, joint employer/joint venture arrangements, “gig” or “dependent worker” relationship, to the traditional employee/employer relationship. Mark has worked with an equally wide range of global labor models as well from work councils, labor associations, labor front groups such as work centers and industry affiliations, to traditional labor unions.

Mark's experience includes shaping and executing a client's overall global labor strategic philosophy and employee relations initiatives. Likewise, Mark has been responsible for designing and implementing a company's reactive tactical efforts including the full range of management training, NLRB litigation, traditional certification, decertification, and deauthorization elections as well as non-traditional corporate campaigns, labor contract negotiations, arbitration, and strikes/protests.

In the employment law area, Mark has a strong compliance, proactive, preventative view toward employee-employer related matters, a view that is client ordinated and litigation/corporate risk sensitive. Mark has advised and represented management in a full range of employment-related matters including race, sex, age, religion, natural origin, and disability discrimination, wage and hour matters, employer counseling, development and implementation of global employment policies, preventative audits, and in-house management training. This experience includes employment-related litigation at the agency, state, and federal trial and appellate court levels.
 

Mark has a strong background in labor/worker policy development as well. This work has included drafting legislation and proposed regulatory rules, “white paper” research and drafting, opposition research, advice and counsel of policy teams and C-suite leads, counsel of national industry associations, providing committee expert testimony on pending labor legislation, and working with leaders in preparing them to appear before legislative committees or public officials.

Mark has broader experience around crisis management as well as brand reputation associated with labor/employee issues. A working journalist prior to attending law school, Mark has led client’s efforts around internal and external communications as well as advising and leading public facing strategies with customers, community, and public officials.

  • Led global company's response to worker protest, labor union unrest, and proposed restrictive retaliatory regulations inn Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa.
  • Led global company's successful effort to engage and then rally workers and the community served, to support needed regulatory reforms in Cairo, Egypt.
  • Led a cross functional team in Seattle on a four prong focused response (policy, litigation, community, driver) to a Teamsters backed corporate campaign for global company.
  • Coordinated cross functional response for global company in India to ongoing countrywide labor protest as well as designing and implementing a proactive crisis management strategy allowing the client to get ahead of and stop future protests.
Education
  • University of Tennessee College of Law
    J.D., 1983
  • Middle Tennessee State University
    B.S., 1980
Memberships
  • Miriam’s Promise Board of Directors (2015 – 2016) (Executive Board 2016)
  • Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM)
  • United States Chamber of Commerce (Labor and Employment subcommittees and workgroups)
Bar Admissions
  • California
  • Tennessee
Court Admissions
  • U.S. Supreme Court
  • U.S. Supreme Court
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
  • U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee
  • U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee