Melissa Muro LaMere
Partner
Overview
Melissa Muro LaMere is an employment and business litigation attorney licensed to practice in California, Minnesota, and Arizona. She has extensive experience helping clients protect and grow their business in a competitive marketplace.
Working out of both California and Maslon's primary office in Minneapolis, Melissa focuses her practice on the full spectrum of employment counseling and litigation matters in addition to business disputes involving non-competition and non-solicitation agreements, trade secrets, business contracts and torts, and unfair competition and trade practices. Melissa also maintains a robust employment investigations practice. Her clients include multinational corporations, small businesses, and individuals, and she often serves as a trusted advisor in a wide variety of litigation matters in state and federal trial and appellate courts, arbitration, and mediation.
Melissa previously served on the board of the Minnesota Infinity Project, an organization focused on gender disparity on the bench throughout the Eighth Circuit, and on the board of the Minnesota Hispanic Bar Association, for which she also served as the co-chair of the Judicial Endorsements Committee. In 2019, Melissa was appointed by Minnesota Governor Walz and Minnesota Lieutenant Governor Flanagan to the Commission on Judicial Selection.
Before becoming an attorney, Melissa held various positions in the office of U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar.
Experience
- Represented national construction materials distributor in restrictive covenant dispute with former employee in California.
- Represented health insurance company and its executive in noncompete dispute with former employer.
- Represented healthcare client in dispute with former employee alleging disability discrimination, retaliation, and failure to accommodate claims.
- Extensive experience defending business clients before EEOC and state agency in response to allegations of discrimination from current and former employees.
- Represented American medical device company in its defense of allegations of trade secrets misappropriation, tortious interference with a contract, civil conspiracy, and copyright infringement.
- Represented American medical device company in the Eight Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing for affirmation of a District Court ruling involving whether an executed offer letter, employee agreement, and repayment agreement comprised a single contract, such that the forum clause in employee agreement governed disputes arising out of or related to any of the three documents.
- Represented individual in the State of Minnesota Court of Appeals regarding a trial court’s decision to suppress evidence against a criminal defendant based on law enforcement officers’ failure to provide him with a Miranda warning during custodial interrogation.
- Represented computer consulting company in its pursuit of a temporary restraining order barring a former employee from further breaching restrictive covenants by soliciting client’s customers and employees on behalf of new employer.
- Represented computer consulting company in its defense of a non-compete dispute related to forum selection clause in employment agreement.
- Represented 17 amici curiae in case involving application of the Single Subject and Title Clause of Minnesota Constitution.
- Represented a significant American manufacturer of paint and coatings in its pursuit to remand a non-compete dispute to state court, in a case involving forum selection clause in defendant’s employment agreement, and whether it constituted a “clear and unequivocal” waiver of his right to remove to federal court.
- Represented multi-strategy platform hedge fund in its defense of a trade secret/non-compete dispute involving stock trading.
- Utilized extensive subject-matter knowledge to assist firm client teams with several disputes related to noncompete agreements on behalf of a major medical device manufacturer client.
- Represented and conducted extensive discovery for a client in a matter involving former employees misappropriating confidential information for the benefit of their new employer.
Honors
Selected for inclusion in Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch, 2021-2025 (These awards recognize attorneys, who are earlier in their careers, for outstanding professional excellence in private practice in the United States.)
Leaders of Influence: Labor & Employment Attorneys, Los Angeles Business Journal (2024)
Labor & Employment Star, Benchmark Litigation (2023)
Notable Leader in DEI, Twin Cities Business (2022)
POWER 30: Employment Law, Minnesota Lawyer (2021-2022)
Recognized on Minnesota Rising Stars list as part of the Super Lawyers® selection process, 2019-2022 (Minnesota Rising Stars is a designation given to only 2.5% of Minnesota attorneys each year, based on a selection process that includes the recommendation of peers in the legal profession.)
Fellow, Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (2021)
Top Lawyer Under 40, Hispanic National Bar Association (2019)
Diversity and Inclusion Award, Minnesota Lawyer (2019)