Melissa Calhoon Jones

Tydings & Rosenberg LLP, Baltimore, USA

Ms. Jones is an associate in the firm's Business Department.  Her practice focuses on all aspects of labor and employment law, from counseling to litigation.  She assists employers to reach decisions on all aspects of the employment relationship, including issues involving discrimination, sexual harassment, accommodation of disabilities, family and medical leave, wage payment, labor relations, union avoidance, plant closing issues, performance management, termination of employment, and restrictive covenants.  

She has conducted internal investigations and counseled employers on their employment practices.  She has prepared documents for all aspects of the employment relationship, including offer letters and employment contracts, employment handbooks and policies, non-competition agreements, and severance agreements.  

Ms. Jones' practice has included: 

• counseling small, medium and large businesses and national companies on employment practices and decisions regarding employees  
• counseling business clients on a variety of employment law issues, including wage classifications, drug testing, employee handbooks, non-competition agreements, and employee terminations  
• representing clients before the Department of Labor, the Public Employee Relations Board, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, the California Department of Industrial Relations, and the National Labor Relations Board  
• counseling business clients on union avoidance and labor-management relations  
• negotiating collective bargaining agreements, conducting impact and effects bargaining for management

Before joining Tydings & Rosenberg, Ms. Jones was a labor relations specialist for the District of Columbia Office of Labor Relations and Collective Bargaining.  Prior to that, she was in private practice with The Berkley Law Group, P.C., in San Francisco, California.

She has represented clients before both federal and state administrative agencies and in federal and state courts on employment matters involving Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the ADA, FMLA, and common law. She also has represented clients in arbitrations and is well versed in a variety of alternative dispute resolution techniques. In addition, she has presented employee training programs, and lectured and written extensively, on a wide variety of employment law topics.

Bar Admissions
California, 1996
Maryland, 2004
District of Columbia, 2004

Education
The Dickinson School of Law, 1996, J.D.

Whitman College, 1986, B.A.

Published Works

• What Employers Need to Know About The Veterans Benefits Improvement Act of 2004, Business Maryland, Summer 2005
• DOL's Clarification Of An Exempt Employee''s Leave Under FLSA, Business Maryland, Summer 2005