When difficult issues arise, I’m very good at staying calm, helping clients feel better about whatever they’re dealing with, and crafting a well-thought-out response. I candidly talk them through all their options, and, once we’ve chosen a palatable plan of action, we execute it as a team.
With a Texas-based practice focused on management-side employment law, Christie Newkirk advises employers and finds practical solutions to the variety of human resources matters they face. Clients regard Christie as a true advisor and rely on her in navigating COVID-19 laws and workplace issues, planning and implementing reductions in force, managing employee and executive performance issues, making high-risk employment decisions, and drafting confidentiality, noncompetition, and executive employment agreements.
Always bringing honesty and excellent people skills to her work, Christie deeply values the long-term client relationships she’s built over two decades. When workplace problems surface, she fully understands the spectrum of considerations at stake. These include business goals and legal risks, but also real-world concerns such as an organization’s unique work environment. She assists companies in evaluating each of these factors and weighing them against one another. Adept at finding creative paths, Christie ensures all solutions are tailored to her clients’ unique needs.
Christie provides comprehensive workplace conduct training to help employers prevent discrimination, harassment, and other problematic behaviors. She also offers performance management training that guides clients in disciplining and firing employees and effectively documenting these processes. Christie’s keen insight enables her to identify not only clients’ obvious, stated problems, but also the troubles that often simmer underneath them.
Companies call upon Christie to conduct confidential, and often privileged, investigations of alleged executive misconduct and report her findings to their boards of directors or outside counsel. In this role, she serves as an objective factfinder, providing all relevant information through a prompt and efficient inquiry, which allows the client to better evaluate the appropriate response to a complaint better. In addition, she handles executive non-compete agreements, representing C-suite leaders in negotiating their entrances into or exits from a company.
An experienced litigator, Christie is willing to fight vigorously for those she represents. Although she first searches for other opportunities to resolve issues, she’s a zealous advocate when the courtroom provides the best path forward. No matter the circumstances, Christie exhibits the highest level of professionalism and congeniality.
Christie frequently speaks on employment law topics, including giving the annual update for the Dallas Bar Association’s Employment Law Section.
