Attorney Profiles
Matthew C. Billips
Mr. Billips was born in Abingdon, Virginia on September 29, 1963. He inherited a strong affinity for public education and employee rights from his parents, both of whom were educators. His paternal grandfather was a union steward in the West Virginia coalmines.
Mr. Billips started his career with the Office for Civil Rights of the United States Department of Education. He subsequently served as General Counsel for the Georgia Association of Educators and, since 1994, has been in private practice.
Mr. Billips has represented hundreds of individuals in employment discrimination, civil rights, education, and personal injury cases. He has been counsel for the plaintiffs in numerous class action and collective action discrimination, overtime, and education cases, winning cases and numerous out-of-court settlements, including many cases brought by police officers or educators.
Mr. Billips has been called upon by other attorneys to join their cases to serve as trial counsel and is a frequent lecturer at continuing legal education courses on employment law issues. He has been selected by his peers as a "Super Lawyer" in the field of employment law for several years in a row.
Mr. Billips graduated from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 1988 after earning his undergraduate degree in Philosophy. He was admitted to practice in Georgia in 1989 and Tennessee in 1988. He has served on the Board of Directors for the Georgia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and is a member of the National Employment Lawyers Association and the American Association for Justice.
Mitchell D. Benjamin
Mr. Benjamin was born and raised in New York City. He focuses primarily on the practice areas of commercial litigation and wage and hour law. He has represented over a thousand employees in a variety of employment related disputes, including unpaid overtime and minimum wages, sexual harassment, discrimination claims based on race, age, gender, national origin, or disability, and retaliation cases in both the state and federal courts.
He is dedicated to the unique interests of each individual, business, and union that comes to him for help. In addition to litigating employee claims, he uses his mediation skills to resolve claims by settlement and agreement when possible. Although many employment matters do not need to be litigated, Mr. Benjamin will aggressively litigate cases in court when needed.
Mr. Benjamin frequently represents public safety officers, such as police, firefighters, emergency medical technicians and paramedics in overtime cases brought under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), as well as handling their grievances, appeals, and civil service hearings. He also represents the firefighter unions in the Georgia counties of Gwinnett, Dekalb, Cobb, and Coweta.
In 2008, Mr. Benjamin represented over 600 City of Atlanta police officers in an overtime lawsuit resulting in a settlement of $7,500,000. He has also been hired by proactive businesses and public entities to review their overtime and wage policies to ensure they were in compliance with the law, and to recommend changes to these policies when needed.
Mr. Benjamin is a 1993 cum laude graduate of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York City. He obtained his undergraduate degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1989, where he was a member of the National Political Science Honor Society. He was admitted to practice in New York in 1994 and in Georgia in 1996. Mr. Benjamin was elected to the Board of Directors for the National Employment Lawyers Association, Georgia chapter (NELA-GA) in 2004 and was elected as Treasurer for NELA-GA in both 2005 and 2006.
He has appeared as a guest on The Layman's Lawyer on PBS.
John R. Ulmer
Mr. Ulmer has 27 years experience as General Counsel for two major corporations—one a manufacturer of products sold worldwide and an international marketing company for insurance and securities. As corporate counsel, John worked with and advised corporate CEOs, presidents, and other executives pertaining to legal, regulatory, and compliance issues.
He has handled employment law issues and counseled human resources departments; conducted investigations; resolved employee complaints; directed litigation of all unresolved matters, including disciplinary actions, terminations, claims of discrimination, and sexual harassment; and responded to Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC) charges.
Mr. Ulmer graduated from the University of Georgia School of Business with honors, and from the University of Georgia Law School. Prior to law school, he served in US Army Military Intelligence.
Mr. Ulmer is active in the community and contributes his time to numerous charitable organizations.
