Kitzer Rochel, PLLP Attorney Frances E. Baillon represents employees in employment litigation involving sexual harassment, discrimination, and retaliation in state and federal courts, including the Minnesota Court of Appeals, the Minnesota Supreme Court, and the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.

She is a certified employment law specialist and serves on the Minnesota Supreme Court Advisory Committee on the Rules of Civil Appellate Procedure and on the National Employment Lawyers Association’s Eighth Circuit Conference Board. She formerly served on the governing council of the Minnesota State Bar Association’s Labor & Employment Law Section.

Among her notable cases, Baillon argued Bahr v. Capella University before the Minnesota Supreme Court, establishing that an employee need not prove the underlying merits of a discrimination claim to prevail on a retaliation claim under the Minnesota Human Rights Act. She also secured precedent in Frieler v. Carlson Marketing Group, in which the Minnesota Supreme Court held that employers are subject to vicarious liability for hostile work environments created by supervisors.

Greene Espel PLLP Attorney Jeanette Bazis brings more than three decades of courtroom experience to a practice spanning employment litigation, trade secret and restrictive covenant disputes, intellectual property, products liability, insurance coverage, and commercial litigation at the trial and appellate level.

She began her career as a law clerk to U.S. District Judge James M. Rosenbaum in Minnesota. She has been at Greene Espel for the bulk of her career. In March 2026, she launched a mediation practice as a Minnesota Rule 114 qualified neutral.

Bazis has twice received Minnesota Lawyer’s attorney of the year designation and has served as president of the Infinity Project, an organization focused on increasing gender diversity on the state and federal bench in the Eighth Circuit. She has been a leader in the Federal Bar Association for decades, including serving on the Federal Practice Committee and the Minnesota Supreme Court Civil Justice Reform Task Force. Early in her career, she used her IP and business litigation skills to return the 1960s hit “Louie Louie” to its rightful owners.

MSB Employment Justice Managing Partner Amy Boyle represents employees in workplace misconduct matters with a focus on sexual harassment, sexual assault, sex discrimination, and whistleblower claims, as well as advising senior executives navigating employment transitions.

Boyle earned her law degree from the University of St. Thomas School of Law. She has built a practice known for securing substantial pre-litigation resolutions as well as courtroom victories against major corporations in Minnesota and nationally.

Active in bar leadership, Boyle has served on the board of the Federal Bar Association’s Minnesota chapter, where she co-chairs the diversity and inclusion committee, and has held past leadership roles including chair of the FBA’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Section and chair of its Younger Lawyers Division. She also serves on the board of Minnesota Women Lawyers as equity committee co-chair. She is a frequent presenter at the Minnesota CLE Upper Midwest Employment Law Institute and has spoken on topics ranging from workplace discrimination litigation and whistleblower law to Minnesota’s Paid Family and Medical Leave Act.

Cynthia A. Bremer, shareholder at Ogletree Deakins, focuses her practice on employment litigation defense in federal and state courts throughout the Midwest, including class and collective actions, restrictive covenant disputes, and workplace investigations.

She began her legal career as an assistant attorney general in Missouri’s complex litigation group, handling jury and bench trials and playing a key role in one of the largest civil RICO cases ever brought in Missouri. She later served as a special assistant attorney general in both Missouri and North Dakota before entering private practice in Minnesota in 1999.

At Ogletree Deakins, Bremer serves as co-chair of the firm’s health care industry group and as a member of the steering committee of its workplace investigations and organizational assessments practice group.

Her representative results include a complete defense verdict in a religious discrimination jury trial in Missouri federal court, decertification of an ADEA representative action, and summary judgment in a patent infringement suit.

Ellen A. Brinkman, partner and co-managing partner of the Minneapolis office of Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani, LLP, has built a reputation over more than 20 years as one of Minnesota’s leading first-chair trial attorneys in employment law, representing clients from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies in state and federal courts.

She has litigated hundreds of employment cases spanning discrimination, harassment, retaliation, restrictive covenants, shareholder disputes and commercial litigation. Notable results include a defense verdict in a two-week age discrimination and retaliation jury trial against a Fortune 100 bank, where the jury awarded $0 against a $12 million plaintiff demand, and a defense verdict in a disability discrimination bench trial where a three-judge panel awarded $1 against a $10 million demand.

Brinkman has been elected to the Federation of Defense & Corporate Counsel and the International Association of Defense Counsel. She also counsels clients on day-to-day workplace matters and serves as an independent investigator in whistleblower and harassment matters.