JoAnne Ray joined Adams and Reese in 2001 and is a Partner in the Special Business Services Practice Group in the firm's Houston office.
JoAnne has been practicing law since 1979 as an employment lawyer and civil litigator, handling a wide range of employment matters, including ERISA litigation, class action wage and hour cases, non-compete and trade secret litigation, breach of fiduciary duty cases, and discrimination cases of all kinds. She is board certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization in both Labor and Employment Law as well as in Civil Trial Law.
JoAnne has extensive experience with employee benefit issues, executive compensation, and ERISA, including advice to plan sponsors and other plan fiduciaries concerning internal appeals. She is regularly involved in designing, drafting, amending, and day-to-day administration of health and welfare plans, nonqualified deferred compensation plans, executive compensation plans, and stock option plans.
A significant part of her practice involves internal corporate investigations of alleged employee fraud or other alleged employee wrongdoing. She is knowledgeable about fidelity bond claims and often advises clients concerning various types of insurance coverage for employment-related claims.
Her other representative experience includes:
- Designs severance plans and advises clients concerning adverse impact analysis and risk avoidance in situations involving large-scale layoffs.
- Prepares customized severance plans for officers and other high-level executives and is knowledgeable about the special handling that these situations sometimes require.
JoAnne is admitted to practice in the U.S. District Courts in the Southern District of Texas, Western District of Texas, Northern District of Texas, Eastern District of Texas, and the U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit. She is also the author of numerous legal articles, including two articles published in The Texas Bar Journal.
JoAnne graduated summa cum laude from South Texas College of Law, where she served as Assistant Editor-in-Chief of the South Texas Law Journal, received the Corpus Juris Secundum Award for Significant Legal Scholarship, and graduated first in her class. She also holds a B.A. in Journalism from Louisiana State University and an M.A. in English from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
Publications
- New COBRA Subsidy May “Stimulate” Medical Plan Costs for Employers, Adams and Reese Client Alert, March 2009
- A Message from the Storms: Employers Need Disaster-Related Absence Policies, Corporate Counsel Review (South Texas College of Law), November 2005