Patrick Cowlin

Chicago Employment Litigation Attorney
Chicago Wage and Hour Attorney

Patrick Cowlin

Chicago Employment Litigation Attorney
Chicago Wage and Hour Attorney

Patrick dedicates his practice to all working people, whether individually or in class or collective actions. He ensures workers are paid what they are owed and that works to free workplaces of discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and fraud.

Patrick dedicates his practice to all working people, whether individually or in class or collective actions. He ensures workers are paid what they are owed and that works to free workplaces of discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and fraud.

Attorney Patrick Cowlin

Overview

Attorney Patrick Cowlin has spent his entire career representing employees and whistleblowers when their jobs are at risk, when they are owed wages, or when they have been wrongfully terminated because of discrimination or retaliation. Patrick is adept at enforcing employees’ rights through negotiation, individual and class litigation, or at administrative agencies like the EEOC, Illinois Department of Human Rights, or the Department of Labor.

Experience

Attorney Patrick Cowlin has significant experience representing employees in a wide range of matters in Chicago and throughout, Illinois. He has obtained results for clients in matters including:

      • Minimum wage and overtime violations
      • Race, age, sex, and other prohibited discrimination
      • Conviction record and arrest record discrimination
      • Disparate Impact and Pattern or Practice discrimination cases
      • Retaliation, harassment, and hostile work environment matters
      • FMLA violations
      • National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) violations
      • Breach of contract and Illinois Wage Payment Collection Act violations
      • Biometric and genetic privacy violations
      • False Claims Act and other whistleblower statutes

Attorney Cowlin is a recognized litigator in cases involving induvial employees and class and collective actions in state courts, federal courts, and administrative agencies. He also has experience handling labor arbitrations and unfair labor practice matters. He is passionate about protecting workers’ rights inside and outside of his job.

Before he became an attorney, Patrick graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the DePaul University College of Law. Attorney Cowlin also worked with the DePaul College of Law’s International Human Rights Law Institute and the Chicago Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations to protect civil rights locally and abroad. Prior to joining forces with Hawks Quindel, Patrick practiced labor, employment, and whistleblower law in boutique Chicago law firms. He got his start under the mentorship of Robin Potter at Robin Potter & Associates, P.C. and has worked together with his Hawks Quindel colleague Maria de las Nieves Bolaños for over a decade.

Memberships & Associations

Attorney Cowlin is an active member of the National Employment Lawyers’ Association (NELA and NELA-IL) and works to improve working conditions for employees through NELA-IL’s Legislative Action Committee. He is also a member of the Illinois State Bar Association and the National Lawyers Guild. He has presented about pressing legal issues in front of non-profit organizations, unions, and NELA.

Attorney Patrick Cowlin

Education

Law School

J.D.
DePaul University College of Law, cum laude

Undergraduate

B.B.A.
Finance, Investment and Banking, University of Wisconsin-Madison, with distinction

Admissions

Illinois

Northern District of Illinois

Central District of Illinois

Signature Cases

Chicago Teachers Union et al. v. Board of Education of the City of Chicago (ND. Ill. 12-cv-10311, 15-cv-8149) – $9.25 million settlement of disparate impact and pattern or practice of race discrimination case on behalf of African-American teachers and paraprofessionals.

$4.3 million settlement for unpaid overtime on behalf of logistics account manager employees working at C.H. Robinson.