Overview

When Attorney Summer Murshid moved from Las Vegas to Sheboygan, she never imagined Wisconsin would become the place she’d call home. But after finishing law school at Georgetown, she returned to Wisconsin, and set out to grow her employment practice by representing employees who are victims of discrimination and wage theft.

Throughout the last decade, her practice has focused largely on federal class action wage litigation, and working to make sure Wisconsin workers are paid fairly and legally. Through her work, her clients have recovered millions of dollars in lost wages.

The rest of her law practice is dedicated to serving individual clients who need assistance with a wide range of employment issues, including:

• Defending victims of age, race and disability discrimination
• Fighting for employees who are denied insurance coverage for discriminatory reasons
• Working for justice for individuals who are sexually harassed at work and discriminated against
• Negotiating severance agreements for employees transitioning to new, career-enhancing opportunities elsewhere

Even though she has finally learned to embrace all things “winter” in Wisconsin, every once in a while when the temps dip below 0°, you might find her gazing longingly toward the west coast, wishing for a warm Pacific Ocean wind and a cold cocktail. The moment is usually fleeting though, because she knows she is exactly where she is supposed to be, helping her clients achieve the outcome that will help them move forward with their own lives.

Experience

One of the best parts of this job is a good challenge – indeed, it’s the unique challenges presented by individual and class action cases that make her job even more fun than her skydiving escapades. Her work with the wage and hour practice group focuses on large class representation, and includes litigation on behalf of groups of engineers, nurses, wait-staff, factory workers, van drivers, delivery drivers, hospital staff, busboys, paralegals, digital service technicians, roofers, customer service representatives, and cooks. Each member of these groups was a victim of wage theft and improper pay practices. Through her representation, defendants have paid her clients millions of dollars in back pay and damages.

During her career, Attorney Murshid has also represented individual clients, including claimants in sexual assault, sexual orientation, pregnancy, age, race, and disability discrimination cases. Through her work as a union attorney, she has represented teachers, bus drivers, and high school sports coaches in arbitration hearings. She also provides advice and counsel to clients looking to improve their negotiating positions in severance and separation discussions, and regularly represents clients in those negotiations.

Attorney Murshid belongs to the Association of Women Lawyers, the Milwaukee Bar Association, the State Bar of Wisconsin, and the American Bar Association. She was recently appointed to a three-year term as a Board member for the National Employment Lawyers’ Association. She is a member of the Wisconsin Election Protection Legal Coordinating Committee, and she also works with the Volunteer Lawyers Project, Wills For Heroes, and serves on the Board of the Milwaukee Diaper Mission.

In an ongoing quest for work-life balance, however, she still finds time to spend with her husband, three kids, and their two crazy bulldogs.