George A. Hanson
George Hanson prosecutes high-stakes cases against some of the nation’s largest corporations and consistently delivers excellent results for his clients. He has vast experience and a proven track record representing plaintiffs in traditional business litigation, including breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, intellectual property, tortious interference and more.
George has significant experience negotiating and litigating on behalf of senior executives when they are terminated, depart their current positions, or act as whistleblowers revealing unlawful conduct. He protects executive compensation, bonuses and. incentives, future earned commissions, and the ability to start new employment. And he navigates disputes involving contracts, unfair competition, trade secrets, noncompete and non-solicitation agreements, severance agreements, retaliation and more.
George also has earned a national reputation for prosecuting wage and hour cases on behalf of disenfranchised workers, protecting their right to “a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.” After a landmark trial where he delivered a victory for a class of meat-packing workers, a distinguished federal judge described George’s wage and hour experience as having “unmatched depth.”
George has been named lead or co-lead attorney in more than 100 wage and hour actions filed in state and federal courts across the country and been appointed lead counsel in three Multidistrict Litigations (MDLs). He has appeared in 34 states, litigating matters involving overtime, minimum wage, work without pay, unreimbursed business expenses, donning and doffing, and independent contractor misclassification. George is passionate about leveling the playing field for workers and closing the gender wage gap. As a result of George’s work, employees have recovered more than $300 million in settlements and judgments in wage and hour cases.
George has served clients in a number of industries, including financial services, hospitality and food service, cable and satellite television, pizza delivery, pharmaceutical companies and retail. George recently led a nationwide Fair Labor Standards Act litigation against DIRECTV over claims of minimum wage, overtime and independent misclassification violations. The litigation ultimately involved more than 3,000 plaintiffs in three collective actions and many hundreds of individual cases; it resulted in a series of favorable settlements for the workers involved.
George has been named among the Kansas City Business Journal’s “Best of the Bar,” is a Missouri/Kansas Super Lawyer and is listed in Best Lawyers in America in three categories: commercial litigation, employment law, and mass torts/class actions. He has been honored by the National Law Journal as a Plaintiffs’ Lawyer “Trailblazer,” named a Best Lawyers in America “Lawyer of the Year” for mass tort/class action litigation and both a “Local Litigation Star” and a “Labor and Employment Star” by Benchmark Plaintiffs.
George frequently presents on wage-and-hour law at seminars and continuing legal education programs across the country. George also has been a guest lecturer at the University of Missouri – Kansas City School of Law, the University of Kansas School of Law, and the Washington University School of Law. He is an author of multiple publications in wage-and-hour law and has served as a Senior Editor for the American Bar Association’s “Fair Labor Standards Act,” the leading treatise in the field.
George spends his free time at his “home on the range” in rural Greenwood County, Kansas, where he runs cattle and grows corn, soybeans, milo, sunflowers and wheat, and helps his son wrangle their two pet snakes.
- Best Lawyers in America - Commercial Litigation, Employment Law-Individuals, Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions-Plaintiffs (2014, 2015)
- Best of the Bar - Kansas City Business Journal
- Missouri & Kansas Super Lawyer, 2006-2013
- Local Litigation Star (Missouri) - Benchmark Plaintiffs (2011-2015)
- AV Rated - Martindale Hubbell
Kansas City, Missouri 64112
