Magdalen Blessey Bickford
Magdalen Blessey Bickford is Member in McGlinchey Stafford's New Orleans office. Ms. Bickford is engaged in representing management and employers in labor and employment litigation. Ms. Bickford also provides consultation to employers regarding best practices in the workplace, policy and procedure implementation, management training and education, and general counsel.
After receiving her law degree from Loyola University in 1986, Ms. Bickford practiced at a leading union labor and employment law firm, where she practiced in labor and employment, workers’ compensation, toxic tort, asbestos and general civil litigation. In 1996, Ms. Bickford joined The SunShine Pages, a regional independent telephone directory company with headquarters in Louisiana, as Vice President of Human Resources and Corporate Counsel. In that capacity, Ms. Bickford represented management and created the Human Resources Department for The SunShine Pages and grew the company from forty to approximately three hundred employees with operations in six states. In addition to managing all aspects of human resources and employment law, Ms. Bickford handled litigation risk management, governmental compliance and lobbying, internal investigations, contractual negotiations and obligations, regulatory and telecommunication issues before the Federal Communications Commission as well as the Public Service Commissions of Louisiana, Florida and Texas. She was also responsible for general litigation in her role as Corporate Counsel.
Prior to joining McGlinchey Stafford, Ms. Bickford practiced with Jackson Lewis and with Milling Benson Woodward, specializing in employment litigation and chairing that firm's corporate section.
Ms. Bickford is a member of the Louisiana Bar Association, the Society of Human Resources Management, the Human Resources Management Association of New Orleans, the Women’s Professional Council and the Junior League of New Orleans. She is a member of the 2008 New Orleans Regional Leadership Institute and one of the 2009 New Orleans CitiBusiness Women of the Year. Ms. Bickford has litigated, lectured and counseled extensively in all areas of employment law, including but not limited to, employment policies and procedures for employee handbooks, hiring, counseling and separation of employees, employee discipline, reduction in force, leave, employee growth and development, employee benefits, workers’ compensation, non-compete agreements, privacy issues, compensation plans and strategies, restructuring and downsizing, discrimination, arbitration, EEO, FLSA, FMLA, ADA and general federal and state legal compliance as well as general policies and procedures in the workplace.
- 2009 CitiBusiness Women of the Year
- 2008 New Orleans Regional Leadership Institute graduate