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Todd W. Cline, P. A.
Attorney & Counselor at Law 101 N McDowell Street, Suite 220,Charlotte, NC 28204 (704) 334-7779 |
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Profile Todd Cline was born and raised in Greenville, South Carolina. After graduating from Wofford College, magna cum laude, Todd entered The University of South Carolina School of Law, where he graduated with honors in 1989. After graduation, he took and passed the South Carolina Bar Examination and began practicing with the firm of Constangy, Brooks and Smith (“CBS”) in Atlanta and Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In 1990, he took and passed the Georgia Bar Examination. While practicing with CBS, Todd represented management in employment related matters, ranging from appellate arguments before the Mississippi Supreme Court and Georgia Court of Appeals; litigation in North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, Texas and Arkansas; and administrative hearings before the National Labor Relations Board and numerous Federal and State Occupational Health and Safety Commissions. Additionally, Todd advised numerous large and small employers in the areas of policy development, employee performance review and improvement, arbitrations, complaint/accident investigation and employee discipline and discharge. During this same period, Todd began speaking publicly about employment and human resource issues. While the groups to whom he spoke were initially small, such as the North Georgia Occupational Nurses Association, he soon developed a reputation as a dynamic and exciting speaker, presenting to groups such as the American Poultry Association, National Baking Institute and the National Safety Council. In 1993, after taking and passing the North Carolina Bar Examination, Todd joined the Labor and Employment group at Smith, Helms, Mulliss and Moore in Greensboro, North Carolina. For the next three years, Todd continued counseling employers about policy development, implementation and application. He also represented management in employment related litigation. The litigation included administrative hearings before the Industrial Commissions of Georgia and North Carolina, Occupational Safety and Health Commission and the NLRB and trials in Federal and State courts in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. While with Smith Helms, Todd continued speaking about legal subjects to the respective Bars with which he was licensed and became a regular speaker in Raleigh, Charlotte and Greensboro for the Council on Education in Management. During this same period, Todd also began assisting small companies with organizing and starting their businesses, through drafting and filing of articles of incorporation/organization, negotiating leases, developing policies designed to streamline employment relations and human resources, providing training to management regarding employment policies and procedures, contract negotiations with vendors, and representing them in a variety of litigation. Todd, mostly through acceptance of pro bono assignments, further developed experience in the area of family law. In this regard, he handled divorces and name changes, drafted separation agreements, and argued for termination of parental rights in Department of Social Services’ litigation. In 1996, Todd was approached by Donaldson & Black of Greensboro to develop a plaintiffs’ oriented employment litigation practice. For the three years following, Todd represented employees in lawsuits alleging employment discrimination, wrongful termination, civil rights violations, and pay disputes under Federal and State law. While Todd enjoyed success in this area with victories against companies such as Universal Furniture, Holiday Inn, Forsyth Country Club, Wackenhut Security and Freightliner [1], numerous decisions were rendered by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals (Federal appellate court for North and South Carolina) that made winning these cases practically improbable [2]. Based on his reassessment of this practice area, Todd in 1999 became very selective in the types of employment-related cases he would accept and changed the primary focus of his practice to asbestos workers’ compensation and third-party litigation and personal injury cases involving significant bodily injury or death. Todd has handled these types of cases in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi and Texas. In 1998, Todd also became a certified arbitrator in North Carolina. Since his certification, Todd has heard over 250 cases in Mecklenburg, Cabarrus, and Guilford counties. Additionally, Todd has begun mediating cases in the areas of employment disputes, personal injury and workers’ compensation. Since joining Donaldson & Black, Todd continued to represent small businesses from the organizational stage through lease and vendor negotiations to business-related litigation. During this same period, Todd continued to volunteer his time to handle family law matters on court appointed cases and through charitable organizations in North and South Carolina and accepted indigent criminal appointments in South Carolina. In this same vein, Todd negotiated separation agreements, handled divorces in Guilford, Forsyth and Mecklenburg counties, and defended an alienation of affections case in Mecklenburg County. In February 2002, Todd left Donaldson & Black, and he opened his own law firm in Charlotte, North Carolina. Initially, Todd's office was in historic Southend. In January 2004, however, Todd moved to his present location, which is within walking distance of the Mecklenburg County courthouse. Since opening his law office, Todd has represented numerous small businesses from organization to policy development to defense/prosecution of civil litigation. Additionally, Todd has handled numerous family and criminal matters and assisted many clients in developing estate plans. [1] In the Freightliner matter, Todd filed charges of discrimination on behalf of four female employees who worked at the company’s facility in Rowan County. The EEOC investigated these charges and ultimately filed a class-action against Freightliner. Todd intervened on behalf of these four women. After numerous months of discovery and revelation of damaging information, Freightliner settled the case. [2] Recent articles published by the Associated Press and the American Bar Association indicate that employers prevail in approximately 85% of employment-related lawsuits.
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