Michael E. Kramer
Of Counsel
Michael Kramer has devoted his 40 year legal career to representing private and public sector labor unions and their membership, as well as non–union workers, in all types of employment cases. Michael has litigated education and public pension cases, class actions, employment discrimination, contract, whistleblower, workers compensation, civil rights and constitutional cases. He has litigated in state and federal courts, arbitrations, NLRB proceedings, school board, and administrative hearings. He has argued numerous successful and precedent-setting cases before the Georgia Supreme Court and Court of Appeals. Michael is AV-Rated “Preeminent” in the Martindale-Hubbell Directory, and has been a Georgia Top-Rated Lawyer in Labor & Employment Law, Workers Compensation, and Education Law.
Michael has represented the Teamsters, Mailhandlers, IATSE, SEIU, AFTRA, and the Georgia Association of Educators (GAE). He has negotiated numerous collective bargaining agreements for unions, and arbitrated contract interpretation and discipline cases, including a collective bargaining agreement for the theater and stagehands union (IATSE) with The Fox Theatre that resulted in unprecedented salary and pension increases for its members. Michael continues to represent seriously injured workers in claims before the Georgia Board of Workers Compensation.
Michael served 15 years as GAE’s General Counsel where he litigated many of Georgia's leading appellate education cases, including two cases won before the Georgia Supreme Court, and nine case won in the Court of Appeals. In federal court he brought successful litigation to block statewide random urinalysis testing of public employees, establish enhanced due process protections, preserve union dues deductions, and enforce 1st Amendment rights. Since 1997, Michael has represented the Fulton County Employees Retirement System and its Board of Trustees for its 3,300 employees/retirees and their $1.5 Billion pension plan. In 2003, he drafted the amendments adopted by the Georgia General Assembly to the Georgia Whistleblower Act which increased significantly the protections and damages for state and public school employees. He continues to represent educators in disciplinary school board hearings and professional certificate cases before the Professional Standards Commission. In the nationally covered Atlanta Public Schools “Test Cheating” case, Michael represented 13 APS Principals. Six of those Principals were reinstated to their APS employment with no loss of pay, six retired with full benefits, and none had their educator certificates suspended or revoked.
Michael was a board member of GreenLaw, Inc., from 1998-2015. GreenLaw, Inc. was one of Georgia's leading environmental non–profits, bringing litigation against polluters in the state. Since 2021, Michael has been on the Advisory Board of “Power the Vote, Inc.” a non-profit funding year-round voter protection staffing in five battlegrounds states (Arizona, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, and Texas).
Michael is a 1976 graduate of Oberlin College. He graduated from the University of California at Davis Law School in 1980 where he was an editor of the law review. In 1990, he earned an Executive MBA from Emory University, with Beta Gamma Sigma honors. He and his wife Gerri, a psychologist, have two daughters. In his spare time, he plays guitar and harmonica in neighborhood music sessions.