(404) 781-1100 | mkramer@bbwmlaw.com
Michael Kramer has devoted his 30 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 a Georgia Top-Rated Lawyer in Labor & Employment Law.
Michael has represented such varied unions as the Teamsters, Mailhandlers, IATSE, SEIU, Georgia Association of Educators, and the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists. He has negotiated numerous collective bargaining agreements for unions, and arbitrated contract interpretation and discipline cases under their provisions, 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. In recent years, Michael has added the representation of seriously injured workers in claims before the Georgia Board of Workers Compensation.
Michael served as General Counsel for over 15 years for the Georgia Association of Educators (GAE), where he litigated many of Georgia's leading appellate education cases. He brought litigation to block statewide urinalysis testing of public employees, establish enhanced due process protections, preserve union dues deductions, enforce 1st Amendment rights, and increase pension benefits. In 2003, he drafted the amendments adopted by the Georgia General Assembly to the Georgia Whistleblower Act which increased the protections and damages for state and public school employees. He continues to serve as GAE's labor consultant and represents its members in disciplinary school board hearings and professional certificate cases before the Professional Standards Commission. In the APS Test Cheating case, Michael represented 16 APS Principals. Through his legal skills and tireless efforts on their behalf, six of those Principals were reinstated to their APS employment with no loss of pay, six retired with full benefits, and none have had their educator certificates suspended or revoked.
In devotion to environmental advocacy, Michael has been a board member of GreenLaw, Inc., since 1998, and its treasurer since 2003. GreenLaw, Inc. is one of Georgia's leading environmental non–profits, bringing litigation against polluters in the state.
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.
