Rina R. Russo
Partner

Rina focuses her practice on labor and employment and education law. Rina has experience counseling private and public employers in all aspects of the employment relationship, including workplace investigations, reasonable accommodation of disabilities and religious practices, wage and hour compliance, employee classification, and employment policies. She also has experience with managing leaves of absence, whistleblower protections, retaliation, trade secret protection, discipline, termination, and separation and release agreements.

Rina began her legal career as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Candace J. Smith, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. Prior to joining Weston Hurd, Rina was Counsel for Wage & Hour and Civil Rights and a Trial Attorney for the United States Department of Labor, Office of the Solicitor. During her time as Counsel, she guided the Department in its investigations under a myriad of federal statutes, including, but not limited to, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), PUMP Act, Immigration and Nationality Act (H-1B, H-2A, H-2B), Davis-Bacon Act, Service Contract Act,  Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) section 11(c), Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), and Surface Transportation Assistance Act (STAA). Additionally, Rina managed and oversaw all litigation brought by the Department of Labor’s Cleveland office enforcing the FLSA, FMLA, Immigration and Nationality Act, and OSHA 11(c).

As a Trial Attorney, Rina served as the lead attorney in several FLSA, Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), and OSHA enforcement actions. She also worked with the Department of Justice regarding certain criminal violations of the FLSA and ERISA.