Connie N. Bertram

For over thirty years, Connie has represented employers, boards and individual owners and executives in transactions and disputes, including matters involving executive employment and equity agreements, non-competes, non-solicits and other post-employment restrictions, trade secrets, “business divorces,” and confidential internal investigations.

Clients reported to Chambers & Partners USA, the leading international rating organization, that Connie:

• “. . . is an all-around leader” and “is extraordinary in every way;”
• “is persistent, knowledgeable, thorough, well-spoken and efficient;”
• is “an amazing attorney, with a brilliant, quick mind . . . She is like an encyclopedia . . . so seasoned in the law that her advice is always spot-on and practical;”

Connie has litigated complex contract, tort, trade secret, restrictive covenant, discrimination, retaliation, and whistleblower claims across the United States. Connie has served as lead counsel in some of the most challenging and hotly contested litigation matters in the country. She has the experience and skills to tailor her prosecution or defense to the needs of her clients, from conciliatory to “pit bull.”

Connie has litigated complex contract, harassment, discrimination, whistleblower, trade secret and restrictive covenant litigation across the United States, including claims brought under Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), Dodd-Frank, the False Claims Act (FCA), and other federal and state employment and whistleblower provisions. Connie has served as lead counsel in some of the most challenging and hotly contested litigation matters in the country. She has the experience and skills to tailor her prosecution or defense to the needs of her clients, from conciliatory to “pit bull.”

A frequent speaker on a variety of labor and employment, litigation and compliance issues, Connie regularly speaks at programs, seminars and training conferences concerning the whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act, Sarbanes-Oxley, and Dodd-Frank, whistleblower policies and investigations, and the development and use of forensic data in litigation.  She presents at national conferences and conventions concerning these and other topics, including American Bar Association Annual Conferences. She has been quoted on these and other topics by the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Legal Times, Compliance Weekly, Law360, Corporate Counsel, Bloomberg Law, Bloomberg Business Week, the Association of Corporate Counsel, and Human Resources Executive.

Connie is the author of Sarbanes-Oxley: A New Whistle Stop for Whistleblowers published in the Labor Lawyer. Connie has been named a top employment lawyer or litigator by Benchmark, Legal 500, The American Lawyer, Washington Business Journal, Washingtonian, Legal Times and National Law Journal.  She has been individually ranked by Chambers & Partners USA, the preeminent attorney research and ranking company, every year since 2009. In 2023, she was ranked in the top ten employment litigators in D.C. by Chambers & Partners USA.  She authored chapters regarding employment law for the D.C. Bar Manual and for over fifteen years, she has been the editor of the leading blog in the country concerning employment and compliance developments.

Curious, creative, pragmatic. To Connie and her team, litigation and internal investigations are like a challenging puzzle that needs to be sorted, organized, and put together piece by piece. That process involves not only strong legal and analytical skills, but an understanding of technology, psychology, and human nature. What is the core of the dispute? How did the relationship go awry? What are the motivations behind both sides? The team's curiosity and creativity differentiate them from more linear, cookie-cutter approaches.