Eaton Peabody

Sarah Newell represents employers in the private, nonprofit and public sectors and her practice is focused on employment and labor law. She assists clients with a broad range of issues including wage & hour, sexual harassment, FMLA, employee discipline and discharge, discrimination, whistleblower actions, collective bargaining, contract administration, labor arbitration, and other employment and labor issues.  Sarah also investigates complaints of discrimination for employers, colleges, and universities on a regular basis. Prior to joining Eaton Peabody, Sarah served as State Office Representative to United States Senator Susan Collins. Sarah represented the Senator in Androscoggin, Oxford, and Franklin counties. Representative cases include:

• Successfully defended a disability discrimination case before the Maine Human Rights Commission. The Commission determined there were no reasonable grounds to find that the employer had discriminated against the employee when it terminated her for documented performance problems.
• Prevailed at Maine Labor Relations Board fact-finding. Following hearing, the fact-finding panel issued a report supporting all of the municipal clients positions regarding the settlement of a collective bargaining agreement. The parties reached an agreement favorable to the client soon after.
• Investigated and issued findings regarding a highly sensitive allegation of sexual activity in the workplace between a supervisor and subordinate.
• Successfully defended a nursing home in labor arbitration challenging the termination of an employee for absenteeism. The arbitration found the employer had just cause to terminate the employee for violating its policy regarding absence and tardiness.