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Attorney Profiles
Nola J. Hitchcock Cross Esq.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
phone 414-224-0000
fax 414-273-7055
email Email Me

Ms. Hitchcock Cross has been concentrating on employment, business, and civil rights law for more than 30 years. Her clients include CEO's, CFO's, COO's and other executives, managers, and personnel directors; college administrators and professors, school administrators, principals and teachers; judges, court commissioners, assistant district attorneys and public defenders; fire chiefs, police chiefs, police officers, chief deputies and deputy sheriffs; physicians, nurses, and health care administrators; accountants and others with fiduciary responsibilities, such as stockbrokers; office workers, blue collar workers, truckers, service employees; and all other executives, managers, supervisors, and employees, both in the private and in the federal, state, and municipal public sectors; and consultants, entrepreneurs, temporary employees, and independent contractors.

In addition to litigation, she also focuses on counseling clients through pre-termination intervention, severance agreements, non-compete agreements, employment contracts, commission disputes, and job counseling. Often such counseling and negotiation includes deferred compensation and key employee agreements, stock options and grants, special tax considerations for highly paid individuals involved in severance transactions, and consulting arrangements.

Ms. Hitchcock Cross has a reputation for handling matters where extraordinary remedies are required, such as injunctive relief, declaratory judgments, mandamus, writs of prohibition, and other emergency equitable actions.

She has decades of experience representing labor unions in both the private and public sector, including in law enforcement, healthcare, construction trades, industrial employees, service employees, and others.

Ms. Hitchcock Cross also chairs the Firm's Business Law Center. She advises on business start-ups, contract bids, personnel, key employee contracts, vendor and customer collection disputes, and all manner of commercial litigation. She also represents community organizations and co-operatives.

Her communications background has led her to defamation, slander, and libel litigation and resolution.

Ms. Hitchcock Cross has a concentration in whistleblower actions. She recently completed a Federal False Claims Act action that resolved for nearly $13 million. She regularly pursues Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower actions and resolutions.

She handles education law matters which involve special consideration of tenure, plagiarism, teacher and administrator contracts.  She also represents schools in start-up and on-going legal and personnel needs.

Attorney Hitchcock Cross is a frequent speaker and writer in areas of interest in employment, business, university law, and community organizations.

Public Service

Small Business Venture Fund Committee of the City of Milwaukee City Council, review and approval of grant proposal for business start-ups and expansion for job creation and retention for more than a decade.

Milwaukee Public Schools: Taught classes on job rights for students entering the workforce

Areas of Practice:
Employment Law & Litigation
Job Counseling
University & School Law (Tenure, teacher contracts)
Small Business Start-Up & Representation
Business Torts
State, County, Municipal & Federal Employees
Employment Contracts-Drafting, Resolution & Litigation
Slander & Defamation
Employment Torts
Labor Law - Public & Private Employment
Civil Rights & Constitutional Law
Civil Litigation - State & Federal
Severance Agreements
Wrongful Discharge
Non-compete Agreements
Whistleblowing (False Claims Act, Sarbanes-Oxley, Nuclear Regulatory Act)
Nuclear Regulatory Act, (OSHA)
Whistleblowing (Healthcare Retaliation)
Employment Fraud & Harassment
Sexual Harassment
Employment Discrimination
Bar Admissions:
Wisconsin, 1975
U.S. Court of Appeals 7th Circuit
U.S. District Court Eastern District of Wisconsin
U.S. District Court Western District of Wisconsin
Education:
University of Wisconsin Law School, Madison, Wisconsin, 1975
Juris Doctor
Honors: Cum Laude
Honors: Law School Service Award


Washington State University, Edward R. Murrow School of Journalism, Pullman, Washington
Bachelor of Arts
Major:  Mass Communications


Merton College, Oxford University, BNA Comparative Industrial Relations Symposium, Oxford, England, 1983


Harvard University, non-matriculated courses in International Banking and FInance, Spanish and Latin American Politics and Government
Non-Matriculated Courses


Published Works:
"The Duty to Bargain Collective" Chapter 3, (Co-Author) Employee and Union Member Guide to Labor Law, A Manual for Attorneys Representing the Labor Movement, Contributing Author, Chpt. 3, Nat'l Labor & Employment Comm., National Lawyers Guild eds.,


Classes/Seminars Taught:
Frequent Commentator, Various Labor Law Topics


Regular Commentator, Case of Figueroa v. Mayor Norquist and City of Milwaukee, Channel 58


Hiring & Firing, State Bar Of Wisconsin, Solo Practice Institute


Legal Issues in Personnel, UW-Milwaukee Small Business Institute


Lecturer, Collective Bargaining Course, Milwaukee Area Technical College


Sexual Harassment Sensitivity, City of Milwaukee, Trainer


Talks on SOX: Employment Provisions under Sarbanes-Oxley, February, 2005; Wisconsin State Bar, Labor & Employment Section


Covenants Not to Compete: Trends and Developments, State Bar of Wisconsin Conference, Madison, Wisconsin, 2006 - Present


UW-Wisconsin School for Workers; guest lecture: Mediation-Arbitration, UW-Wisconsin


Stewards Schools for Teamsters, IBEW, UE, OPEIU, Hospital Workers, Public Health Nurses, Ironworkers, AFSCME, etc.


Legal Issues for Housing Cooperatives, Speaker, Wisconsin Cooperative Housing Conference


Women and Employment: Challenge Amidst Change, Speaker, YWCA Conference, Workshop Session


Legal Issues Affecting Women in Employment, Speaker, Broad Vocabulary Bookstore


Alexander v. Gardner-Denver and the Role of Arbitration in Title VII Cases, National Education Association Council, National Convention


Honors and Awards:
Listed in "Best of the Bar," Employment Law, Milwaukee Magazine, 1985


"Lead Attorney," Employment Law, CBS Channel 58, 2002 - 2003


Honorary Co-Chair, National Business Advisory Council


Professional Associations and Memberships:
American Bar Association, Labor & Employment Section, Member


Wisconsin State Bar Association, Labor & Employment Section, Member, Chairperson (two separate terms) & three- term Board Member


Milwaukee Bar Association, Labor Law Section
Co-Chair


American Association for Justice (AAJ)
Member


Industrial Relations Research Association
Member


National Whistleblowers Association
Member and Attorney Referral Panel


National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA)
Member and Attorney Referral Panel


Wisconsin Employment Lawyers Association (WELA)
Member and Attorney Referral Panel


Milwaukee Forum, former member and Coordinator, currently Coordinator Emeritus


American Association of University Women
Member & Attorney Referral Panel


AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee
Member


Association for Union Democracy
Advisory Board


International Association of Democratic Lawyers
Member


Wisconsin Women Angel Investors


Past Employment Positions:
Murray & Cross, Managing Partner


Adelman, Adelman & Murray, S.C., Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Partner


Podell, Ugent & Cross, S.C., Managing Partner


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Contact Information
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Office Locations
24 hour voicemail. Saturday & evening appointments. Se habla español. Satellite offices by appointment only.

Milwaukee Office
Lawyers' Building
845 N. 11th Street
Milwaukee, WI 53233
414-224-0000
Fax 414-273-7055

Waukesha Office
509 Arcadian
Waukesha, WI 53186
262-548-0001
Fax 414-273-7055

Satellite Office
Wausau Office

215 Grand Avenue
Wausau, WI 54403
715-849-5200
Fax 414-273-7055
By appointment only

Satellite Office
Chicago Office

111 E. Wacker, #2600
Chicago, IL 60601
Phone: 312-861-0606
By appointment only