Attorney Profile

Nola J. Hitchcock Cross Esq.

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.

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, 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:

"Cooperatives/Cohousing/Condos: A Study in Comparative Housing Structures", February 8, 2011, Milwaukee CoLOG

Frequent Commentator, Various Labor Law Topics

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

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

UW-Milwaukee Small Business Institute, Legal Issues
in Personnel

Lecturer, Milwaukee Area Technical College:
Collective Bargaining course

City of Milwaukee, Trainer: Sexual Harassment 
Sensitivity

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 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Honors and Awards:

Listed in "Best of the Bar," Employment Law,
Milwaukee Magazine

"Lead Attorney," Employment Law, CBS Channel 58

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, former 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 & 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

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