Attorney Profile
Nola J. Hitchcock Cross
Practice Areas
Ms. Hitchcock Cross has been concentrating on employment, business, and civil rights law for over 30 years. She has represented professors, judges, court commissioners, district attorneys, police chiefs, fire chiefs, chief deputies, CEO’s, CFO's, physicians & other health care employees, accountants, principals and teachers, office workers, technical, employees, blue collar workers, and all other types of employees in all areas of employment.
She also focuses on counseling clients through pre-termination intervention, hiring arrangements, severance agreements, non-compete agreements, employment contracts, commission disputes, discrimination, sexual, racial and general harrassment, and job counseling.
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 actions.
She has decades of experience representing public and private sector labor unions, including in law enforcement, healthcare, construction trades, industrial, social services, clerical and technical, and assisting in organizing.
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 and has a focus in the area of representation of day care centers and CBRF's.
Her communications background has led her to focus on defamation, slander, and libel and high profile media cases.
Ms. Hitchcock Cross has a concentration in whistleblower actions. She recently completed a Federal False Claims Act action that resolved for nearly $13 million and regularly handles Sarbanes-Oxley, safety, qui tam, and all other types of whistle-blower litigation and counseling.
Attorney Hitchcock Cross is a frequent speaker and writer in areas of interest in employment, business, university law, community organizations and co-operatives.
Bar and Court Admissions
Wisconsin
U.S. Court of Appeals 7th Circuit
U.S. District Court Eastern District of Wisconsin
U.S. District Court Western District of Wisconsin
Education
St. John's College , Santa Fe New Mexico, Western
Classics graduate program, 1 semester, 2006
Comparative Industrial Relations Symposium, Oxford,
England, 1983
University of Wisconsin Law School, Madison, Wisconsin
Juris Doctor, Cum Laude, 1975, Law School
Service Award Recipient
Harvard University, non-matriculated courses 1971-72
Washington State University, Edward R. Murrow School of Journalism, Pullman, Washington. Bachelor of Arts, Mass Communications, 1970
Published Works
The Duty to Bargain Collectively, 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., West 2004 & 2005.
Classes/Seminars Taught
Program Chair & Moderator, State Bar Annual Convention, ADR Topics, Wage & Hour & Electronic Discovery, Madison, May 2008.
Employment Settlement & Severance Agreements-An Interactive Session, State Bar, Labor & Employment Law Section, November 2007.
Advising a Small Business Client: Protection When Employees Leave, State Bar Small Business Advisors Institute, September 2007.
Convenants Not to Compete: Trends and Developments, State Bar of Wisconsin Conference, Madison, Wisconsin, May 2006.
Talks on SOX: Employment Provisions under Sarbanes-Oxley, State Bar of Wisconsin, Labor & Employment Section, February 2005.
Frequent Commentator, Various Labor Law Topics
Regular Commentator, Case of Figueroa v. Mayor Norquist and City of Milwaukee, Channel 58
Lecturer, Collective Bargaining Course, Milwaukee Area Technical College
UW-Wisconsin School for Workers
Stewards Schools for Teamsters, IBEW, UE, OPEIU, Hospital Workers, Public Health Nurses, Ironworkers, AFSCME, etc.
Associations, Memberships & Honors
American Bar Association, Labor & Employment Section, Member
State Bar of Wisconsin, Labor & Employment Section, Chair (2007-08 & 1985-86), and 3-term Board Member
Milwaukee Bar Association, Labor Law Section, Co-Chair (2003-2004)
Association of Trial Lawyers of America, Member
Industrial Relations Research Association, Member
National Whistleblowers Association, Member and Attorney Referral Panel
National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA)
Wisconsin Employment Lawyers Association (WELA), Member, Attorney Referral Panel
Milwaukee Forum, Coordinator Emeritus
American Association of University Women, Member & Attorney Referral Panel
AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee
Association for Union Democracy, Advisory Board
International Association of Democratic Lawyers
International Asso "Best of the Bar," Employment Law, Milwaukee Magazine, 1985
"Lead Attorney," Employment Law, CBS, Channel 58, 2002-03
Honorary Co-Chair, National Business Advisory Council
Referral Sources
National Whistleblowers Association
9-5, National Working Womens Association
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, Equal Rights Division
Wisconsin Employment Lawyers Association
National Employment Lawyers Association
CBS Channel 58, Leading Lawyers Program
American Civil Liberties Union
National Lawyers Guild
Milwaukee NAACP
Past Employment Positions
Murray & Cross, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Managing Partner
Adelman, Adelman & Murray, S.C., Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Partner
Podell, Ugent & Cross, S.C., Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Managing Partner
