Lisa Michelle Kohring

Lisa Kohring is a labor and employment attorney in Holland & Knight's West Palm Beach office. Ms. Kohring focuses her practice on defending employers across the spectrum of discrimination and retaliation claims, including those alleging race, age, gender and national origin discrimination under federal and state laws. She regularly defends employers against disability discrimination and whistleblower claims.

Ms. Kohring helps clients remain focus-driven with an eye on liability avoidance by working with management to implement and enforce effective and protective policies and procedures. She has extensive experience carefully crafting employer "blueprints" to train members of management in key areas of compliance such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Ms. Kohring also regularly trains executives at every level of an organization about improving employee communication and performance management documentation.

In addition to her labor and employment practice, Ms. Kohring also handles breach of contract claims and prosecutes in the area of restrictive covenants, including non-competition, non-disclosure and non-solicitation agreements helping business owners protect confidential information, trade secrets and goodwill.

Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Ms. Kohring was in-house counsel for a local government agency where she gained extensive experience counseling C-level clients, human resources managers and hundreds of frontline supervisors at one of the largest employers in the county. Her practice focused on defending against discrimination, retaliation and whistleblower claims as well as breach of contract and wrongful discharge claims, improving employer communication and employee performance management documentation. She was responsible for advising on outcome determinative strategic decision-making, investigating and implementing compliance programs for the FMLA and ADA, and partnering with management in restructuring the internal investigation process. She gained extensive practical experience defending FLSA collective action lawsuits, investigating and creating practices to comply with immigration laws dealing with E-Verify and Form I-9, and responding to government inquiries and investigations.

After law school, Ms. Kohring spent several years in private practice with a West Palm Beach litigation boutique law firm, where she focused on defending small and medium-sized employers. She handled an array of commercial litigation matters involving breach of contract, fraudulent and negligent misrepresentation, shareholder disputes, declaratory and injunctive relief, franchise litigation, defamation and copyright infringement. Ms. Kohring also dedicated a significant amount of her practice to defending restaurant groups against claims for violation of FLSA and the Florida Minimum Wage Act.

While in law school, Ms. Kohring was a member of the Moot Court Society and Nova Trial Team. During her undergraduate studies, Ms. Kohring completed an internship at the Office of the State Attorney in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, where she worked and studied under three attorneys in the Felony Division.

Ms. Kohring is a former co-chair for the Palm Beach County Bar Association's Committee for Diversity and Inclusion, where she devoted several years to setting, working toward and achieving goals with direct, identifiable impacts on the legal community. For two years, she managed the Diversity Corner in the Palm Beach County Bar Association Bulletin, publishing monthly articles educating readers on such topics as employment discrimination, First Amendment, ADA and union activities. Ms. Kohring also assisted in the Diversity Internship Program, connecting law students of diverse backgrounds with top legal internship opportunities in Palm Beach County.

In addition, Ms. Kohring is a lifelong supporter of humanitarian causes focused on improving the lives of underprivileged community members and diversifying the local community. She is an active supporter and Loan Committee member with the Jewish Educational Loan Fund (JELF), an organization that facilitates providing interest free loans to underprivileged students around the country.