The Amlong Firm

Focus and the clients it represents

The Amlong Firm works in employment law from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and it represents employees. That side of a workplace dispute shapes the whole practice. A litigation focus means the firm's work centers on cases headed for a courtroom or a formal proceeding. The firm's website states that its attorneys have represented clients since 1982, and that the practice is devoted entirely to litigation.

The employment cases cover a defined set of workplace problems. These include discrimination, sexual harassment, retaliation, and whistleblower claims. They also include wrongful termination, overtime and unpaid wages, and disputes over noncompete and severance agreements. Administrative law belongs on the same list of practice areas.

The firm handles business disputes and civil rights litigation as well. So the work reaches both individual employees and businesses in conflict. In my opinion, a practice built entirely on litigation tells you something plain about the firm: it expects cases to be contested, and it staffs for that.

How the firm was built

Karen Coolman Amlong founded the firm and works in employment law. Before her legal career, she was the first state coordinator of the Florida chapters of the National Organization for Women. In 1974, she was the first woman from Broward County elected as a state legislator. Her years in public life came before this firm, and they line up with a practice centered on employee rights.

Her courtroom work is on the record too. In 1993, she obtained a multimillion-dollar sexual harassment judgment in Florida. She has been listed on Florida Super Lawyers every year since 2007. Super Lawyers selections draw on peer nominations and evaluation, and a listing that repeats across many years reflects sustained recognition from other lawyers.

The firm names three attorneys on its site: William R. Amlong, Karen Coolman Amlong, and Jennifer E. Daley. Each carries part of the employment and litigation work the firm describes.

A record shaped in the courtroom

William R. Amlong reached law after years in journalism. He worked as a reporter at The Miami Herald for about 14 years. He entered law school in 1982 and was admitted to the Florida Bar in 1985. He studied at Nova University.

His most visible case reached the United States Supreme Court. In 1998, he argued Faragher v. City of Boca Raton there. That decision set a standard for when an employer is liable for a supervisor's harassment. The argument put him before the U.S. Supreme Court, which sets binding precedent nationwide.

Trials and appeals

Trial work and appellate work call on different skills. A trial turns on witnesses, exhibits, and a jury or judge weighing the facts. An appeal reviews how the law was applied and runs on written briefs and, at times, oral argument before a panel. William R. Amlong's record covers both ends of that process.

By the firm's count, he has tried 62 labor and employment or civil rights cases. He has also handled appeals in state and federal courts. As a reviewer, I read a trial count that specific, paired with appellate work, as the mark of a lawyer who takes cases through to a verdict and past it.

The employment claims the firm handles

The employment side covers claims that tend to follow set legal paths. A discrimination or harassment charge in Florida often starts with a filing at an agency such as the EEOC or its state counterpart before a lawsuit can proceed. That agency step carries its own deadlines, and missing them can close a claim. Retaliation and whistleblower cases turn on the link between a protected action by the worker and what the employer did next. Wrongful termination cases ask whether a firing broke a specific legal rule, since most employment in Florida is at will. The firm takes on all of these.

Wage claims run on their own rules. Overtime and unpaid wage disputes usually proceed under federal and state wage laws, and they often turn on records of hours worked and how a job was classified. A worker labeled exempt, for example, may still be owed overtime once the actual duties are examined. Noncompete and severance matters involve contract terms agreed at hire or exit, and courts weigh whether those terms are reasonable in scope and time. The firm covers this ground.

Administrative law work brings disputes before government agencies and hearing officers, where the procedures differ from a standard courtroom trial. Evidence rules, timelines, and the decision-maker all shift in that setting. For an employee dealing with a public body or a licensing question, that is a separate track with its own deadlines. The firm lists it among its practice areas.

What taking a case to litigation involves

A firm that describes itself as devoted to litigation is signaling how it expects cases to run. Contested employment cases tend to move through stages. There is an initial review of the facts and documents, then a filing, then discovery, where each side exchanges records and takes depositions. Many matters settle at mediation, and some go the full distance to a verdict. For a client, that focus shapes early choices about preserving documents and identifying witnesses. The firm's stated litigation-only focus fits a practice that prepares each case as if it will be tried.

Business disputes and civil rights work

Business litigation is the firm's other main lane, and it moves on a different clock than a single employment suit. These cases can involve contracts, ownership conflicts, or claims between companies. William R. Amlong's profile lists business litigation among his areas. So the litigation approach carries over to commercial matters.

Civil rights litigation is part of the work as well. The firm's employment and civil rights cases overlap where the question is how a person was treated at work and under the law. Both areas rely on the same litigation approach the firm applies across its files. In my opinion, that overlap gives the practice a steady center across its case types. William R. Amlong's tried cases include civil rights matters alongside labor and employment ones.