Baker Botts has a new leader of its labor and employment practice group, the firm announced Thursday.
Scott Nelson has joined the Houston office, where he will also be a partner in the litigation group, after spending the prior three-and-a-half years as a partner with Hunton Andrews Kurth. Nelson told The Lawbook he loved working with his former colleagues but couldn’t pass up the offer Baker Botts presented him.
“It’s such a unique opportunity that they’re giving me here to build and lead an elite labor and employment practice,” he said. “They’re trying to take it to the next level and build a small but very elite practice.”
The first order of business, Nelson said, will be assessing what the labor and employment group has and what it needs. He’s already interviewing attorneys to join him, and plans are to strategically grow the practice group in the coming years into one that can handle not just advising clients and transactional issues, he said, but also “really big litigation.”
Danny David, Baker Botts’ managing partner, issued a statement that the firm is “delighted” to have Nelson join.
“Scott’s stellar credentials, leadership skills, courtroom experience, market knowledge, business development acumen and strong client list make him a perfect complement to the Baker Botts team,” he said.
Chair of the firm’s litigation department, Bridget Moore, also praised Nelson’s hire in a statement.
“Not only can be advise and litigate on a broad range of labor and employment issues, Scott also has sophisticated employee trade secret, ERISA litigation and international labor and employment expertise,” she said.
Nelson mentioned a focus on expanding the firm’s capabilities in ERISA litigation as a priority.
“There are high-level specialties we want to develop,” he said. “Suffice to say Houston is a very international city with Fortune 500, global companies so we’re looking to develop an international employment practice.”
As for what will be keeping Nelson busy in 2024? The two hottest topics clients are asking him about have been DEI and AI.
Clients are concerned about how to maintain or continue a DEI program that is in compliance with the law, he said, referencing the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard.
“Companies are really trying to figure that out,” he said. “That’s a big question and that’s going to continue.”
Last year the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued guidance about the use of AI and discrimination in the workplace, Nelson said, encouraging employers to verify that any AI they’re using in the workplace doesn’t disproportionately have a negative impact on any protected classes.
“The EEOC said you can’t rely on a third-party vendor, you are responsible,” he said. “Companies need to pay attention to AI in a way they haven’t before because the EEOC says you’re responsible for that… it’s a different world in ways that people don’t necessarily imagine that it is.”
Nelson has also previously practiced at Seyfarth Shaw for about two years and was a partner with Baker McKenzie for 13 years before that.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from Creighton University in 1993 and is a 1996 graduate of the university’s law school.