George A. Hanson

George Hanson, a recognized Best Lawyers in America “Lawyer of the Year,” prosecutes high-stakes cases against the nation’s most powerful corporations with a proven record of winning excellent results for his clients. George has earned a sterling national reputation for prosecuting wage and hour cases on behalf of disenfranchised workers, protecting their right to “a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.” After a landmark trial where he delivered a victory for a class of meat-packing workers, a distinguished federal judge described George’s wage and hour experience as having “unmatched depth.”

 George also has vast experience representing plaintiffs in traditional business litigation, including breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, intellectual property, tortious interference and more. George won a complex breach of contract and fraud case in federal court early in the firm’s history that helped establish Stueve Siegel Hanson’s reputation as formidable trial lawyers. In post-trial motions after the successful jury verdict, the respected trial judge commended George’s work noting he “obtained excellent results at trial.”

Adjacent to his active litigation docket, when senior executives face challenges (whether threatened termination, blowing the whistle on corporate malfeasance or navigating con-competes) they turn to George for counsel. He skillfully negotiates and protects executive compensation, protects against retaliation, and preserves the freedom to pursue new employment.

George has been the lead or co-lead attorney in more than 175 wage and hour actions filed in state and federal courts across the country and was appointed lead counsel in three Multidistrict Litigations (MDLs). He has appeared in thirty-seven states litigating overtime, minimum wage and other wage theft claims against employers across the labor sector including health care, professional and financial services, hospitality, manufacturing, retail, and government services. George is committed to leveling the playing field for workers and closing the gender wage gap. As a result of George’s work, employees have recovered many hundreds of millions in settlements and judgments in wage and hour cases.

George has been named to the Kansas City Business Journal’s “Best of the Bar,” is a Missouri/Kansas Super Lawyer and is listed in Best Lawyers in America in three categories: commercial litigation, employment law, and mass torts/class actions. He has been honored by the National Law Journal as a Plaintiffs’ Lawyer “Trailblazer,” named a Best Lawyers in America “Lawyer of the Year” for mass tort/class action litigation and both a “Local Litigation Star” and a “Labor and Employment Star” by Benchmark Plaintiffs. The Missouri Lawyers Weekly publication has named George to the POWER List: Employment Law every year since 2020 and Chambers USA ranks George’s practice area the highest Band 1 for Labor & Employment: Mainly Plaintiffs. George is rated AV (highest designation) from publisher Martindale Hubbell.

George frequently teaches complex litigation and wage and hour law at seminars and continuing legal education programs across the country. George has been a guest lecturer at the University of Missouri – Kansas City School of Law, the University of Kansas School of Law, and the Washington University School of Law. He is an author of multiple publications and has served as a Senior Editor of the ABA’s “Fair Labor Standards Act” and is a Chapter Author (Kansas/Missouri) of the ABA’s “Wage and Hour Laws, A State-by-State Survey”—both leading treatises in the field.

When not practicing law, George and his accomplished wife celebrate their family, proudly watching their oldest son graduate from college and enter the workforce and cheering on their three younger children as they sing, dance and act on the stage and high school sidelines. George also loves spending time at Flatrock Ranch—the family’s “home on the range” in rural Greenwood County, Kansas, where sustainable agriculture, natural resource conservation and wildlife management are his passions.

News

Experience

PROFESSIONAL HISTORY

 After completing a judicial clerkship in 1993, George joined Blackwell Sanders Matheny Weary & Lombardi (now Husch Blackwell) as an associate in the Labor and Employment Department. He was elected to the firm's partnership in 1999 and served as Chair of the Hiring Committee. During his tenure at Blackwell Sanders, George represented many of the region's leading companies, including Hallmark Cards, UtiliCorp United, Saint Luke's/Shawnee Mission Health System and The Kansas City Star. In 2001, George left Blackwell for Stueve Siegel Hanson LLP to focus on vindicating the rights of workers, consumers, and small business owners.

NOTABLE LITIGATION RESULTS

Over the last 25 years, George has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements and judgments on behalf of workers, consumers, and businesses in a wide range of industries. Notable litigation and results include the following cases:

Tobler et al. v. 1248 Holdings et al. (Employment Antitrust Litigation) George led the team in a class action lawsuit against a group of financial and investment firms alleging defendants engaged in a long-running “no-poach"" agreement that unlawfully suppressed the wages and mobility of more than 5,000 workers in violation of federal antitrust laws. A $25.5 million settlement was granted final approval by the federal court in December 2025.

March, et al. v. Bank of America (Wage and Hour Litigation) George filed three cases against the Bank on behalf of more than 7,000 employees around the country. The lawsuits alleged that the Bank failed to properly compensate both hourly and salaried employees for overtime and incentive payments for work processing Paycheck Protection Program loans during the COVID-19 pandemic. The cases were consolidated and the federal court granted final approval of a $17.5 million settlement in December 2025.

In Re: 3M Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2885 (Products Liability/Mass Tort Litigation) George and his team represented more than 2,000 active military service members and veterans who suffered hearing loss, tinnitus, and other health issues after using 3M earplugs. The case became the largest MDL in history. George and his team prepared twenty cases for advanced discovery and had thirteen cases trial ready when a global settlement of $6.5 billion resolving the MDL was reached in Fall 2023.

DIRECTV Litigation (Wage and Hour Litigation/Independent Contractor Litigation) George and co-counsel navigated multiple complex actions on behalf of satellite technicians alleging misclassification and failure to pay earned wages and business expenses. At the crescendo of this litigation, prior to settlement, George was leading a team that was simultaneously prosecuting claims on behalf of: (1) 342 individual plaintiffs filed in 32 federal courts across the country, (2) 1,504 claimants that joined a conditionally certified collective arbitration; (3) 416 plaintiffs in four mass joinder cases pending in the home districts of DIRECTV and its primary contracting companies; and (4) 31 claimants that filed individual arbitrations with AAA and JAMS. After exchange of 3.4 million documents, 665 depositions, a bellwether federal jury trial and multiple rulings on dispositive motions, a $24 million omnibus settlement was reached in 2018. An additional case, Giannoulis, et al. v. DIRECTV, was settled in October 2022 for $23.15 million on behalf of a class of satellite technicians working in California.

In Re Bank of America Wage and Hour Employment Practices Litigation, MDL-2138 (Wage and Hour Litigation) George was appointed lead counsel in one of the largest national wage and hour actions litigated in recent years. A $73 million settlement on behalf of personal bankers and tellers working in retail branches nationwide was approved in December 2013.

Chavez v. WIS Holding Corp. (Wage and Hour Litigation) George led an FLSA collective action and California Rule 23 class action brought on behalf of current and former inventory associates. A $14.85 million settlement was approved in June 2010.

Teeter v. NCR Corporation (Wage and Hour Litigation) George brought federal and California state law claims on behalf of a class of customer engineers. A $10.5 million settlement was approved in February 2009.

Gaming Industry Cases (Wage and Hour/Tip Credit Litigation) Over the last seven years, George and his team brought more than 20 cases on behalf of table game dealers in federal courts across the country alleging their casino employers violated federal and state regulations governing tip credit wages and tip pooling arrangements. To date, these cases have collectively resulted in settlements totaling more than $70 million, with notable examples including Maldonado v. MGM Resorts ($12.5 million settlement in July 2022), Stewart v. Rush Street Gaming ($9.8 million settlement in April 2021) and Bartakovits v. Wind Creek Bethlehem ($6 million settlement in March 2022).

Loan Officer Cases (Wage and Hour/Misclassification Litigation) Beginning in 2005, George has been the lead lawyer in more than a dozen federal cases nationwide alleging banks and other financial institutions misclassified loan officers and related employees as exempt and failed to pay overtime. All together, these cases have resulted in settlements totaling more than $100 million. Highlights include Perry v. National City Mortgage ($27.5 million settlement approved in March 2008), In re Wells Fargo Home Mortgage Overtime Pay Litigation ($25 million settlement approved in November 2010), West v. First Franklin Financial ($8.7 million settlement approved in October 2007), and Raikos v. JP Morgan ($6.4 million settlement approved June 2010).

Delivery Driver Cases (Wage and Hour/Minimum Wage/Business Expense Litigation) Between 2009 and 2015 George prosecuted multiple cases against national restaurant chains (specifically “Big Pizza”) alleging that their policy of failing to reimburse delivery drivers for mileage and related business expenses brought their effective hourly rate of pay below federal and state minimum wage requirements. After many years of hard-fought litigation involving complex and novel legal issues, George achieved settlements on behalf tens of thousands of delivery drivers of approximately $45 million, including in Perrin v. Papa John’s ($12.5 million settlement approved in September 2015).

Call Center Cases (Wage and Hour/Off-the-Clock Litigation) From 2003 through 2013, George filed more than a dozen federal cases against the largest call center operators in the country challenging time clock rounding practices and holding these large employers accountable for paying customer service representatives all wages owed for all time worked. George obtained more than $30 million in settlements for these vulnerable workers.

NOTABLE TRIAL RESULTS

Garcia v. Tyson Foods (Wage and Hour) In the wake of the Supreme Court’s landmark opinion Alvarez v. IBP  that helped define the boundaries of the continuous (and compensable) workday, George filed this case against Tyson Foods (the world’s largest processor of poultry and red meat) on behalf of meat-packer workers. Brought as both a class action under Kansas state law and a collective action under the FLSA, George’s clients consisted primarily of non-English speaking migrant workers from Mexico, Central America, and East Africa. The central claim was that Tyson failed to pay its workers for compensable time spent donning and doffing required personal protective clothing and gear and for time spent walking to and from workstations. With myriad unsettled legal issues in play (the case involved three separate appeals to the Tenth Circuit), the case was tried as a representative action to a Kansas jury over three weeks in March 2011. Ably assisted by a terrific trial team, George first-chaired this trial and conducted voir dire, delivered the opening statement, directly examined lead plaintiffs, cross-examined the critical defense witnesses (including experts), argued the jury instructions, and delivered the closing argument. The result was a verdict in favor of the 5,130 members Rule 23 state law class and 1,031 workers who joined the FLSA collective action. In post-trial motions, Judge Thomas Marten (Ret.) of the District of Kansas observed of George and his team “it appears that plaintiffs’ counsel’s experience in wage hour class actions has unmatched depth.” The jury verdict for the plaintiff class was affirmed by the 10th Circuit in August 2014.

Kelly v. State Farm (Breach of Contract/Whistleblower Litigation) George and his partner Norm Siegel co-tried this breach of contract and whistleblowing case on behalf of five State Farm Insurance agents whose contracts were terminated for speaking out on behalf of policyholder interests. After a two-week trial in Jackson County, Missouri, a jury returned a $26.5 million dollar verdict in favor of the plaintiff agents.

Horizon Holdings v. Genmar (Breach of Contract/Fraud Litigation) In the firm’s first jury trial, George first-chaired a breach of a purchase agreement and fraud claim brought by a small manufacturing start up against the world’s largest manufacturer of recreational boats. The jury returned a verdict in plaintiffs’ favor and George successfully argued the appeal at the Tenth Circuit and secured a $3.6 million judgment. In an order awarding fees (vigorously opposed by defendant), Judge Lungstrum noted the complexity of the claims and ruled: “Despite the sheer volume of evidence needed to describe and place in context defendants’ course of conduct, coupled with the need to fit that evidence into amorphous concepts like “good faith” and “implied duty,” plaintiffs’ counsel achieved a multimillion dollar verdict for his clients. For these reasons, the court readily concludes (and defendants cannot seriously dispute) that plaintiffs obtained excellent results at trial.”

Vanhamme v. 7-Eleven (Breach of Contract/Tort Litigation) George first-chaired this trial involving a 7-Eleven franchise owner alleging breach of franchise agreement and false-imprisonment against corporate 7-Eleven. The jury returned a for plaintiff on the tort claim. The case settled in the hallway while the jury was deliberating an award of punitive damages.

NOTEABLE CURRENT CASES:

Equal Pay Cases (Gender Discrimination Litigation) George represents a putative class of thousands of female financial advisors in two class and collective action lawsuits against Edward Jones. The suits filed in federal courts in Chicago and St. Louis allege that Edward Jones implemented company-wide policies resulting in pay discrimination and limited advancement opportunities for women in violation of the Equal Pay Act and Title VII.

Travel Nurses (Wage and Hour/Breach of Contract/Fraud) George and his colleagues represent thousands of travel nurses in actions against multiple staffing agencies for imposing “take-it-or-leave-it” pay-rate cuts mid-contract and failing to pay proper overtime wages. He and the travel nurse team have already recovered millions of dollars for nurses harmed by these unlawful practices.

Tobacco Surcharge Cases (ERISA Litigation) George and his partner Alex Ricke are prosecuting multiple companies challenging unlawful tobacco surcharges imposed on employee health plans. These cases allege violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) where employers failed to provide a “reasonable alternative standard” to avoid the surcharge, as required under wellness program regulations.

Rea v. McKesson Corporation (Breach of Contract Litigation) George and his team represent leading Kansas City entrepreneur and philanthropist Michael Rea in a lawsuit filed in the wake of the $875 million acquisition of the company he founded—Rx Savings Solutions—by pharmaceutical industry giant McKesson. The case filed in Kansas state court alleges that less than one year after the acquisition in 2022, McKesson terminated Rea under false pretenses in violation of his employment agreement and to thwart payment of the contingent consideration component of the company acquisition.

TEACHING AND SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

George has made numerous presentations regarding wage and hour law as part of seminars and continuing legal education programs across the country. He has also been a frequent guest lecturer at the University of Missouri Law School—Kansas City, the University of Kansas School of Law and the Washington University School of Law on wage and hour topics and complex litigation generally. Presentations include:

“Wage and Hour Litigation and Compliance 2025” The Practising Law Institute (January 27, 2025, New York, NY)

“Rapid Fire Wage and Hour Case Law Update” The Practising Law Institute (January 29, 2024, New York, NY)

“Wage and Hour Litigation and Compliance 2023” The Practising Law Institute (January 30, 2023, New York, NY)

“Rapid Fire Wage and Hour Case Law Update” The Practising Law Institute (January 25, 2022, New York, NY)

“Rapid Fire Wage and Hour Case Law Update” The Practising Law Institute (January 26, 2021, New York, NY)

“Wage and Hour Case Law Update,” The Practising Law Institute (January 28, 2020, New York, NY)

“The Life of a Wage and Hour Litigation Class or Collective Claim,” The Practising Law Institute (February 13, 2018 New York, NY)

“Wage & Hour Litigation and Compliance 2017: The Life of a Wage and Hour Litigation Claim,” The Practising Law Institute (March 1, 2017, New York, NY)

“Planning for a Wage and Hour Trial,” NELA 2016 Annual Convention (June 23, 2016, Los Angeles, CA)

“Views From the Plaintiff’s Bar,” American Conference Institute’s 27th National Forum on Wage & Hour Claims and Class Actions (June 3, 2016, New York, NY)

“Wage & Hour Litigation and Compliance 2016: White Collar Exemptions and Effect of DOL Regulations,” The Practising Law Institute (February 8, 2016, New York, NY)

“Trying Wage and Hour Cases of All Sizes,” NELA Protecting Pay: Representing Workers (April 24, 2015, Washington, DC)

“Litigating Attorneys’ Fees in Fee Shifting Cases,” ABA Federal Labor Standards Legislation Committee Midwinter Meeting (February 27, 2015, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico)

“Wage & Hour Litigation and Compliance 2015: Arbitration Agreements and Class Waivers,” The Practising Law Institute (February 9, 2015, New York, NY)

“Class Action Fundamentals,” ABA Annual Labor and Employment Law Conference (November 6, 2014, Los Angeles, CA)

“The Vanishing Trial: A Bench & Bar Dialogue Luncheon,” Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association, (October 8, 2014, Kansas City, MO)

“Wage & Hour Litigation and Compliance 2014: Trends in Wage & Hour Filings and Case Law Update,” Practising Law Institute (February 10, 2014, New York, NY)

“FLSA – Conditional Certification and Judicial Notice,” 2013 Upper Midwest Employment Law Institute (May 21, 2013, St. Paul, MN)

“Trying Wage & Hour Class and Collective Actions,” NELA, Preventing Wage Theft: A Two-Day Guide to Litigating Cases Involving Wages, Hours & Work (March 8 – 9, 2013, Chicago, IL)

“FLSA – Hot Topics from the Midwinter Report,” ABA Association, Federal Labor Standards Legislation Committee Midwinter Meeting (February 20-22, 2013, Los Cabos, Mexico)

“Managing Wage & Hour Risks 2013: Handling Classification and Compensation in the 21st Century Workplace,” Practising Law Institute (February 11, 2013, New York, NY)

PUBLISHED WORKS:

For many years George has been a contributing author and editor to several leading treatises in the field of wage and hour law. George was a member of the Senior Editorial Board for the Third Edition of the ABA’s “Fair Labor Standards Act” (ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law) and Chapter Author (Kansas/Missouri) for “Wage and Hour Laws, A State-by-State Survey,” (ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law). George also authored “Lifting All Boats: The Case for Wage and Hour Enforcement in Recessionary Times,” published in the Kansas Journal of Law & Public Policy, Volume XIX Number 3 (Spring 2010).

COMMUNITY RELATIONS AND PRO BONO WORK:

George currently serves on the Advisory Board of the University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum whose mission is to study life on Earth, past and present, to educate, engage, and inspire the public and future scientists, leveraging its extensive collections for research, discovery, and understanding biodiversity for human well-being.

In 2012 George was appointed by the United States District Court for the District of Kansas to a committee that created the district’s first discovery guidelines for cases involving electronically stored information (ESI).

George frequently devotes his time to assisting disadvantaged individuals navigate legal issues, particularly those involving employment and civil rights. In one recent and notable example George represented a young Black man whose life was forever changed in a car accident that severed his spinal cord and rendered him permanently quadriplegic. After his prominent Kansas City-based employer terminated his employment, George took up his disability and race discrimination claims and litigated to a $537,000 settlement (an amount exceeding a “best day” outcome after trial given damage caps). George and his firm did not take a fee helping this courageous young man achieve his dream—to buy a house that could fully accommodate his disability and allow him to live independently.

Honors & Recognitions

Best Lawyers® in America - Employment Law/Individuals "Lawyer of the Year" in Kansas City, MO (2022 and 2026)

Best Lawyers® in America - Litigation- Labor and Employment "Lawyer of the Year" in Kansas City, MO (2025)

Best Lawyers® Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions-Plaintiffs "Lawyer of the Year" in Kansas City, MO (2014, 2016)

Best Lawyers® in America - Commercial Litigation; Employment Law-Individuals; Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions - Plaintiffs; Litigation-Labor and Employment (2014-present)

Missouri Lawyers Media POWER List for Employment Law 

Best of the Bar, Kansas City Business Journal (2005-2016)

Super Lawyer - Business Litigation, Missouri & Kansas Super Lawyers (2006-present)

AV Preeminent® Peer Review Rated - Martindale Hubbell

Local Litigation Star for the State of Missouri - Benchmark Plaintiffs (2013-2015)

Chambers USA, Band 2: Labor & Employment: Mainly Plaintiffs