Alexander T. Ricke

Alex Ricke is a partner at Stueve Siegel Hanson who represents workers, individuals, and governments in plaintiff-side litigation nationwide. Alex’s cases have resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in client recoveries, changed wage and hour practices, and the removal of dangerous guardrail end terminals from Missouri highways.

Alex focuses his practice on three primary areas:

Wage and Hour and Employment. Alex has been lead or co-lead counsel in scores of wage and hour class and collective actions recovering well over $100 million for casino workers, satellite technicians, and travel nurses, among others.

Most recently, Alex has built a reputation representing tipped and minimum wage workers at casinos. He is especially proud of the change his cases have brought about, including that many American gaming companies now pay overtime to tipped workers based on the full minimum wage, no longer charge workers for gaming licenses, no longer round time, and no longer require dealers to use pooled tips to pay supervisors for their PTO.

In these cases, Alex has secured settlements worth more than $70 million, including these selected results:

• $12.5 million settlement of tip credit claims for minimum wage workers at two MGM casinos.
• $9.8 million settlement of tip credit and wage deduction claims for minimum wage workers at three Rush Street Gaming casinos (representing 104% of unpaid minimum wages).

• $6 million settlement of tip credit and wage deduction claims for workers at Wind Creek casino.

In addition to wage and hour work, Alex pioneered private litigation challenging outcome-based wellness plans under ERISA like tobacco surcharges where employers fail to offer a reasonable alternative standard (e.g., tobacco cessation program) or does not offer the full reward to those who complete the alternative standard (e.g., retroactive reimbursement of surcharges). Recoveries in these cases now exceed $10 million.

In Lipari-Williams v. Penn National Gaming (W.D. Mo.), Alex secured the first litigated class certification order in an ERISA wellness plan case. Then, in Platt v. Sodexo, Alex argued an appeal to prevent arbitration of these claims, which resulted in the Ninth Circuit issuing a published opinion holding that ERISA does not preempt the FAA’s contract formation requirements, common law contract formation defenses apply to arbitration of ERISA claims, and the effective vindication doctrine precludes representative action waivers.

Complex Class Actions. Alongside employment work, Alex has prosecuted complex product liability and privacy class actions. In one recent case, he worked as part of the leadership team that secured a settlement worth more than $56 million for Jackson County and a certified class of Missouri counties seeking the cost of removing and replacing Trinity Industries’ 4-inch ET Plus guardrail end terminal from Missouri roads. These devices had been removed from the Missouri Department of Transportation’s approved product list and were linked to serious injuries and death at the time Jackson County filed its lawsuit in 2015. Missouri Lawyers Media recognized this result as a top three settlement in the State of Missouri in 2022.

High Stakes Litigation for Individuals. Alex represents individuals in executive separation, whistleblower, and other kinds of litigation where the clients have their livelihoods on the line. Alex represented the CEO of a well-known Kansas City company in separating from the company and represented a group of founders in resolving an earn-out dispute after they sold their company to a large Kansas City firm.

The common thread in Alex’s individual representations is that the client has something important on the line – and that is not just in the business world. Alex spent four years representing the family of a toddler with special needs, who experienced weeks of physical abuse at a St. Louis daycare at the hands of a classmate while the school did nothing. On the eve of trial, Alex secured a significant settlement and creation of a special needs trust that will help this little boy for the rest of his life.  

Alex has been named a Super Lawyers “Rising Star” since 2016, has been ranked by Chambers for “Labor and Employment: Mainly Plaintiffs” since 2023, and was named a Law360 “Rising Star” for Employment in 2022 (recognizing top lawyers under 40).

A transplant from St. Louis, he enjoys spending time with his wife, three kids, and two Labrador Retrievers, traveling, and supporting the Missouri Tigers, St. Louis Cardinals, St. Louis Blues, and Kansas City Chiefs.

News

Experience

Current Cases

Defective Guardrail End Terminal Litigation, Circuit Court of Jackson County:  Alex is part of a team serving as class counsel for Jackson County, Missouri and a certified class of government entities seeking to recoup the cost of removing and replacing defective and dangerous end terminals from the manufacturer.

Casino Wage and Hour Litigation, Multiple Jurisdictions:  Alex is co-lead counsel in four cases challenging habitual wage and hour violations by casinos and hospitality companies for a variety of wage and hour issues, including failure to provide a tip credit notice before paying a sub-minimum wage, failure to include the tip credit in the regular rate of pay for overtime, permitting managers and supervisors’ participation in tip pools, deducting gaming licenses from employees’ wages, and improper timeclock rounding.

Equal Pay Act Litigation, Finefrock, et al. v. Five Guys Operations, LLC, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania: In a groundbreaking case, Alex obtained conditional collective certification of a group of female General Managers and Assistant General Managers at Five Guys’ corporate-owned restaurants under the Equal Pay Act alleging that our clients and other women were paid less than their male colleagues. See Finefrock v. Five Guys Operations, LLC, 2018 WL 4599584 (M.D. Pa. Sept. 25, 2018).

Executive Severance Arbitration: Alex currently represents a former executive at a Fortune 1000 company seeking to recover unpaid severance benefits following a change in control.

Recent Litigation Highlights

Confidential FLSA Collective Action Settlement with Fortune 500 Hospitality Company, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri:  Alex was co-lead counsel for approximately 14,000 table games dealers and other tipped employees for violations of the FLSA stemming from failure to provide tip credit notice, failure to include the value of the tip credit in the regular rate of pay for overtime, and timeclock rounding.  After defeating a motion to dismiss, briefing class certification, and briefing summary judgment, the case was successfully resolved as a collective action. 

DIRECTV Wage and Hour Litigation, Multiple Jurisdictions: Alex was part of the litigation team asserting violations of the FLSA and state wage laws against DIRECTV and associated entities on behalf of satellite installation technicians across more than 50 federal cases. In these cases challenging DIRECTV’s fissured employment structure (i.e., engaging independent contractors through intermediaries and denying the employment relationship) and failure to pay minimum wage and overtime, he deposed approximately 30 current and former DIRECTV managers.  Parachuting into these cases as needed, Alex also successfully argued several motions in jurisdictions around the country.  The cases were successfully resolved in 2018.

Confidential FLSA Collective Action Settlement with Fortune 1000 Hospitality Company, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri: Alex was co-lead counsel for approximately 4,000 table games dealers and other tipped employees for violations of the FLSA stemming from failure to provide tip credit notice, failure to include the value of the tip credit in the regular rate of pay for overtime, and timeclock rounding.  While class certification was pending, the case was successfully resolved as a collective action.

Confidential Executive Departure Settlement:  Alex and George Hanson represented an executive at a Kansas City-based tech start-up for unpaid sales commissions following the client’s departure from the company.  They successfully negotiated a pre-suit resolution for the client and successfully retained the client’s vested shares in the company, which had a significant valuation when the startup was acquired shortly thereafter.

Data Breach Class Action Settlement, Hapka v. CareCentrix, Inc, U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas: Along with Barrett Vahle, Alex had day-to-day management responsibility for this data breach class action alleging that CareCentrix was negligent in permitting its 2015 W-2 Forms to be released to a third-party fraudster in a “spoofing” attack.  After successfully defending against a motion to dismiss and an attempt to engage in absent class member discovery, Plaintiff reached a class action settlement with CareCentrix that was granted final approval in February 2018.  In approving the settlement, the Court found it “reflects an outstanding result for the Class in a case with a significant level of risk” and that the “relief compares very favorably to settlements in other data breach class actions.” Hapka v. CareCentrix, Inc., 2018 WL 1871449, at *4 (D. Kan. Feb. 15, 2018)

Background Check and Overtime Class Action Settlement, Criddell v. Premier Healthcare Services, LLC, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California: Alex prosecuted this case from inception through approval of the class and collective action offer of judgment.  The Plaintiff asserted claims for violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, FLSA, and California Labor Code against a home healthcare provider.  In February 2017, the Court certified the FCRA claim as a class action and conditionally certified the FLSA claim as a collective action.  In March 2017, Plaintiff accepted a Rule 68 offer of judgment for $247,854 for the FCRA class ($101 per class member with checks mailed directly to class members without the need to submit a claim form) and complete overtime damages to the FLSA collective (like the FCRA class, checks were mailed to directly to FLSA collective members without the need to submit a claim form).  On behalf of our firm and co-counsel, Alex also recovered a significant attorneys’ fee award separate from and in addition to the class and collective recoveries through a vehemently contested arbitration of the issue, which was then adopted and approved by the Court in January 2018.

Defective Product Litigation Against a Major Automotive Manufacturer, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California:  Alex coordinated the litigation team that, in April 2016, secured final approval of a nationwide settlement between a class of owners and lessees of approximately 800,000 class vehicles and a major automotive manufacturer.  The lawsuit stemmed from allegations that the steering system in the class vehicles was defective and caused the vehicles to “wander” at highway speeds.  The settlement followed extensive written and deposition discovery where Alex deposed five corporate executives.  The settlement relief provided cash refunds or repairs to class members who made claims.

Confidential Commercial Litigation Settlement, Confidential Jurisdiction: Alex was part of the litigation team that filed a lawsuit on behalf of a bank holding company against a major bank holding company and one of its subsidiaries.  The litigation arose out of a merger agreement between the parties whereby Defendants agreed to purchase Alex’s client.  However, the merger failed to obtain regulatory approval due to Defendants’ actions in another market in violation of federal regulations.  After defeating a motion to dismiss and engaging in discovery, the case was successfully resolved and the purchase agreement was completed.

Antitrust Class Action Settlement, Circuit Court of Jackson County, Missouri:   Alex was a part of the litigation team that, in November 2015, secured final approval of a $3,500,000 settlement between a certified class of Missouri citizens who had purchased milk and cream products and Defendant.  The lawsuit stemmed from one of Defendant’s programs whereby Defendant incentivized member farmers to cull their cattle herds, which artificially increased the price of milk and dairy products in Missouri in violation of the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act.  The case was settled following class certification, denial of a writ related to class certification, and argument on summary judgment.

Honors & Recognitions

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

Best Lawyers in America, 2025: Employment Law: Individuals and Litigation: Labor and Employment

Law360 Rising Star, Employment Law, 2022

Missouri & Kansas Super Lawyers, Rising Star, 2016-2022

Missouri Lawyers Media No. 3 Top Settlement of 2022 for $56 million reached in Jackson County v. Trinity Industries Inc.

Community & Professional

The Missouri Bar

The Illinois State Bar Association

The Kansas Bar Association

Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys

Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association

The Mizzou Alumni Association

Professional Organizations

Illinois State Bar

The Missouri Bar

Kansas Bar Association

Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association