Paul DeCamp

"Virtually all reputable companies want to pay their people correctly for the work they perform. What often gets in the way is a tangle of fundamentally ambiguous federal, state, and even local requirements that give rise to serious operational challenges and legal risk. My work involves helping businesses understand their options, informed by trends in private litigation and public enforcement." —Paul DeCamp

When an employer faces a large-scale wage and hour class action, a government investigation, or a regulation it believes exceeds the agency's authority, the stakes are often measured in millions of dollars and years of litigation.

Paul DeCamp brings a perspective that few attorneys in this field can match: He has spent three decades defending employers in federal court and advising them on compliance, and he served as the Administrator of the U.S. Department of Labor's (DOL's) Wage and Hour Division (WHD)—the presidentially appointed chief officer responsible for interpreting and enforcing the nation's wage and hour laws. That combination of frontline agency experience and decades of private practice gives clients a 360-degree view of their challenges, from how plaintiffs' counsel will frame their claims to how agency investigators will evaluate their practices.

Paul defends across a wide range of industries—including health care, financial services, hospitality, retail, manufacturing, and technology—in federal court litigation involving exempt and non-exempt employee classification, minimum wage and overtime requirements, tip credit, and independent contractor status. His creative and forceful arguments have blocked class certification attempts and led the DOL to revise its interpretation of Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) provisions. He has also secured significant appellate victories, including one of the first post-Chevron appellate decisions vacating a federal regulation.

Beyond litigation, clients rely on Paul for the full range of day-to-day wage and hour counseling—from discrete questions involving a single employee to nationwide pay practice evaluations affecting thousands of workers. He assists clients with pay practice audits and corporate transaction due diligence. His strong relationships with key DOL personnel and other federal and state agencies give clients the benefit of further consideration and review when responding to investigations. Paul is also a frequent speaker and has testified before Congress multiple times, both during his tenure at the DOL and in private practice, on topics ranging from overtime regulations to tipped-worker protections to worker misclassification. He co-edits and contributes to the firm’s Wage and Hour Defense Blog.

Paul serves as a member of Epstein Becker Green's Board of Directors, co-chair of the Wage and Hour practice, and a member of the firm's Employment, Labor & Workforce Management Steering Committee and Agency Action Challenges Team.

What Paul Delivers for Clients

• Government Insider Perspective: Having served as the presidentially appointed head of the DOL's Wage and Hour Division, Paul understands agency enforcement priorities, investigative approaches, and regulatory decision-making from the inside—giving employers intelligence and credibility when they engage with regulators that outside counsel alone cannot provide.
• Litigation Defense in High-Stakes Class Actions: Paul has blocked class certification attempts and secured appellate victories in wage and hour collective and class actions across the country, defending employers against costly exposure before claims can reach trial.
• Agency Overreach Challenges: When a federal regulation exceeds agency authority, Paul fights back. He obtained one of the first post-Chevron appellate decisions vacating a federal rule—an outcome that directly shaped the legal landscape for the affected industry.
• Comprehensive Risk Assessment and Counseling: From evaluating the exempt status of a single employee to auditing pay practices affecting thousands of workers nationwide, Paul helps employers identify, quantify, and address wage and hour risk before litigation or regulatory scrutiny begins.
• Transaction Due Diligence: Paul provides labor and employment due diligence for corporate transactions, helping buyers and sellers assess wage and hour exposure before a deal closes.

Insider Strategies for Wage and Hour Compliance Success: Paul discusses his experience as the former head of the Wage and Hour Division under President George W. Bush and provides an insider’s view of government enforcement priorities, compliance pitfalls, and the complexities employers face when disputes arise.

Tipped Employee and Tip Credit Matters

• Challenged the DOL on behalf of the National Restaurant Association in federal court and before agency personnel to withdraw its 2011 regulations regarding tip credit. Paul's work paved the way for restaurants and other businesses to create tip pools for tipped and non-tipped employees.
• Secured a unanimous appellate opinion vacating the DOL's 2021 80/20/30 regulation concerning tipped employees.
• Represented a restaurant in a DOL investigation regarding pay practices.

Employee Classification and Exempt Status

• Defended a pharmaceutical company in three lawsuits—in California, Florida, and Illinois federal courts—that challenged the exempt status of pharmaceutical sales representatives. Although plaintiffs' counsel attempted to transfer all three suits to the only circuit that classified those workers as non-exempt, Paul persuaded the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation to conclude that each case should remain in its original district.
• Defended a large retailer against attempts to certify a nationwide FLSA collective action involving the exempt status of store managers. Paul challenged the plaintiff's contention of common practices by proving the plaintiff had limited knowledge of payment practices at other store locations.

Intercollegiate Athletics and Employment Status

• Defended 30 NCAA Division I universities against claims that their student-athletes were owed the minimum wage under the FLSA as employees for time spent participating in intercollegiate sports. In arguing the absence of an employment relationship, Paul secured the first federal appellate ruling that collegiate athletics should continue as an amateur endeavor rather than as paid .

Time Clock Rounding and Meal Period Deductions

• Successfully defended a class and collective action challenging the pay practices at three manufacturing facilities, leading the court to order the decertification of the class and collective.

California’s Labor Code, Including PAGA

• Represented numerous employers facing the full gamut of claims frequently lodged against businesses in the state, including overtime, minimum wage, meal and rest, regular rate, unreimbursed business expenses, pay statements, timely wage payment, waiting time penalties, and more, often brought on a class and representative basis.

Appellate Matters and Agency Action Challenges

• Submitted an amicus brief on behalf of the firm to the D.C. Circuit addressing federal court jurisdiction in a challenge to the EPA's efforts to claw back grant funds.
• Successfully represented a government contractor in an appeal of a DOL letter ruling.

Investigations and Internal Reviews

• Led an investigation on behalf of a national sports franchise into wage and hour practices.

Transaction Due Diligence and Restrictive Covenants

• Assisted a client with due diligence in a potential acquisition.
• Enforced a non-compete against a former employee.

• The Treatment of Tipped Workers Under the Fair Labor Standards Act: Hearing Before the Subcomm. on Workforce Protections of the H. Comm. on Education & the Workforce, 118th Cong. (2024)
• Bad for Business: DOL’s Proposed Overtime Rule: Hearing Before the Subcomm. on Workforce Protections of the H. Comm. on Education & the Workforce, 118th Cong. (2023)
• Essential but Undervalued: Examining Workplace Protections for Domestic Workers: Hearing Before the Subcomm. on Workforce Protections of the H. Comm. on Education and Labor, 117th Cong. (2022)
• Farmworkers, Domestic Workers, and Tipped Wage Under the Fair Labor Standards Act: Hearing Before the Subcomm. on Workforce Protections of the H. Comm. on Education and Labor, 117th Cong. (2021)
• Combatting Wage Theft: The Critical Role of Wage and Hour Enforcement: Hearing Before the Subcomm. on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies of the H. Comm. on Appropriations, 116th Cong. (2019)
• Improving the Federal Wage and Hour Regulatory Structure: Hearing Before the Subcomm. on Workforce Protections of the H. Comm. on Education and the Workforce, 113th Cong. (2014)
• The Misclassification of Workers as Independent Contractors: What Policies and Practices Best Protect Workers?: Joint Hearing Before the Subcomm. on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions and the Subcomm. on Workforce Protections of the H. Comm. on Education and Labor, 110th Cong. 9-35 (2007)
• Adequacy of Labor Law Enforcement in New Orleans: Hearing Before the Subcomm. on Domestic Policy of the H. Comm. on Oversight and Government Reform, 110th Cong. (2007)

• The College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, Fellow (Elected 2025)
• Law360, “Employment Practice Group of the Year” (2024)
• The Best Lawyers in America^©, Employment Law—Management (2019 to 2026); Litigation—Labor and Employment (2017 to 2026)
• Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business: District of Columbia—Labor & Employment, "Leader in Their Field" (2018 to 2025); Virginia—Labor & Employment, "Leader in Their Field" (2011 to 2017)

According to a source, “[Paul] is without a doubt the smartest attorney I have ever worked with. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of his practice area and, moreover, is practical in his advice." Another source says that Paul “combines a deep knowledge of the law and has a real understanding of the economics that drive our business. He has a great work ethic, and is extremely efficient with his time." And another source adds, “He is an excellent lawyer, especially on wage and hour."

• The Legal 500 United States, Labor and Employment Disputes (Including Collective Actions): Defense (2018 to 2025); Workplace and Employment Counseling (2018 to 2021)
• Washington, DC, Super Lawyers, Employment Litigation: Defense and Employment & Labor: Employer (2014 to 2025)
• Washingtonian Magazine, “Top Lawyers,” Employment Defense (2020, 2022)
• Virginia Super Lawyers, Employment Litigation: Defense and Employment & Labor (2013 to 2017)
• Virginia Rising Stars, Employment Litigation: Defense and Employment & Labor (2010 to 2011)
• Secretary of Labor Exceptional Achievement Awards, Recipient of three awards (2007 to 2008)

Education

• Columbia University School of Law (J.D., 1995)
  • Notes Editor, Columbia Law Review
  • Director and Student Editor, First-Year Moot Court Program
  • Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar
• Harvard College (A.B., magna cum laude, 1992)
  • John Harvard Academic Scholar
  • Harvard College Academic Scholar
  • National Merit Scholar
  • President, Quad Sound Studios, a student-run on-campus recording studio

Clerkships

• Law Clerk to the Honorable Alan E. Norris, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (1995 to 1996)

Board of Directors

• Epstein Becker Green

Professional & Community Involvement

• American Employment Law Council
• Law360 Employment Editorial Advisory Board (2021)
• Law360 Wage & Hour Advisory Board (2022, 2023, 2024)