Renee Atlas
Illinois, Israel
Professional Experience
Renee Atlas is Counsel to Rimon. Renee has extensive experience in areas of employment and commercial law and in contract negotiations. She has served as litigator, Civil Rights Judge, and as in-house counsel to an Israeli owned, American based hi-tech company. Renee is is licensed to practice law in the United States and Israel.
Prior to joining Rimon, Renee acted as HR Counsel to Applied Materials in Israel. As HR Counsel, Renee counseled the executive team on all aspects of employee benefits and disputes, managed employment litigations and mediations, negotiated vendor contracts, designed policies and conducted trainings for employees and management.
Before Applied Materials, Renee worked for the President of the National Labor Court in Israel and for the Office of the Chief Scientist.
Renee's practice began in the United States as in-house counsel for the International Union of Operating Engineers and later as a Lecturer at Chicago-Kent School of Law before moving to private practice. In 1990, she was appointed to serve as a Judge on the Human Rights Commission for the State of Illinois. As a Judge, Renee presided over civil rights cases involving state and federal constitutional questions and issued numerous published decisions, none of which were overturned on appeal.
Renee's expertise and experience includes:
- Advising management on employees’ rights and benefits;
- Co-authoring with the President of Appellate Labor Court in Israel: “Legal Aspects of Work-Related Mental Illness and Disorder.” Israel Journal of Psychiatry 2004 Vol. 4.
- Creating and conducting corporate training workshops: How to legally: hire, fire, investigate alleged wrongdoing, and test for drug use;
- Authoring policies on employment benefits and benefit handbooks;
- Writing severance package contracts and non-compete agreements;
- Drafting vendor contracts regarding employment matters;
- Writing: policies and procedures;
- Advising companies and the Israeli Office of the Chief Scientist regarding grant applications for bi-national funding for hi-tech and bio-tech projects;
- Presiding over Civil Rights Court and ruling each week upon 100 summary judgment, discovery and jurisdiction motions. Presiding over civil rights age, sex, race, national origin discrimination trials;
- Litigating in federal and state court discrimination litigation, immigration and naturalization cases and injunctions (corporate clients have included airline industry, employment agencies, colleges, hotels and national non-profit agencies);
- Negotiating and writing multi-party commercial service contracts;
- Negotiating multi-party collective bargaining agreements;
- Representing corporate clients in union arbitrations, unfair labor practice proceedings and workers’ compensation appeals.
Bars & Courts
- Florida, 1983*
- Illinois, 1984
- U.S. Federal Trial Bar, 1984
- U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, 1984
- Mediation Certification awarded by DePaul University, 2000
- Israel, 2005
Education
- Bar-Ilan University M.A., 2005
- IIT/Chicago-Kent College of Law J.D., 1983 Law Review; Research Fellowship recipient; Moot Court Society; Research Assistant;
- University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, B.S. (with Honors), 1980
Publications
Legal Aspects of Work-Related Mental Illness and Disorder.” Israel Journal of Psychiatry 2004 Vol. 4.
