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Chris Near is a shareholder in the Columbia, South Carolina office of Ogletree Deakins. He practices throughout the United States as a strategic, yet practical, advisor to and advocate for, large and small contractors and subcontractors who do business with the federal government.
As a member of Ogletree’s Government Contracting & Reporting Practice Group, Chris is part of an experienced team who counsels and defends contractors nationwide on jurisdictional, compliance, and enforcement issues involving the United States Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP).
Chris regularly provides straightforward and strategic guidance, representation, and legal defense, through every step of an OFCCP compliance review, including:
- Offering companies proactive guidance before receiving an OFCCP scheduling letter, as well as working side-by-side with company officials (in-house counsel, human resources, talent acquisition, recruiters, and other members of management) to effectively and timely prepare a response once a review begins;
- Assessing and, as needed, challenging OFCCP’s jurisdiction;
- Evaluating and responding to requests for information from OFCCP;
- Preparing individuals for, and providing legal defense during, management interviews;
- Providing guidance before and representation during virtual and in-person OFCCP onsites;
- Partnering with statisticians and outside vendors on data-specific compensation or hiring issues raised during a review;
- Working closely with companies to establish and carry out strategic plans for responding to alleged technical violations and/or claims of discrimination; and
- Negotiating conciliation agreements with OFCCP and guiding contractors through post-settlement progress reporting obligations.
Chris also devotes his practice to providing realistic and pragmatic advice and solutions to compliance issues that companies can face on a daily basis, including:
- All aspects of statutory and regulatory equal employment opportunity (EEO) and OFCCP obligations under Executive Order 11246, Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Act of 1974 (such as outreach and recruitment efforts, assessments and evaluations, policies, website postings and taglines, recordkeeping, accommodations, and internal company processes for pay, applicants, hires, promotions, terminations, or any other area of employment);
- Guidance on annual Affirmative Action Programs (AAPs), including preparation of written programs, assessments, and regulatory evaluations of employment activities;
- Guidance on the 16 affirmative action steps for construction contractors;
- Creating and conducting company-focused training programs for employees and management officials;
- Designing and implementing privileged plans for conducting voluntary, proactive statistical analyses of compensation; and
- Offering detail-oriented, practical advice and solutions to complex applicant-hire processes, including best practices for the dispositioning of candidates and those involving large amounts of data.
Prior to focusing his practice on federal contractor compliance, Chris spent more than a decade defending lawsuits and administrative complaints in state court, federal court, and various state and federal administrative agencies.
Chris is a graduate of the University of South Carolina and the Walter F. George School of Law at Mercer University.
