United States 
Canada (EN) 
México 
France 
Deutschland 
United Kingdom 
T. Scott Kelly advises employers on the equal employment obligations embedded in every workforce decision, drawing on decades of experience building and defending the compensation systems, selection procedures, and employment practices that produce defensible, legally sustainable outcomes. He chairs Ogletree Deakins’ Workforce Analytics and Compliance Practice Group and co-chairs the firm’s Government Contracting and Compliance and Pay Equity practice groups, advising employers of all sizes from the firm’s Birmingham, Alabama, and Washington, D.C. offices. He serves on the firm’s Compensation Committee.
Chambers USA recognizes Scott for his expertise in federal contractor compliance and systemic discrimination investigations, with clients noting that he is “a true subject matter expert who is thoughtful and proactive in tracking changes and regulations.” Thomson Reuters named him a Stand-Out Lawyer in 2025 and 2026, with clients noting his “great responsiveness and client service” and that his advice “helps you formulate strategies that are effective for your business in your context.” Scott serves as faculty of the Institute for Workplace Equality and as management co-chair of the American Bar Association Labor and Employment Law Section’s Equal Employment Opportunity Committee, reflecting his engagement with both the policy community and the profession on the EEO issues his clients navigate.
From how employers recruit and set starting pay to how they evaluate, advance, and separate employees, including through AI-driven and automated decision tools, Scott counsels on the decision-making processes, documentation, and merit-based frameworks that produce outcomes the law will sustain. Working with a team of attorneys and statisticians, Scott helps employers identify where their systems create legal exposure, design processes that reduce it, and validate analytically that the changes hold before regulators or plaintiffs make that assessment for them.
Scott’s practice is grounded in decades of representing employers in government enforcement proceedings, including OFCCP compliance evaluations and the defense of systemic and pattern-or-practice discrimination claims involving statistical analyses of hiring and compensation practices. That enforcement experience informs his counsel across all EEO matters and extends to supporting litigation teams in matters where workforce data intersects with legal defense, bringing the analytical depth those matters require to inform litigation strategy, settlement posture, and risk evaluation.
As co-chair of the Government Contracting and Compliance Practice Group, Scott advises federal contractors and grant recipients on executive order compliance, Federal Acquisition Regulation workforce mandates, and Section 503 and VEVRAA obligations. He hosts Defensible Decisions, his podcast and newsletter on the intersection of employment law and workforce analytics. His perspective on pay equity, EEO enforcement, and federal contractor compliance is regularly sought by Bloomberg Law, the Associated Press, Law360, and HR Dive.
