Erica V. Fleetwood, a partner in Akerman's Labor and Employment Practice Group, has been named to Atlanta Magazine's 2026 Atlanta 500, a selective list recognizing the 500 most influential business and civic leaders in Atlanta. This marks Erica's seventh consecutive year on the list (2019-2026). She was selected in the Professionals category.
The Atlanta 500 recognizes leaders across a broad range of industries and disciplines whose work is shaping business, civic institutions and public policy across the region.
Erica is a seasoned litigator and advisor whose highly diverse, multilingual team offers a strategic advantage to clients with increasingly multicultural and globalized workforces. As national and regional employment counsel, she routinely defends employment claims before state and federal courts and agencies across the country, including successfully litigating multiple sexual harassment class actions brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, as well as dozens of class and collective actions against privately represented individuals and groups. She also assists clients with internal and governmental audits and investigations, M&A and private equity HR due diligence, restructurings and reductions in force, restrictive covenant agreements, multistate employment law compliance programs, and crisis management and PR messaging involving sensitive allegations against high-ranking employees.
Clients also value Erica's proactive and practical approach to identifying preemptive HR strategies that increase employee job satisfaction, minimize risk and reduce overall litigation spend — work she considers critical to ensuring her clients' long-term success. She also conducts training on a number of employment-related topics, including EEO and wage and hour compliance issues, as well as diversity, inclusion, implicit bias, respectful workplace norms, leadership development and executive presence.
Erica is also widely recognized for her leadership and service within the legal profession and the broader community. She is the immediate past national president of the Hispanic National Bar Association and serves on a number of nonprofit boards. Throughout her career, she has earned consistent recognition from leading legal and business publications for her work in labor and employment law and her advocacy for increasing racial/ethnic diversity and inclusion in the legal profession.