Employment Law Counseling

We fight many battles for the employers we represent. However, our greatest value to clients lies in the preventive counseling we provide. The old adage that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure holds especially true in labor and employment law. We counsel employers on a daily basis on the full spectrum of workplace law issues: employee discipline and discharge, ADA/FMLA compliance, wage-hour compliance, union avoidance, employee benefits, workers’ compensation and the like.

When it comes to providing our clients with appropriate policies, procedures or employee handbooks, we tailor documents to the employer’s specific needs without necessarily “reinventing the wheel.” We draw upon our vast database to efficiently prepare a single policy or entire manual of policies that allows an employer to effectively manage its human resources. We recognize that an employee handbook represents both a prime opportunity to communicate effectively with employees as well as an opportunity to protect an employer from expensive and contentious disputes with employees.

Employers can have a variety of motivations for using employment agreements for executives or other key personnel. One such benefit is to protect an employer’s confidential and proprietary information through non-solicitation and non-competion agreements. Our attorneys are adept at identifying an employer’s goals and objectives in using employment agreements and then crafting agreements to meet the employer’s needs.

Situations arise where an employer needs an outside third party to conduct an in-depth workplace investigation, such as in cases involving allegations of sexual or other unlawful harassment, workplace violence, or a serious workplace injury. We have extensive experience conducting such investigations for employers or we can connect our clients with experienced human resource professionals who can conduct such investigations under our supervision to maximize the advantages of the attorney-client privilege.

We help companies comply with the numerous and complex obligations under the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act. We help prepare for OSHA audits and have extensive experience in contesting OSHA citations. We also defend employers in OSHA litigation.

Clients facing minimum wage, overtime pay and child labor problems seek our counsel in response to Department of Labor investigations or employee-initiated lawsuits. We also give preventive advice to clients, auditing compensation policies, for example, to assure that employees are properly classified as exempt or non-exempt.

Many employers have increasingly turned to foreign workers to meet their needs for skilled workers who possess the requisite professional, managerial, technical and engineering skills. We assist employers in getting a non-immigrant visa or green card for a foreign worker.