top of page

    Employment

 

  • Diversity and inclusion consulting for several large and medium corporations, establishing written guidelines, protocols and strategies for implementing diversity and inclusion programs throughout the enterprise, including but not limited to non-confrontational discussion groups, presentations and sensitivity training intended to foster a culture of inclusivity rather than exclusivity.

​

  • Consultation regarding all the major areas of employment law, including agency investigations, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), class action employment lawsuits, defamation, employee misclassification, employment contracts, employment discrimination (discrimination based on a number of immutable characteristics such as age, gender, national origin, physical disability, race, religion, sexual orientation), Equal Pay Act (EPA), Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), family and medical leave – Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), hiring process (contractor or employee status, job applications and interviews, employment offers and contracts), immigration, job loss (planned reductions in force – RIF – mass layoffs, firing, wrongful termination), layoffs, licensing, long-term disability, maternity leave, military leave, non-compete agreements, OSHA compliance, overtime, privacy (desk and locker searches, drug testing, hidden cameras, tracking keyboard strokes and visited websites, wi-fi calls), reasonable accommodations, retirement, unemployment insurance issues, pensions (both the defined benefit plan – for which the benefit that an employee receives is normally based on the length of a worker’s employment and the wages that were received; an employee typically need not make contributions to such a plan – and the defined contribution plan – for which the employer makes regular deposits into an account established for each employee; however, the employee is not guaranteed to receive a given amount during retirement, but only whatever amount may be in the account), Sarbanes-Oxley, severance pay, social media use in the workplace, state laws, tip-pooling, tip-sharing, wages and benefits (wage and hours laws, health insurance benefits, employment and taxes, unions, veterans benefits, retirement benefits, time off work – whether paid or sick leave), Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), various exposures (asbestos, chemicals, dangerous machinery, lead paint), wage and hour disputes, Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN), workers’ compensation, workplace safety, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), workplace whistleblowers (protection for and retaliation against, cases), wrongful termination.

 

  • Working knowledge of relevant Chapters in the United States Code Title 29 – Labor – including 8 (Fair Labor Standards), 14 (Age Discrimination in Employment), 15 (Occupational Safety and Health), 16 (Vocational Rehabilitation and Other Rehabilitation Services), 18 (Employee Retirement Income Security Program – ERISA), 22 (Employee Polygraph Protection), 24 (Technology Related Assistance for Individuals With Disabilities), and 28 (Family and Medical Leave).

 

  • Working knowledge of relevant Chapters in the United States Code Title 42 – Public Health and Welfare – 21 (the Civil Rights Act) – including Sections 2000e - 2000e-17 ( Equal Employment Opportunity), Sections 1981, 1981A, 1983, 1988 (Employment Discrimination), and 126 (Equal Opportunity for Individuals with Disabilities).

 

  • Consultation regarding rebuttal of the “at-will” presumption (in most states, the legal presumption that employer-employee relationships are purely voluntary for both parties, and either party can terminate the relationship for no reason, without any resulting liability).

 

  • Familiarity with the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA), which protects the employment rights of current and former members of the Armed Forces, Reserves, National Guard and similar services from being terminated by employers due to absence caused by extended military deployment.

 

  • Familiarity with the difference between tip-pooling (a prearranged agreement between all workers, of which all workers in the pool are aware, in which all servers pool all their tips collectively at the end of a shift and then divide the total by the number of serves, so each server gets an equal share of the total tips made by all) affecting the calculation of hourly wages, identified under the US Department of Labor (DOL) Field Assistance Bulletin (FAB) No. 2018-3, and tip-sharing (a supposedly voluntary agreement by servers in which they give some percentage of their tips to non-server staff, such as kitchen workers, chefs, janitors), neither of which are necessarily illegal practices, as long as they are completely voluntary, with no coercion, and the net amount of tips remaining to the server in each practice do not cause the calculated hourly-wage (including the net amount of the tips) to fall below the minimum hourly wage.

 

  • Familiarity with misclassification issues (employers intentionally classifying workers as independent contractors to avoid the Federal minimum wage requirements), that cause abuse of tip-sharing practices, such as in the adult entertainment industry, where the dancers may be forced by the club owners to share their tips with DJs, bouncers, doormen, security guards, under threat by the club owner of physical violence or enforcing a non-compete clause in any written agreement with the performers, preventing them from working in competing clubs in an unduly-wide geographic radius.

 

  • Familiarity with defamation of character issues in the workplace (when an individual’s character or reputation is tarnished by a coworker’s fraudulent statement (slander) or action, such as a written statement (libel), requiring the defamed individual to prove there was:  an actual,  false and defamatory statement about the individual; and that such unprivileged publication was communicated by the defamer to some third party; and that the defamer intended to cause harm to the defamed individual or was at least negligent; and that such act by the defamer actually caused harm to the defamed individual.

 

  • Drafted, and continuing legal support for, employee handbooks, such as yearly updates, providing new hires with a copy of the handbook on their first day and having the new hires sign an acknowledgment that they have received the handbook, have read it, and agree to abide by the rules stated within it.

 

  • Consultation regarding severance agreements (generally not available to an employee who has been terminated for misconduct or poor job performance), may be available (at management’s discretion) to those employees who have lost their jobs because their position was eliminated or who were laid off as part of a mass layoff or planned RIF, or rarely for those retiring, which must be signed by the employee as a condition precedent in consideration for the employee to receive the payment.

 

  • Consultation regarding the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (LAD), N.J.S.A. 10:5-1, et seq.

 

  • Familiarity with the New Jersey Conscientious Employee Protection Act (CEPA), a "whistleblower" statute, prohibiting termination, retaliation or other adverse employment actions by the employer in retaliation for the employee engaging either in protected "whistleblowing" conduct or simply objecting or refusing to participate in conduct that is fraudulent or illegal or that violates a compelling public policy of a local government, a state government or the Federal government.

 

  • Consultation regarding non-compete agreements, prohibiting the employee from working for a competitor for a particular period of time or in a defined geographical area, after the employees leaves their current employment, designed by the employer to protect the employer from losing customers and clients to a competitor, due to a terminated employee working for a competitor and thus possibly sharing the trade secrets of business practices of the former employer with such competitor.

 

  • Consultation regarding non-solicitation agreements, prohibits a former employee from contacting clients of the prior employer, attempting to purposefully lure such clients away from the former employer, or prohibiting a former employee from soliciting former coworkers to work for a competitor.

 

  • Provided counseling and support related to common employment-related matters, including employee benefits, employee discipline, hiring practices, OSHA and safety matters, performance management, restructurings, terminations, wage and hour matters and workplace investigations.

 

  • Drafted, revised and negotiated employment-related agreements and policies, including offer letters, severance agreements, confidentiality and non-compete agreements, benefit programs, employee policies, and employee relations documentation.

 

  • Provided counseling and support regarding employee relations matters, including advising on contract negotiation and administration, compliance, employee benefits, grievances and arbitrations.

 

  • Advised management and stakeholders on employment law matters, including disability accommodation, discrimination, sexual harassment, state and federal compliance and investigations.

 

  • Prepared responses to charges of discrimination filed with various local, state and federal agencies and support resolution of such claims and charges.

 

  • Monitored, identified and assessed legal risks and opportunities within the general employment space and enterprise, and advised accordingly.

 

  • Provided employment law support to internal clients on a market and account-aligned basis.

 

  • Supported the corporate Investigations group by directing internal employment, equal employment opportunity (EEO) investigations.

 

  • Full legal support for executive management and human resources professionals through business-oriented legal counsel on all aspects of employment-related advice, including issues related to Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), Service Contract Act (SCA) and all other federal and state employment laws, internal employment policies, EEO investigations, day-to-day employment matters, high-risk performance management issues, medical leaves and accommodations.

 

  • Legal support to the enterprise for regulatory change management, and new corporate policies.

 

  • Represented the enterprise in agency audits regarding administrative charges, including preparing position statements, and managing outside counsel and subject matter experts (SMEs) in employment litigation matters.

 

  • Experience in providing international employment counsel, Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) advice and acquisitions due diligence.

​

    Last updated 200515_2011

bottom of page