REGULATORY COMPLIANCE
- Advise on issues of employee hiring, compensation and discipline
- Counsel on leaves of absence and accommodation
- Draft employee handbooks and employment agreements
- Develop and implement employee screening and testing programs
- Navigate government contract requirements
- Advise on layoffs and reductions in workforce
- Address occupational safety and health issues
- Handle Title IX claims investigations
- Provide guidance on immigration issues
EQUAL OPPORTUNITY / ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW
- Design strategies to avoid litigation
- Draft anti-discrimination and anti-harassment workplace policies
- Develop complaint response systems
- Establish procedures for internal investigations
- Offer anti-discrimination and anti-harassment training programs for management, supervisors, and employees
- Represent employers before federal and state administrative agencies, including the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the Department of Labor, and the Ohio Civil Rights Commission
WAGE & HOUR COMPLIANCE
- Implement pay practices to mitigate risk of allegations from employees and regulators
- Defend against claims of employee misclassification, off-the-clock work, violations of overtime rules, minimum-wage violations, missed meal and rest breaks, donning and doffing time, and pay for pre- and post-shift activities
- Design compensation plans
- Identify and resolve pay-related problems
- Defend claims before administrative agencies
- Litigate single-plaintiff, class and collective actions
- Handle investigations and compliance audits initiated by federal and state regulators, including the U.S. Department of Labor
RESTRICTIVE COVENANTS & TRADE SECRETS
- Draft pre- and post-employment restrictions, including non-compete and non-disclosure agreements, employment agreements, workplace policies, and restrictive covenants
- Investigate allegations of theft and recover stolen information
- Develop and implement strategies that effectively check unfair competition
- File injunctions to initiate temporary restraining orders that block disclosure of confidential information
- Defend restrictive covenants
- Prosecute trade secret thefts, employee raiding claims, breaches of fiduciary duty and duty of loyalty, and other unfair competition matters
WORKPLACE AUDITS
- Detect potential compliance violations before lawsuits are filed or state and federal regulators become involved
- Ensure compliance with state and federal employment regulations including immigration and I-9 rules, OSHA policies and procedures, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) anti-discrimination regulations, Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) guidelines, wage-and-hour requirements, and employee privacy and HIPAA obligations
- Identify and correct operational weaknesses
- Train personnel on technical legal compliance and risk avoidance processes and procedures
WORKPLACE COUNSELING AND POLICIES
- Establish workplace policies to deal with common workplace issues such as the interview process, hiring and firing, workplace harassment, employee misconduct, social media use, and drug and alcohol abuse
- Update and disseminate employee handbooks
- Structure and monitor employee complaint hotlines
- Develop standards and processes for performance evaluations
- Create response systems for high-risk employment situations, including contentious terminations, harassment and discrimination claims, layoffs and reductions in force, and workplace accidents
- Assist in federal, state and local employment regulation navigation
- Advise on federal immigration rules and I-9 requirements
- Offer in-house training programs, webinars and seminars