Employment and Labor
The workplace is changing at a rapid pace. Now, more than ever, employers must be prepared to respond quickly when employment and labor issues arise. Our approach is to understand your business, and to solve your legal problems in a manner that aligns with your business goals and objectives.
What Sets Us Apart
- We align our goals with yours to become your trusted business partner, guiding you through all aspects of the employment relationship and offering you practical legal advice.
- Our counseling approach provides solutions that are developed in partnership with you.
- We understand that you need timely answers to your questions, and our approach ensures that a member of our team is available to assist you at all times of the day.
- For more than 50 years, hundreds of clients have sought our advice on public sector labor relations.
- We have negotiated hundreds of collective bargaining agreements in both the public and private sector, and have successfully represented our clients in even more grievance and arbitration hearings.
- Our preventative approach gives you unlimited access to industry articles and training on subjects ranging from sexual harassment policies to crisis management, to help you mitigate litigation and other risks.
Employment Counseling
When it comes to navigating complex legal and practical matters, we understand that you are not looking for “one size fits all” solutions. To that end, we take the time to understand your business goals and operations, and the pressures you face. Our thoughtful, tailored advice allows you to get back to focusing on what matters most -- your business. Our goal is to help you manage the legal risks associated with all aspects of the employment relationship in a practical and effective manner.
Employment Contracts and Severance Agreements
We negotiate and draft both employment and severance agreements to protect our clients’ best interests. In addition, we counsel employers on non-competition and other restrictive covenants to ensure that company intellectual property is protected. While we primarily represent employers, we also are retained on occasion by high level executives in the negotiation of their agreements. In all situations, we utilize our decades of experience to reach an agreement in a professional and respectful manner.
Workplace Investigations
The need to conduct a workplace investigation can arise in any number of situations. For example, an employer may have received a concern or complaint about workplace issues, a government or regulatory entity may be conducting an audit or review, or an employer may be aware of imminent or pending litigation. Each scenario requires a different approach and experienced counsel to mitigate further risk and reduce the employer’s liability. Shipman’s investigations lawyers stand ready to assist you in navigating sensitive investigations when they arise.
Discrimination, Harassment, and Wrongful Discharge
Allegations of discrimination and harassment present numerous disruptions to the workplace. To protect your business and help you navigate existing and potential claims, such as those related to the #MeToo movement, we are prepared to assist you with all aspects of risk-mitigation and harm avoidance on such matters. Our team is available to help you draft and implement policies for reducing discrimination and harassment in your workplace, so that you can focus on running your business. To mitigate your risk, we provide you with custom preventative trainings on topics such as sexual harassment prevention, professionalism in the workplace, and legal overviews for supervisors. When claims are made, we conduct thorough investigations into alleged incidents of discrimination, harassment, and misconduct in the workplace.
Wage and Hour
Sophisticated employers need dedicated lawyers who understand the complexity of wage and hour issues, and when the need arises, can defend them in related litigation and investigations. Whether you need to navigate compliance reviews, respond to a single employee claim, or defend the most challenging class action claims, we have both the capacity and commitment to help you achieve a positive outcome.
Employment Litigation
For decades, we have led our clients through numerous cases of high importance and exposure. Recently, we helped navigate successful outcomes for our clients involved in wage and hour class actions in the hospitality and service industries, with potential exposure in the millions of dollars. We routinely represent employers, from Fortune 500 to small-to-midsize, in employment discrimination and retaliation claims in federal and state courts nationwide where the potential exposure to the clients is in excess of a million dollars. In some cases, we are able to achieve outright dismissals of the claims through litigation, while in others, the claims have been withdrawn. In still other matters, we have represented clients on appeal; in one matter, our lawyers assisted a client in reversing on appeal a wrongful termination verdict in excess of $10 million.
Immigration
Employers face a rapidly changing immigration landscape. In order to recruit, hire, and retain highly skilled foreign workers, it is critical for U.S. employers to have the assistance of immigration lawyers who continuously educate themselves about the latest immigration developments. We engage in ongoing continuing legal education and maintain a reputation for responsiveness and prompt communication with our clients and the foreign nationals they wish to employ.
Labor Relations
The rise of unionization in nontraditional sectors is changing the workplace. Increasingly, employees in industries such as software, technology and higher education are organizing internally, without outside union support. This shift in union organization places significant pressure on employers to recognize the collective concerns of a modern workforce.
Primary Contacts
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