Preventative Counseling
Through day-to-day counseling of business owners and management, our attorneys develop long-term relationships and understand each of our clients’ operations and culture. Our institutional knowledge, combined with our relationship of trust, enables us to provide each company individualized advice on the management of its employees and workplace.
We think ahead. We advise our clients on how to avoid potential risks and make the best workplace decisions for their business. Through training sessions, we educate human resource professionals and supervisors on how to comply with the law and avoid liability.
Our preventative services include:
- Best management practices. We provide telephone and in-person counseling on the best management to resolve day-to-day issues as they arise in your workplace.
- Personnel policies and employee handbooks. We draft, review, and revise personnel policies and employee handbooks to comply with federal and state laws and your corporate culture, including effective policies against discrimination and harassment, attendance and leaves of absence, and wage and hour requirements.
- Employment agreements. We draft, review, and revise employment agreements for the terms of employment and protect your trade secrets and confidential information through non-compete provisions.
- Human capital strategy. We help you determine the appropriate workforce structure for your business goals (ie: retaining independent contractors and partnering with professional employment organizations).
- Hiring. We advise on applications, interviews, background checks, pre-employment testing, and offer letters.
- Wage and hour and FLSA compliance. We train managers and supervisors on compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act and state wage and hour laws, conduct compliance audits of existing pay practices, and revise personnel policies.
- Employee conduct and performance. We help with procedures to address employee conduct and performance issues, including performance improvement plans, counseling, last chance agreements, discipline and discharge.
- Separations and severance agreements. We advise on terminations for misconduct or poor performance, layoffs and reductions in force, job elimination, and other separations from employment. We draft, review, and revise separation agreements and releases.
Employment Litigation
As experienced litigators with significant state, federal, and appellate court experience, we have a practiced approach to employment litigation. Our employment litigation team is sought by corporate general counsels, business owners, managers, and associations throughout the United States, for representation in Florida in audit and enforcement proceedings and investigations by federal, state, and local administrative agencies and to defend against employment-related claims in state and federal court.
- Wage and hour. We protect businesses in audit and enforcement proceedings by the federal Department of Labor and state and local administrative agencies, and we defend businesses in federal and state courts against wage and hour claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and state law.
- Discrimination, harassment, and retaliation. We defend businesses and associations in investigations by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Florida Commission on Human Rights (FCHR), and local equal employment agencies, and in state and federal courts against claims of discrimination, sexual harassment, retaliation, and disability accommodations under the various equal employment opportunity laws (Title VII, ADEA, ADA, FCRA). We protect businesses and property owners in ADA Title III litigation.
- FMLA compliance. We defend companies against claims by employees and former employees that they were denied leave or retaliated against under the Family Medical Leave Act.
- Whistleblower and retaliation. We represent employers against retaliation claims by employees and former employees under whistleblower laws and other statutes, like worker’s compensation.
- Trade secrets and noncompetes. We represent clients in enforcement and defense of claims of misappropriation of trade secrets, breach of non-compete agreements, disclosure of confidential information, tortious interference with business relations, and contracts.
Contact Us
For more information on our services, please contact Paul Donnelly or Laura Gross.