LABOR AND EMPLOYMENT

The Firm’s attorneys practice in both the transactional and litigation arenas of labor and employment law.

Whether a company is trying to create a work environment that minimizes labor and employment law risks through insurance strategies, employment policies, or training, to negotiate compensation and other terms of employment, to prevent a situation with a difficult employee from escalating into a lawsuit, to navigate a government investigation or a government audit, or to defend itself in litigation, the Firm’s attorneys are here to help. Specifically, the attorneys in the labor and employment law practice have experience in the following areas:

• Drafting and reviewing employment policies or handbooks, compensation agreements, employment agreements, confidentiality agreements, restrictive covenant agreements including non-compete or non-solicitation contracts, and severance agreements as well as other termination documents;
• Training and counseling employees;
• Advising employers on a variety of matters involving the Employment Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) from plan design, plan management, or plan audits by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) or the Employee Benefit Security Administration (EBSA);
• Assisting employers with privacy issues such as best practices for computer, internet, or cell phone usage, social media postings, document retention, storing an employee’s personally identifying information, and data breach prevention and response strategies;
• Counseling employers on a variety of employee leave issues that may arise under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA), Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and the Arizona sick leave law;
• Helping employers with common labor & employment law issues that arise in a merger and acquisition (M&A) transaction such as due diligence review or production and the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN Act);
• Handling medical marijuana issues that arise under the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act as well as other drug and medication workplace issues;
• Investigating employee misconduct including embezzlement, misappropriation of trade secrets, harassment, or discrimination;
• Representing employers before federal and state agencies including the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), the Arizona Labor Department, the Arizona Department of Economic Security, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and the Civil Rights Division of the Arizona Attorney General’s Office; and
• Defending employers in litigation, whether initiated by a governmental agency or a private party, involving age discrimination, disability discrimination, equal pay and compensation discrimination, national origin discrimination, pregnancy discrimination, race discrimination, religious discrimination, sex discrimination, genetic discrimination under the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), harassment, retaliation, Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) claims, Davis-Bacon or McNamara-O’Hara Service Contract Act (SCA) claims, unemployment benefits, unemployment taxes, wrongful termination actions under the Arizona Employment Protection Act, whistleblower claims, and restrictive covenant or trade secret lawsuits.