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Practice Areas

Disability and Pension Benefits

Protecting and enforcing employees’ rights to employment benefits, through counseling and litigation.

Under the Employee Retirement and Income Security Act (ERISA), participants and beneficiaries are entitled to appeal disability and pension benefit denials.  Effective appeals require that participants and beneficiaries secure information about plan benefits and their administered, as the information will certainly impact benefit decisions, and will assist with an participant’s appeal. Some benefits, such as severance, vacation leave, stock options, and other forms of deferred compensation, are contractual in nature. Federal statutes in addition to ERISA, such as COBRA and USERRA, also contain provisions that protect an employee’s retirement, medical, and dental benefits. Finally, state insurance laws impose certain requirements upon medical, disability, and life insurance policies.

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Employment Agreements and Compensation Arrangements

Negotiating and drafting employment agreements on behalf of individuals.

More and more jobs involve contractual arrangements. Many of today’s employees are classified as independent contractors, project employees, temporary employees who, along with executives and professionals, must negotiate terms of employment that are fair and beneficial. Negotiating such agreements to clarify and secure an employee’s expectations regarding job security, compensation and benefits, and related issues, is an important and valued service. Enforcement of such employment agreements to ensure that promises and commitments are fulfilled can include negotiation of exit agreements, arbitration, mediation, or litigation.

Employment agreements typically involve the following: the term of employment, including extensions or renewals; the employee’s position, title, duties, and responsibilities; compensation, including salary and bonuses; benefits (e.g., medical, dental, disability, life insurance, and retirement benefits); grounds for early termination by the employer (e.g., “with cause”) or by the employee (e.g., “for good reason”); and severance benefits upon termination of employment. Compensation may also include restricted stock and stock option grants, supplemental executive retirement plans, deferred compensation plans, long-term compensation plans, and incidental benefits (automobile, club dues, etc.). Other common issues include non-competition, non-solicitation, and non-disclosure clauses, and change-of-control provisions.

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Severance Agreements

Negotiating and enforcing severance agreement in connection with individual termination of employment or as part of reductions in force and reorganizations.

Employees who face employment termination or a reduction of force due to a corporate change or business closing, need to understand the conditions of a severance agreement, evaluate the severance benefits, ascertain ways a proposed severance package might be improved, and develop a plan of action. Employees need to understand the value of a severance package, timing of payments, tax consequences, relationship of the severance package to other employee benefits, such as vacation pay, bonuses, stock options, and health benefits. Other considerations include, deferring the effective date of termination to bridge vesting dates for stock options or retirement benefits, extending employer-paid medical benefits, securing career consultation payments (where and if applicable), and limiting the scope of any non-competition clause.

Where necessary, counseling and coaching, instead of direct representation is provided in order to minimize a perception of an adversary or contentious position during the exit process.

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Retiree Health Benefits

Enforcing an employee’s contractual rights to promised health care coverage.

Typically, such claims arise under collective bargaining agreements and other employment agreements.  Promised benefits conflicting with plan documents containing reservation of rights to modify such benefits create conflicts that need to be redressed.

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Responsible Caregivers

Assisting employees enforce their rights under employer established leave policies as well as state and federal laws when faced with work-family conflicts.

Many employees who are primary caregivers suffer disparate treatment by their employers, and such treatment should be redressed. Under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), covered employees are entitled to up to 12 weeks of unpaid continuous or intermittent leave to attend to their serious health conditions or those of their immediate family. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), employees with disabilities may be entitled, under certain circumstances, to the “reasonable accommodation” of time off from work. Title VII prohibits discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, and recently the EEOC issued enforcement guidance on disparate treatment of caregivers that may violate Title VII.

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Restrictive Covenants and Contractual Rights

Assisting employees to understand the applicability and enforceability of restrictive agreements or covenants, and negotiating the language and scope of such clauses, in negotiating the termination, narrowing, or construction of such clauses, and in litigating their enforceability.

It is an increasingly common practice of employers to require employees to sign non-disclosure, non-competition, and non-solicitation clauses. These may arise in initial employment agreements, in special agreements required as a condition of initial or continued employment, as a condition to receiving bonuses, stock grants, or other compensation, or as part of a severance agreement.

Claims for unpaid compensation or severance pay, such as claims for failure to pay bonuses or commissions and for compensation and benefits after termination of employment are typically contractual in nature. Enforcement of employment contracts requires a review of plan documents to resolve conflicts between the plan and the employment contract, if any. Under certain circumstances, oral promises, if provable, and promises made in company manuals, may be enforceable.

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Discrimination and Retaliation

Representating and counseling employees, prospective employees, and former employees with respect to all types of discrimination, harassment, and retaliation.

Federal, state, city, or municipal laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, sex, national origin, religion, age, disability, and other grounds—sexual orientation, marital status, and conviction and arrest records, also prohibit harassment of employees for the grounds listed above, as well as prohibiting employer retaliation against employees who complain about such discrimination or harassment, against themselves or others, within the company or in any agency or court proceeding, or who participate in any such proceedings.

Discrimination is not limited to on-the-job issues. It may occur during the hiring process, during the employment relationship (e.g., discrimination in compensation, promotions, or other terms and conditions of employment), or at the end of employment (e.g., discriminatory discharge).

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Wage and Hour Claims

Enforcing wage and overtime claims on behalf of individuals and classes of individuals.

The Fair Labor Standards Act (”FLSA”) protects the wages earned by employees, including their right to be paid overtime.  Numerous state laws have been adopted to provide additional wage protections for indivduals.  Misclassfication of individuals as employees exempt from coverage or as independent contractors to whom no overtime is required to be paid has negative consequences even beyond unpaid wages, espcially upon retirement benefits.  

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Federal Employees

Assisting federal employees enforce their rights under federal laws before the EEOC, the Merit System Protection Board, and the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals.

Assisting public employees at the state and municipal levels to enforce their workplace rights under federal, state, and local laws.

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Collectively Bargained Employee Benefit Plans–Multiemployer Plans

Assisting plan fiduciaries and plan sponsors with plan drafting, compliance, and litigation.  Representing fiduciaries of multiemployer plans with administrative proceedings before the DOL, IRS, and PBGCon plan compliance issues or agency investigations.

Litigation on behalf of multiemployer funds includes enforcement of employer collection obligations and plan withdrawal liability assessments.  

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Pro Bono & Community Service

Through the District of Columbia Employment Justice Center, I serve the community during weekly clinics and pro bono cases.  Additionally, I volunteer in a broad range of law-related public service organizations, including the District of Columbia Bar Pro Bono Program.

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