EMPLOYMENT AND PERSONNEL MATTERS

Several of the firm’s attorneys regularly counsel corporate clients on matters relating to employment relations. The firm prepares, reviews and revises employment manuals to bring them into compliance with recently adopted local and federal laws, such as the Family Medical Leave Act, the California Family Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, as well as with city ordinances such as the San Francisco Work Station Ordinance, the enacted ban on smoking in the workplace and San Francisco domestic partners issues.

We assist clients to prepare affirmative action plans. We defend employers in federal EEOC claims and in California FEHA claims. We assist clients when their operations are audited by various state and federal labor regulatory agencies, including the office of Federal Contract Compliance Program.

We provide strategies for minimizing litigation for clients who are reducing their workforce or facing plant closings, and we defend employers in wrongful termination disputes.

The firm has advised companies as to the appropriate procedures for utilizing independent contractors, and it has successfully defended the treatment of independent tour guides as independent contractors in appeals against the State of California and the Internal Revenue Service.