Employment Law
Hanify & King’s Employment Law Practice Group represents management in four main areas: employment discrimination proceedings; restrictive covenant and trade secret litigation; employee relations; and compliance counseling and training. Consistent with Hanify & King’s philosophy, our lawyers apply the law with a practical perspective – utilizing our understanding of the client’s business, culture, and problem, to achieve the client’s goals.
In the employment discrimination area, we draw upon the full resources of Hanify & King’s experienced litigation team to actively defend employers before the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and state and federal courts. We also counsel clients in the context of investigations by the Attorney General’s office.
We assist our clients in protecting trade secrets and other proprietary information through non-competition, non-disclosure and non-solicitation agreements and strong employer policies and procedures. Hanify & King has extensive experience in preparing effective agreements, assisting with their implementation, and litigating their enforcement should it be necessary.
We are proactive in the areas of employee relations, compliance counseling, and training, by developing employment policies and procedures to prevent costly litigation. For dozens of corporate clients, we prepare and deliver training modules and conduct seminars on workplace harassment prevention, medical leave issues and other employment law topics. In response to employee complaints of wrongful conduct, we conduct in-depth investigations and work with in-house counsel to develop the appropriate corporate response.
We provide advice on the interrelationship of the various state and federal laws governing the workplace, such as the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Occupational Health and Safety Act. To ensure compliance with the WARN Act and other applicable federal and state laws, we counsel employers implementing corporate change, such as downsizing or terminations.
Through our Best Practice Briefing program, we offer in-house counsel, management, and Human Resources staff seminars on a variety of cutting-edge employment law topics.
Representative Engagements:
- · Successfully represented pharmaceutical distributor before administrative agencies and state court with respect to a series of age, race and gender discrimination cases.
- · Obtained lack of probable cause findings for local bank regarding allegations of national origin discrimination by customer and for claim of age discrimination by non-performing employee.
- · Developed strategy and successfully prosecuted claims in Virginia arbitration against former officer and employee of Virginia-based company to prevent start up of competing company and use or disclosure of employer’s proprietary information. Also prevailed on claim to recover substantial balance due on promissory note and successfully proved existence of contentiously-disputed employment agreement.
- · Represented air charter brokerage firm against former employees over a range of issues concerning non-competition obligations, misappropriation of trade secrets, and violations of common law duties to maintain confidential information during formation of a competing air charter brokerage firm.
- · Representation of former CEO before New Hampshire Superior Court to recover severance payments and other compensation under Employment Agreement and to refute claims of fraud/financial irregularities.
- · Defended magazine publisher against claims under the Massachusetts wage statute, unfair business practices law, and common law implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing brought by an executive who resigned, yet claimed a continuing right to receive substantial commissions from sales. Settled favorably for client following grant of summary judgment in the employer's favor, as confirmed by the Massachusetts Appeals Court.
- · Defense of software development company in arbitration proceedings brought by recruiting firm to recover unpaid and unearned referral fee.
- · Successfully defended beneficiaries of trust whose corpus includes the proceeds of certain shares claimed to be owned by former CEO. Case is currently on appeal.
- · Conducted extensive and highly sensitive investigation into allegations of improper conduct by senior employees of publicly traded medical supply company.
- · Counseled local bank with respect to disciplinary actions, terminations, and preparation of severance documents relating to employees in protected categories who failed to satisfy performance improvement plans. Also provided advice regarding FMLA requirements and wage garnishment issues.
- · Provided advice to resolve situation, pre-litigation, involving employee whistleblower and safety of children’s vitamins.
- · Counseled automobile retailer respecting state and federal WARN Act requirements relating to sale of dealership and termination and transfer of employees.
- · Counseled mortgage company regarding classification of certain employees and status of employees vs. independent contractors in compliance with Fair Labor Standards Act and state wage and hour laws.
- · Collaborated closely with Human Resources department of frozen food manufacturer to audit and modernize all existing policies, develop employee handbook, and ensure compliance with posting and immigration requirements. Counseled employer regarding retention of contract workers. Serve as resource to Employee Health and Safety officer to respond to legal issues.
- · Conducted workplace harassment prevention training for employers, including 75 day and night shift employees of pharmaceutical distributor and for over 50 management and hourly employees of food manufacturer.
- · Frequent speaker for Counsel on Education in Management, including basic and advanced seminars presented to HR employees responsible for tracking, approving, and managing FMLA leaves.
