Employment

Contacts:

Barbara Cory   Karen McAndrew   Robert R. McKearin   Amy McLaughlin   Jeff Nolan

Practice Profile
Our Employment Law Group assists large and small employers and human resource professionals in solving the broad spectrum of employment law issues. Our employment lawyers are experienced and highly specialized. We offer complete employment services for management including training, investigating, counseling and litigation services.  

Areas of Concentration
Areas of particular concentration in our Employment law practice include the following:

Employment Litigation
Our experienced litigators represent employers in the defense of statutory discrimination, breach of contract, and wrongful discharge claims brought in state and federal court, as well as in administrative actions involving, for example, the Human Rights Commission, the Vermont Attorney General's office, the Vermont Labor Relations Board, the Department of Labor, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Litigation Avoidance
We seek to prevent litigation before it occurs. We are proactive with clients. Our Employment Group focuses on litigation avoidance strategies including contract drafting and negotiation, employment practice audits, review and drafting of employment manuals and policies, training of managers and supervisors about the legal aspects of their jobs, and consultation about disciplinary actions.

Alternative Dispute Resolution
We know the high costs of litigation and, where appropriate, our Employment Group encourages clients to consider forms of alternative dispute resolution such as mediation and arbitration. We routinely represent clients in these alternative forums. In addition, several members of the firm have received training as mediators and neutral evaluators, and serve frequently in these capacities, or as arbitrators for disputes involving non-firm clients.

Workers' Compensation
We defend employers and their insurers regularly in workers' compensation claims and provide guidance in minimizing risk in this area. We routinely handle appeals to the Vermont Supreme Court in workers' compensation claims.

Regulatory and Compliance Issues
We assist employers and human resource professionals in complying with the array of complex laws affecting the workplace including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, Vermont's Fair Employment Practices Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act including the Equal Pay provisions thereof, federal and state family and medical leave laws, COBRA, the Vermont Unemployment Compensation Act, the Vermont Occupational Safety and Health Act, the Vermont labor relations laws, and ERISA and the federal labor relations laws.

Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation
We assist our clients in the compliance and legal issues affecting benefit and compensation programs, including incentive stock option plans, executive compensation programs, retirement and deferred compensation plans, and similar programs.

Immigration
We have special expertise in immigration issues affecting the foreign employees and recruits of our clients.

Health Care Issues
We also have specialized expertise in employment law issues affecting health care providers, particularly hospital-physician relations.

Educational Issues
The firm has specialized expertise in addressing the unique employment law issues affecting schools, colleges and universities, including issues related to faculty tenure.

As a service to our clients, the firm prepares a monthly newsletter, The Vermont Employment Law Letter, published by M. Lee Smith Publishers and distributed throughout Vermont. Through similar publications in all other jurisdictions, the firm is a member of the Employers' Counsel Network (ECN), a 50-state network of law firms providing employment services nationwide

In addition, Dinse, Knapp & McAndrew is the exclusive Vermont representative of the Employment Law Alliance.  The ELA is the world’s largest and most prestigious network of labor and employment lawyers. With experts in all 50 states and more than 100 countries, our members work closely together to provide seamless and cost effective service around the globe. For more information about the ELA, please visit its website: