Practice Areas & Industries: Cole, Schotz, Meisel, Forman & Leonard, P.A., A Professional Corporation

Practice/Industry Group Overview

From its inception, Cole Schotz has been known for its labor and employment law expertise. In fact, one of the firm's founders, David Cole, a noted labor arbitrator and mediator, served as Director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, and counseled every U.S. President from Harry S. Truman to Gerald R. Ford in national labor crises. The Employment Law Department continues that tradition today. It provides preventive counseling to both large and small employers on a wide range of compliance issues and evolving stautory requirements, including those related to sexual and other forms of harassment, family and medical leaves of absence, disability and substance abuse.

Our attorneys also work closely with human resource professionals on many other personnel matters, such as pre-hiring considerations, employee manuals and employee job performance and termination issues.

If disputes arise, the Employment Law Department has extensive litigation experience. Our attorneys appear regularly in state and federal courts and before administrative agencies such as the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights, the New York State Division of Human Rights and the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Many of the attorneys in the Employment Law Department have been members in the prestigious Sidney Reitman Employment Law Inn of Court, the first Inn of Court in the nation that exclusively focuses on labor and employment issues.

Services Available

The Employment Law Department is involved in, among other things:

• Employment litigation defense
• Complex litigation, such as class actions and multiparty suits
• Representation before administrative agencies
• Negotiation of separation/severance packages
• Preparation of employment contracts, including restrictive covenants
• Preparation and review of employee manuals and employment policies
• Couseling with regard to personnel matters
• Investigation of harassment complaints
• Conducting training regarding sexual and other unlawful harassment
• Restructuring, downsizing, and other corporate transactions
• Public sector employment issues
• OSHA compliance and other safety and health issues
• Wage-hour and other labor standards issues