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Practical Strengths
Our employment and labor counsel rests on a foundation of practical strengths that demonstrate our real-world understanding of the issues you face. Manatt employment attorneys know more than just labor law. We understand your competitive problems and the human considerations that shape your employment relationships.
Comprehensive employer coverage
Our employment attorneys work with small family businesses, emerging and startup companies, middle-market firms and “Fortune 500” multinationals. We understand their problems and develop solutions for labor and employment issues in virtually every sector of the economy:
§ Aerospace
§ Apparel
§ Construction
§ Entertainment
§ Financial services
§ Healthcare
§ Hospitality and hotels
§ Manufacturing
§ Public sector
§ Real estate
§ Retailing
§ Technology
§ Transportation
§ Utilities
Global economy knowledge
Manatt has the in-depth knowledge our clients need about labor standards and practices in the global economy. For example, one of our employment law partners (who developed the apparel industry’s first comprehensive programs and agreements for monitoring apparel factories’ compliance with federal and state labor, health and safety laws) helps a number of major fashion and apparel companies comply with international labor standards, and has represented the U.S. Department of State in discussing with Mexico’s apparel industry the labor and human rights standards that most major U.S. apparel manufacturers and retailers expect their Mexican factory vendors to observe.
Multiemployer experience
We are labor counsel to the Western League of Savings Institutions and represent numerous savings institutions and banks in labor law matters. Our team includes unique specialized experience in collectively bargained multiemployer pension plans, reflecting years of experience as plan counsel to major multiemployer (Taft-Hartley) trusts.
Public policy understanding
We have worked with a number of large public sector employers from coast to coast, including the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and the New York City Transit Authority. One of our employment team members is currently President of the City of Los Angeles Board of Civil Service Commissioners. Some of our attorneys, while serving with the United States Department of Justice, the National Labor Relations Board, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and various congressional committees, participated in the drafting of many labor laws and regulations currently in effect.
Workplace diversity commitment
Manatt’s own commitment to diversity helps us understand and reinforce the workplace diversity efforts of employers. We rank in the top 15% of the nation’s 250 largest law firms on the Minority Law Journal’s scorecard.
Counseling and Training
We believe the best approach to employment law problems is to minimize and eliminate the causes of employee dissatisfaction, regulatory action and ensuing litigation. Our attorneys work directly with your human resources personnel to:
§ Offer counseling and guidance on personnel policies and procedures;
§ Advise on what the law requires on issues like discrimination, harassment and family leave;
§ Conduct investigations and audits of your company’s compliance with its legal obligations;
§ Provide training that helps your managers keep employee issues from becoming problems; and
§ Handle special issues that involve immigration, mergers, layoffs and terminations.
Diversity
With our firm’s own strong commitment to diversity as a foundation, Manatt employment attorneys help our clients review and assess the effectiveness of their current diversity programs and make necessary changes to better reach their goals. The organizations and individuals we work and consult with are themselves a highly diverse group and include:
§ “Fortune 100” companies in a wide range of industries;
§ Business associations;
§ Non-profit and tax-exempt organizations;
§ Universities;
§ Federal and local governments;
§ Foreign governments; and
§ African American, Hispanic, Asian Pacific American, Native American, and female appointed and elected officials, business leaders, and civil rights leaders.
A typical diversity review includes such issues as employment policies, commercial procurement, government contracts, government relations and environmental compliance. We make specific recommendations that reflect government regulatory standards, industry best practices, each organization’s own business policies and structure, and the current focus of public scrutiny. Manatt specialists on legislation and international trade often contribute to our development of diversity strategy and policy recommendations.
Employment agreements and executive compensation
We design executive employment agreements that protect trade secrets and confidential information for businesses, including preparation of appropriate confidentiality and non-disclosure/non-use language. Our employment attorneys also handle the proper construction of severance agreements when management or executive employees are terminated, to ensure that the employer meets all the procedural requirements of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and the Older Workers’ Benefit Protection Act. Compensation terms are another key aspect of employment agreements, and we help many companies establish incentive and non-statutory stock option plans and non-qualified deferred compensation arrangements such as excess benefit or top hat plans as part of their executive contracts. Our executive compensation tax specialists address, in this connection, the complexities of IRC Section 409A.
Immigration
Manatt attorneys in our Washington office have extensive contacts with the Department of State, federal immigration authorities and other agencies with immigration responsibilities. We represent clients who wish to employ non-residents, as well as U.S. citizens doing business abroad, on visa preparation and handling. Our insider status in the nation’s regulatory center keeps us on top of the latest immigration law developments, such as the United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT) program begun in 2004. We have already advised clients that failure to comply with the program’s departure procedures may limit an employer’s ability to hire or retain non - U.S. employees and could limit otherwise available time to extend an authorized stay for employment in the U.S. Such proactive advice for problem avoidance is typical of our employment law counsel.
Investigations and audits
Our employment team will visit the individual facilities of your company to review compliance with employment law in such areas as wage and hour standards, equal employment opportunity and records retention. We will also make a comprehensive review of performance against all internal employment policies and practices. Our audits help us to advise you proactively on any changes necessary to reduce the likelihood of employee complaints, government enforcement actions, litigation, and other legal costs. And we continue ongoing assessment of your working environment to minimize the risk of new problems developing.
The most serious workplace problems are those involving alleged business crimes, and we work with you to undertake compliance audits, draft and edit compliance plans, and help with the ongoing implementation of the plan and other remedial measures. Our goal is to train your personnel to avoid and, if necessary, detect conduct that could violate federal or state laws and regulations, including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Beyond implementing audit programs, we also conduct internal and special investigations for clients, their boards of directors and audit committees to help uncover wrongdoing, comply with government rules and regulations, and take advantage of voluntary disclosure and sentencing guidelines for business that have compliance programs.
Labor brokerage and leased employees
We are familiar with all the complex issues involving leased employees who are on the payroll of a third-party broker that you pay to administer all the human resources details. We help you weigh the positives (often lower administrative costs) and negatives (continued responsibility for employees under the labor laws), and decide whether leasing is the right option for you.
Mergers and acquisitions
Manatt’s employee benefits attorneys, working with our colleagues in the corporate group, analyze the labor contract and employee benefits issues that arise during mergers and acquisitions. In preparing documentation and due diligence for these transactions, we assess and allocate among the parties the benefit and contractual liabilities that may accompany the acquisition or disposition of ongoing businesses. We also advise selling and acquiring companies about the impact of unfunded pension, healthcare and other benefit plan liabilities as they relate to the value of the acquired company and to restrictive covenants in the acquisition financing. We often sort out these issues in large, complex transactions. For example, in a recent $5.3 billion transaction, we represented the acquired company with respect to all employee benefits issues. This included issues involving funded and unfunded pension liability, active and retiree healthcare, severance pay, “golden parachute” payments, stock options and stock appreciation rights issues, all on an international scale.
Terminations and reductions in force
Manatt attorneys guide employers through every kind of individual and group employee termination:
§ Executives. When management or executive employees are terminated, we make sure that their severance agreements are properly constructed to meet all the requirements of the Age Discrimination in Employment and Older Workers’ Benefit Protection Acts. We also advise on other typical provisions of such agreements, covering ERISA and COBRA, security arrangements, and severance and accrued pay.
§ Unionized employees. For terminations under a collective bargaining agreement, we ensure that your policies conform to the contract terms, represent you in employee grievances over discharge, and resolve wrongful discharge disputes before the NLRB or in court.
§ Workforces. Our attorneys handle all the legal requirements of mass workforce reductions, including layoffs, mass terminations, plant closings, restructurings and incentivized retirements. We help your human resources personnel to plan a fair reduction process (observing all EEOC prohibitions against skewing toward racial or age groups), determine appropriate separation terms, develop full documentation, inform all employees about the situation, and effectively manage communication. We determine whether notice is necessary under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act and inform local and state officials.
Training
We offer a variety of interactive training programs covering the most important workplace issues that managers face. They are conducted by our experienced employment law attorneys and are available as on-site programs or electronically, and are tailored to the unique requirements of your company’s environment and culture. Areas covered include:
§ Equal Employment Opportunity and affirmative action compliance;
§ Family Medical Leave Act compliance;
§ Workplace investigations;
§ Labor relations and union avoidance; and
§ Sexual harassment investigations and remedies.
The goal of all our training is to identify what the law requires and to help your company adapt its policies and practices to prevent problems from occurring.
Workplace policies and procedures
Manatt employment attorneys show your human resources staff how to create personnel practices and policies that minimize exposure to employee complaints, governmental agency actions, and union-related problems. A critical component of our counsel is helping companies create the handbooks, policy summaries and other communication tools that inform employees about their workplace rights and the procedures to follow for enforcing them. We ensure that these are at the core of a proactive employment strategy that complements your company’s core objectives and values while fostering a positive working environment. The goal is to help you minimize employee claims (and potential lawsuits) for discrimination, sexual harassment, racial and ethnic harassment, unfair competition, wrongful termination, FLSA and state wage violations, and violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Workplace security
We help you handle the most sensitive issues involving employee misconduct, including fraud, theft, assault, drug and weapon possession, and harassment that create a hostile workplace. With years of experience at conducting effective investigations, we help you determine the right disciplinary actions, especially involving whether to terminate or continue the employment of disciplined employees. We make sure that all penalties conform to company policy and legal requirements against discrimination. If termination is necessary we help you with appropriate security measures such as canceling computer system access. Our goal is a fair and unemotional process that is your defense against a lawsuits for defamation, harassment or discrimination.
Litigation
Our attorneys represent clients in federal and state courts and before administrative agencies in all matters pertaining to the employer-employee relationship, including:
§ Complex individual and class action litigation;
§ Appellate litigation;
§ Equal employment cases;
§ Contract and tort cases arising from employment relationships;
§ Disputes involving union-management issues;
§ Grievance and arbitration hearings, including enforcement arbitration agreements;
§ Other forms of alternative dispute resolution;
§ Administrative hearings and actions before the National Labor Relations Board, U.S. Department of Justice, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, state labor and employment agencies, U.S. Department of Labor and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration; and
§ Department of Labor and Internal Revenue proceedings of all types concerning employee benefit plans under ERISA.
We are capable of handling legal issues arising under virtually all state and federal labor and employment laws, as well as complicated class action litigation instituted by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the U.S. Department of Justice and private litigants. We also handle unfair competition claims and compliance reviews by the U.S. Department of Labor and the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs. Areas of particular focus for our employment litigation practice include the following.
Discrimination and harassment
We counsel companies of all sizes and in all industries about their obligations to comply with federal and state equal employment opportunity and discrimination regulations governing:
§ Employment discrimination (sexual, racial and ethnic EEO requirements as well as allegations over hiring practices, wrongful termination, drug and alcohol use);
§ Workplace disabilities, work redesign and reasonable accommodation questions;
§ Sexual harassment;
§ Family and medical leave of absence policies;
§ Affirmative action;
§ Civil rights, including the Civil Rights Act of 1866 (Sections 1981, 1982, and 1983); and
§ Government contract compliance.
Our attorneys work with your human resources personnel to design policies and procedures that foster a positive working environment and minimize employee claims. If claims are made, we help you assess the accusations and take appropriate action if a claim is justified. If a claim is without merit but leads federal or state agencies to take action, we are effective advocates in hearings and proceedings and often are able to conclude matters with no penalties or other remedial actions.
OSHA
A government safety inspection that’s not properly addressed can jeopardize your company’s future. Manatt’s employment lawyers respond promptly to all the issues involving federal and state employee health and safety regulations. We defend OSHA claims of any type, including multiple death cases. After working with clients in many industries, we have developed policies and procedures that help assure facility compliance with health and safety regulations. We also coordinate with our clients to prepare for investigations, and defend notices of violation related to regulatory investigations. Where necessary, we go to trial and help our clients prepare for hearings and trials involving OSHA matters.
Healthcare
Our attorneys regularly advise and defend hospitals, nursing homes and other healthcare providers on all aspects of employment law and litigation. Our employment litigators have foreclosed litigation through careful crafting of employee handbooks for healthcare providers, preparation of separation and related confidentiality agreements for employees, which also protect healthcare providers' customer lists and other proprietary business information, and proactive counseling to clients on an ongoing basis regarding all aspects of employment and labor law. Our employment lawyers also conduct internal investigations of alleged workplace complaints including harassment, discrimination and retaliation, in the delicate healthcare delivery setting, in which the demands of professionalism and teamwork are as high as the pressure to provide quality patient care.
Our lawyers also have successfully defended numerous employment termination, discrimination and other actions, in state and federal courts, for some of the country's largest multi-facility healthcare providers. Recently, our employment litigators made new California law, when they won the defense of a proposed class action for California's largest hospital system. In that action, the trial court refused to allow class claims, through which a single plaintiff sought to transform an individual claim for alleged wage and hour Labor Code violations, into a class action on behalf of potentially hundreds of other hospital employees and involving dozens of other commonly owned facilities. The Court of Appeal then dismissed the plaintiff's appeal, ruling for the first time that orders rejecting proposed class claims were not appealable.
Trade secrets and unfair competition
Our lawyers often handle disputes involving confidential business and technology information and trade secrets. We work with confidentiality and nondisclosure agreements under the Uniform Trade Secrets Act and the corresponding laws of various states. We also handle all antitrust aspects of non-competition agreements, including non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements as part of licensing arrangements. When there are disputes over these issues, we secure injunctions that enforce employers’ rights, and litigate contractual disagreements.
Wage and hour law
Courts increasingly hold employers liable for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, awarding millions of dollars in back overtime pay to nominally exempt white-collar employees when company policies undermine the exemption basis. Our attorneys advise employers on their wage and hour concerns, helping them implement alternative work schedules and audit their wage and hour practices for compliance. We analyze job categories to ensure that they involve the management and supervisory duties that define exempt status, and advise whether particular individuals should be classified as employees or independent contractors. If wage and hour disputes become class action lawsuits, we mount a vigorous defense and are frequently able to deny class status and secure a satisfactory settlement.
Traditional Labor
Since the 1930s, federal and state labor laws have defined the workplace as an adversarial relationship between employers, employees and labor unions. Manatt labor attorneys are skilled advocates for employers in this environment, advancing your interests and protecting your rights.
Collective bargaining
Our collective bargaining labor lawyers can take an active role as members of your collective bargaining team. We help devise a goal oriented bargaining strategy, can serve as spokespersons, and advise in real time at the negotiating table. Members of our team have the background to bargain individually, engage in coalition bargaining, or coordinate multi-location and multi-union bargaining. We have bargained for clients in a wide range of industries, dealing with major unions at the international, regional and local levels. Our collective bargaining team includes benefits specialists with extensive experience in the complexities of negotiated benefits in both the single employer and multiemployer plan contexts.
Dispute arbitration
Once a contract is negotiated, we help you comply with the terms, avoid grievances where appropriate and respond to grievances when filed. We frequently arbitrate issues under collective bargaining agreements, including discipline cases, plant closings and subcontracting issues. We help employers plan and carry out plant closings and workforce reductions that comply with WARN Act notification procedures and all relevant discrimination statutes.
Labor practice controversies
When labor-management disputes become strikes, we coordinate contingency plans, advise on public relations matters and handle legal issues that may arise in connection with replacement employees, state court mass picketing injunctions, show cause orders, contempt citations, damage actions and RICO actions. When strikes and labor-management disputes involve action by federal or state regulators, our attorneys are experienced at representing employers in administrative hearings and arbitrations before the NLRB, OSHA, and other federal and state agencies. Our existing lines of communication with unions sometimes facilitate early settlements.
Organizing efforts
Finally, because the potential for collective bargaining always exists at non-union employers, we use the experience we have gained advising on organizing campaigns and NLRB election law to advise these clients. Among other matters, we litigate appropriate bargaining unit issues, advise on the development of company campaign strategy and tactics, review communications tools, and advise managers and supervisors on their conduct. We also counsel on decertification issues and campaigns.
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