Hall Booth Smith, P.C.

The HBS Employment Practices Group helps clients avoid, resolve and prevail in employee disputes involving the full range of employment and labor issues.

AVOIDING employee disputes is the most cost effective use of an employer’s money and time. A comprehensive plan emphasizes: (1) updating and refining company policies and practices regarding every aspect of the employment relationship from hiring, development, discipline and termination to reflect changing business needs, an increasingly younger and more diverse workforce, the increased use of technology, and changes in legal standards and demands. HBS offers review and compliance updates along with(2)innovative self-audit and investigation support for the full range of employer obligations including wage and hour compliance, safety, harassment and retaliation investigations, sensitivity training, and diversity initiatives.Finally, avoiding disputes increasingly involves (3) the development and implementation of employment compliance processes, reporting procedures and responses that fit your organizational needs and capabilities.

RESOLVING employee disputes depends on early identification of facts and witnesses, understanding contributing factors, and the development of workable solutions that help an employer manage its way toward a resolution of the dispute. HBS helps an employer navigate his way through the minefield of increasingly burdensome governmental regulations and new laws including disability, age, religion, national origin, leave, equal pay, union avoidance, confidentiality and privacy, state torts, safety, and communicable disease and pandemic regulations. Resolving disputes early generates direct savings before expensive litigation, class actions and governmental investigations can advance. HBS represents employers with state and federal OSHA agencies, the Department of Labor, the National Labor Relations Board, along with the EEOC and state and local deferral agencies. We emphasize cooperation balanced by strong advocacy to show the Company’s commitment to both its employees and full compliance with its obligations. Internal complaint and informal grievance procedures, aggressive use of non-binding mediation, and a willingness to explore all available options can be highly effective tools to maintaining employee morale, limit costs, and to develop workable solutions that resolve employee disputes.

PREVAILING in employee disputes requires taking the extraordinary prior efforts to avoid and resolve disputes and using those good faith efforts to the Company’s fullest advantage: whether the forum is mediation, arbitration, negotiations, or adversarial litigation. The employer who works to avoid and resolve employee disputes wears the white hat and comes to the table fully informed and prepared to explain the bases for its decisions. HBS attorneys have extensive trial experience and an understanding of many industries through our allied practice areas in health care, medical malpractice, worker’s compensation, governmental, and compliance.We are cost-effective advocates, able to staff the defense with the proper number of attorneys at the appropriate experience levels, whether confronted with a single plaintiff or a large class action.

The Employment Practice Group has extensive trial experience in state and federal courtsnation wide litigating individual and large class actions involving the full range of employment claims including:

• Discrimination, Harassment and Retaliation

 Based on race, color, sex, pregnancy, religion, age, sexual orientation, transgender, and national origin

• Accommodation

 Based on disability, religion, caregiver, or cultural status

• Wage and Hour

• FMLA

• USERRA

• Fair Credit Reporting Act

• Equal Pay

• WARN

• HIPAA

• Data and Confidential Information Protection

• ERISA Benefits

• Restrictive Covenants

 Including: non-competes, non-solicitation of customers, confidential information protection, non-recruitment of employees, intentional interference with contract

• Trade Secrets

• Employee Handbook and Company Policy

• Breach of Contract

• State Tort

 Including: negligent supervision and hiring, intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, assault and battery, stalking, false imprisonment, defamation, invasion of privacy, fraud, theft, embezzlement, conversion, wrongful discharge

• Unemployment

Since the firm’s inception, HBS has embraced the value of diversity, and we continue to cultivate an environment of inclusion and success for all individuals.  We are committed to a cohesive and productive work environment where our varied cultures, backgrounds, ethnicities, and perspectives are communicated, understood, and embraced to enrich our employees and best serve our clients.

Our Commitment
Our efforts to enhance our diverse environment are not restricted to minority employees.  Instead, we believe that everyone, regardless of his or her race, age, or gender, must be included in our diversity mission in order to ensure its success.   The firm’s Diversity Committee is comprised of partners and senior staff members who ensure our diversity mission is not just a sentiment but is also a part of the fabric of HBS.     

HBS actively participates in a variety of events and sponsorships geared towards highlighting the importance of diversity, and the firm continuously seeks opportunities to enhance our diversity program.  This includes involvement with organizations such as the Corporate Counsel for Women of Color and the Minority Corporate Counsel of America as well as our internal mentor/protégé program, in which our senior, female and minority attorneys reach out and mentor other women and minority attorneys and clients.