With approximately 60 attorneys and a talented and diverse support team, Sheehan Phinney represents clients throughout the New England region, nationally and internationally. We understand our clients’ businesses and work efficiently to advance their interests and find creative solutions to problems. We value the trust our clients have placed in us, and we know there is no greater honor than always being available to advise and guide them.

Labor & Employment

Our Labor and Employment attorneys represent private and public sector clients throughout New England. They are experienced in all aspects of employment law, labor relations and employee benefits. In particular, because of the ever-changing number of workplace laws and regulations, our lawyers assist employers in understanding and effectively managing an increasingly complex range of workplace legal issues.

Education and counseling are the cornerstones of our practice. In this area of the law, an ounce of prevention is truly worth a pound of cure. Our experienced team counsels clients on how to deal with sensitive workplace problems before they become claims. If claims do occur, we aggressively defend our clients in state and federal court, as well as before administrative tribunals.

Here are some examples of our services:

*Counseling employers on how to handle: hiring, wage and hour, workplace discrimination, worker safety, family leave, employee misconduct, employee privacy, drug and alcohol testing, employee benefits, unfair competition, workplace violence, and discipline and termination problems.

*Drafting and reviewing employee handbooks, employment contracts, collective bargaining agreements, pension and profit-sharing plans, employee benefit and welfare plans, personnel policies and noncompetition and confidentiality agreements.

*Defending our clients against: employment discrimination, sexual harassment, wrongful discharge, retaliation, wage and hour and unfair competition claims.

*Training managers how to: prevent and properly address sexual harassment complaints, deal with the threat of workplace violence, conduct internal investigations, conduct self-audits for statutory and regulatory compliance purposes, and develop performance evaluation systems.

*Assisting employers with: compliance audits, government investigations, internal investigations, visa petitions and immigration law compliance, proper record keeping, personnel information disclosures, employee benefit plan compliance issues, affirmative action plans, and responses to requests from government agencies.

*Representing management in collective bargaining negotiations, as well as grievance and unfair labor practice hearings.