The lawyers at Vrountas, Ayer & Chandler are among the most experienced employment lawyers in New England. We provide legal counseling and litigation services covering the full range of issues that concern the employer/employee relationship.

Our partners have served employers of every size and industry, including local, regional, and national restaurant chains, government contractors, technology companies, staffing agencies, colleges and universities, waste management companies, medical care facilities, veterinary hospitals, and broadcasting companies. These same clients have relied upon us to resolve their commercial disputes when they arise.

EMPLOYMENT COUNSELING AND LITIGATION

Employment Counseling

Counseling is about guidance. We do not presume to tell you what to do. You know your business. We are here to guide you through the legal minefields to keep you informed and out of trouble.

Trade Secrets and Goodwill: We draft and litigate non-compete, non-solicitation and non-disclosure agreements for companies in all industries.

Crises Management: We help clients control emergencies when legal interests are at stake, whether they constitute press and publicity over lawsuits or whether they involve managing a crisis to be sure the company does the right thing while taking care not to prejudice its legal rights.

Policy Development and Drafting: We review and develop employment applications, job descriptions, employment contracts, severance agreements, alcohol and drug testing policies, leave polices, and employee handbooks.

Training: We provide sexual harassment training, wage and hour training, diversity training, culture and teamwork training, and other compliance training for employees.

Investigations and Audits: We conduct internal investigations of reports of wrongdoing and we report findings and recommendations to the client’s Human Resources function. We also conduct internal compliance audits under Equal Pay Act laws, the Fair Labor Standards Act, and other wage and hour laws to help clients anticipate agency audits that could otherwise lead to costly results.

Internal Complaints: We consult with HR departments to guide them through employee complaints about harassment, discrimination, retaliation and other workplace issues.

Requests for Leave: We guide companies through employee requests for leave, ensuring compliance with the FMLA, USERRA, the Family First Coronavirus Response Act and the other federal laws and state leave law.

Requests for Accommodation: We guide companies through employee requests for accommodation, ensuring compliance Title VII regarding religious accommodation and the Americans with Disabilities Act regarding accommodation for disabilities, as well as the various state law equivalents.

Employment Litigation

Litigation has been described as “business in another form.” We understand disputes from the client’s business perspective, and we take a team approach to litigation. We work collaboratively with the client to chart and execute the best strategy.

We litigate employment matters in federal and state courts as well as in administrative forums across numerous jurisdictions in New England and throughout the country. We litigate to protect trade secrets and goodwill as well as to defend against discrimination claims, wage and hour claims, wrongful termination claims, whistleblower and other disputes involving employees.

We defend against discrimination and harassment claims in federal and state agencies and in federal and state courts. Our litigation experience includes all types of discrimination claims, including those concerning race, sex, sexual orientation, disability, religion and other forms of alleged discrimination. We litigate sexual harassment and sexual assault cases, especially those high stakes claims that involve significant legal exposure for an employer.

We defend wage and hour claims, including class and collective actions, where an employer is alleged to have misclassified an employee as exempt, or wrongfully withheld wages, or misapplied tip credit, or failed to pay minimum wage or overtime, or failed to give notice of wages or notice of tip credit. We defend in federal and state courts as well as before the Department of Labor.

We litigate wrongful termination claims, complaints of negligent supervision and hiring, and whistleblower claims.

We litigate trade secret and non-compete violations. We have obtained injunctions to enforce covenants not to compete and to protect goodwill and against the disclosure of trade secrets, and we have successfully opposed over reaching motions to impose overly broad restrictive covenants when such claims have been brought against our clients.

We cannot list all cases or even topic areas that we have litigated on behalf of business and employers, but we can say that we always remain mindful that clients, not lawyers, drive litigation.