You Need a Great Workforce. We’re Here to Help.
With more than 60 practice-specific lawyers, our labor and employment team is one of the largest and most respected within full-service law firms. With several of our attorneys having experience working for companies in HR and labor relations positions, we have first-hand understanding of the challenges you face every day. Our approach is to partner with you long-term. In fact, we sometimes serve as outsourced or embedded “in-house counsel” for clients. Using a variety of tools, we can coach, counsel and train your staff on best practices focused on your company’s specific needs.
While we have broad geographic reach, unlike the mega-firms with offices everywhere, your matters, wherever they occur, will not be spread across multiple offices. Rather, they will be handled by a single team focused on you – providing consistency and better knowledge of your business.
For these reasons and many more, our labor and employment attorneys have been recognized repeatedly by clients and peers, in nationwide surveys and publications such as Chambers USA and other well-respected ranking publications.
Keeping You Current
In addition to the educational approaches already discussed, another tool we use to keep you abreast of proposed and new regulatory changes is our Labor and Employment Focus advisory.
When It Comes to Labor & Employment Law, We’ve Got You Covered
Regulatory
The Alphabet Soup of Compliance
The compliance landscape is always changing, so we have made it our mission to stay ahead of every new development. We provide full guidance and counseling concerning compliance with the alphabet soup of federal, state and local statutes and regulations affecting employee rights, benefits and workplace safety. Among them are these and many more:
- Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (Title VII).
- Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).
- Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
- Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
- Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA).
- Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
- Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA).
- Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
- Title IX of the Education Amendments Act (Title IX).
- Whistleblower statutes.
- Worker Adjustment Relocation and Notification Act (WARN).
Not Just Change Monitors, Change Makers
Our attorneys monitor pending regulatory changes and apprise you of possible changes and their likely impact on your business. When such changes are enacted, we provide timely advice, practical guidance and training on best practices for compliance. But that’s not all we do. In addition to advising and educating you on regulatory matters, Buchanan’s government relations professionals are able to help shape the development of laws and regulations that have an impact upon our clients’ industries.
Transactional
Employee benefits, labor relations, tax and change management are the four primary transactional areas of labor and employment law. Our attorneys understand how important each of these is to your business.
Managing Employee Benefits and ERISA
We understand the enormous challenges you face every day when it comes to compensation and benefits. Our attorneys have the experience to counsel you effectively on a broad range of employee benefits, ERISA, executive compensation, employment agreements and federal income tax matters.
Exceptional Strength in Traditional Labor Relations
We've helped our clients through countless union-organizing drives, labor contract negotiations and Railway Labor Act matters. We can help you remain union-free, if that is your goal, or to manage your workforce effectively if a collective bargaining agreement is in place.
Managing the Tax Issues of Employment
We literally wrote the book on tax considerations. Attorneys in our Washington, D.C. office serve on Bloomberg’s BNA Tax Advisory Board and are the managing editors of BNA’s highly regarded Tax Management publication series, used by nearly all tax attorneys. We can provide you with counsel regarding the complex tax rules and other legal considerations that are involved with compensation and incentive plans. And we can help you obtain favorable determination letters, private letter rulings, voluntary compliance resolution statements and closing agreements with the Internal Revenue Service.
Helping You Manage Change and Growth
We can advise you on the many employee pension and welfare benefit plan issues involved in:
- Mergers, acquisitions and initial public offerings.
- Buying and selling of unionized operations, including withdrawal liability.
- Opening and closing of facilities.
- Plan spin-offs, terminations and distributions.
- Corporate structuring that implicates single employer, joint employer and alter ego issues.
Litigation
Reducing Risks and Optimizing Outcomes
The complexity of employment law at every level exposes employers to the risk of litigation every day. We firmly believe that prevention is the best approach, and we will help you minimize the potential for litigation. However, we are well prepared for litigation, including class and collective action litigation, and ready to defend you before any agency or court. We can help you prepare for government audits and negotiate favorable settlements. And we can also help you navigate your way through even the most daunting fatality and criminal investigations and related media inquiries.
How We Work with You on Litigation
Each case is led by an experienced attorney at the shareholder level, many of whom have direct knowledge of the judges or court systems where the cases are filed, adding significant value to our representation.