Employment law. Translated for your moment.
Over 20 years inside the statutes, the agencies, and the courts where workplace disputes get decided.
Discrimination & Harassment
Title VII and the TCHRA prohibit adverse employment actions based on race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity following Bostock v. Clayton County), and national origin. Harassment becomes actionable when conduct is severe or pervasive enough to alter the terms and conditions of employment — what courts call a hostile work environment.
We represent both employers facing charges and employees who have experienced discriminatory conduct, advising on internal complaint procedures, EEOC and TWC charge handling, and resolution before — or, where necessary, through — formal proceedings.
Retaliation & Whistleblower Protection
Federal and state law protect employees who oppose unlawful practices, file charges, or refuse to commit illegal acts. The Texas Whistleblower Act protects public employees who report violations of law in good faith to an appropriate authority. Sabine Pilot creates a narrow common-law exception to at-will employment for private-sector employees terminated solely for refusing to perform an illegal act.
The line between protected activity and ordinary workplace friction is rarely obvious. We assess whether the timing, the decision-makers, and the documented record support — or undermine — a retaliation theory before either side commits to a position.
Wage & Hour Compliance
The FLSA governs minimum wage, overtime, and recordkeeping, with exempt-versus-nonexempt classification driving most disputes. The Texas Payday Law sets timing and method requirements for wage payment and provides an administrative remedy through the Texas Workforce Commission.
Misclassification is the most common — and most expensive — wage and hour exposure. We audit job duties against the executive, administrative, and professional exemptions; review independent-contractor relationships under the economic-realities test; and counsel on overtime recovery, off-the-clock work, and tip pooling.
Disability & Reasonable Accommodation
The ADA and TCHRA require employers to engage in an interactive process to identify reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities, absent undue hardship. The PWFA extends similar obligations to known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions.
The interactive process is where most accommodation matters are won or lost — long before any formal charge is filed. We counsel both employers structuring compliant processes and employees navigating denied or stalled accommodation requests, including return-to-work disputes and fitness-for-duty evaluations.
Family & Medical Leave
The FMLA provides eligible employees of covered employers with up to 12 workweeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year for specified family and medical reasons, with health-benefit continuation and reinstatement rights. Section 2615 prohibits both interference with FMLA rights and retaliation for asserting them.
Notice failures, certification disputes, and intermittent-leave abuse claims drive most FMLA litigation. We advise on eligibility analysis, designation, certification and recertification, intermittent leave administration, and the interaction between FMLA, ADA accommodation, and workers’ compensation.
Age Discrimination
The ADEA protects workers age 40 and older from discrimination in hiring, firing, promotion, compensation, and terms of employment. The OWBPA imposes specific requirements on age-based releases — including the 21- or 45-day consideration period and 7-day revocation period — that frequently determine whether a separation agreement is enforceable.
Reductions in force, succession planning, and “culture fit” discussions are the contexts in which age claims most often surface. We counsel on RIF selection criteria, statistical exposure analysis, and the drafting and review of age-compliant releases.
Equal Pay
The EPA requires equal pay for equal work — substantially similar jobs, performed under similar conditions, requiring equal skill, effort, and responsibility — with limited statutory defenses for seniority, merit, production, or any factor other than sex. The Ledbetter Act resets the limitations period with each discriminatory paycheck.
Pay equity audits, compensation banding, and merit-increase processes are the structural levers most often examined in equal-pay analysis. We advise on proactive pay audits, defensive structuring of compensation systems, and responses to EEOC compensation discrimination charges.
Severance & Separation Agreements
A release is only as good as its weakest unenforceable provision. Post-McLaren Macomb, overbroad confidentiality and non-disparagement clauses can render entire separation agreements vulnerable. OWBPA missteps invalidate age-based releases. State public-policy limits restrict what claims can be waived at all.
We draft, review, and negotiate severance and separation agreements from both sides — counseling employers on enforceable release structures and advising departing executives and employees on what’s actually being given up, what should be negotiated, and what cannot be waived as a matter of law.
Non-Competes, NDAs & Trade Secrets
Texas enforces non-competes that are ancillary to an otherwise enforceable agreement and reasonable in scope, geography, and duration. Marsh v. Cook resolved that stock-option grants and similar consideration can support enforceability. The DTSA and TUTSA provide parallel federal and state remedies for trade-secret misappropriation, including injunctive relief and, in egregious cases, exemplary damages.
Drafting that survives reformation and litigation that survives summary judgment require precision about what is actually being protected — customer relationships, confidential information, or specialized training — and why the scope chosen is no broader than necessary to protect it.
Hiring, Onboarding & Background Checks
The earliest stages of the employment relationship generate compliance exposure that often surfaces years later — interview questions that touch protected characteristics, conditional offers that precede medical inquiries, FCRA notices that don’t track the statute, and background-check adverse-action letters that skip required steps.
We counsel on lawful interview frameworks, offer letter and at-will language, FCRA-compliant background-check workflows, and the documentation that distinguishes a defensible hire from one that becomes a charge.
Policies, Handbooks & Workplace Investigations
The Faragher/Ellerth affirmative defense — requiring an employer to show it exercised reasonable care to prevent and correct harassing behavior, and that the employee unreasonably failed to take advantage of preventive opportunities — depends on policies that exist, are communicated, and are actually followed. NLRA Section 7 limits what work-rule language is even lawful.
We draft and audit handbooks, anti-harassment and complaint procedures, social media and confidentiality policies, and conduct workplace investigations that withstand later scrutiny — including investigations into harassment, retaliation, theft, and conflicts of interest.
Agency Charges & Investigations
Agency stages compress facts, theories, and defenses into a record that follows the matter through any later litigation. Position statements drafted without that downstream view become a liability; well-drafted ones often resolve the matter at the agency level.
We represent employers and employees through EEOC and TWC charge processes, DOL wage-and-hour audits, OSHA whistleblower investigations, NLRB unfair-labor-practice charges, and OFCCP compliance reviews — including position statements, document production, witness interviews, mediation, conciliation, and determination response.
Have a specific issue? Start there.
Practice areas describe the law. Services describe the work. If you already know what you need — a severance review, a non-compete analysis, an EEOC charge response — go directly to that service. If you’re not sure, schedule a consultation.