Lenhart Obenshain’s employment and employee benefits lawyers
possess a wide range of experience supporting businesses, their owners and
managers in stewarding their most important asset – their people. We have
worked closely with Fortune 500 companies, midsize employers, family
businesses, nonprofit and institutional clients, manufacturers, start-up
companies and professional services firms, providing whatever employment and
benefits support the client’s day requires. We enjoy assisting our clients
in the proactive management of their human resources to avoid costly
problems, but we are well prepared to respond quickly and effectively when
problems arise.
Our services include:
- Employment law compliance support in all aspects of employment
law, including wage and hour, anti-discrimination/Title VII, FMLA, ADA,
ADEA, OSHA, and workers’ compensation law. Such support consists of
drafting and assisting with employment agreements, handbooks, personnel
policies, HR protocols, and disciplinary documentation. We can also
provide on-site training for supervisors and management in many areas
including: interviewing, hiring, disciplining, appraising, investigating
and terminating employees, managing workers’ compensation claims and
coordinating leaves of absences, among other topics. Effective annual
training is becoming the centerpiece in defending harassment and
discrimination cases and our lawyers can provide “in the trenches”
training which will make supervisors sit up and take notice.
- Executive and key employee employment agreements, affording
executives the compensation arrangements important to them – bonus plans,
incentive compensation (such as stock ownership or option plans),
qualified and nonqualified deferred compensation (including use of Rabbi
trusts, split dollar life insurance and ineligible 457(f) plans) – as well
as appropriately protecting the employer’s business through restrictive
covenants (such as noncompetition, nondisclosure and nonsolicitation
provisions) and assignments of intellectual property rights.
- Retirement plan support in the areas of plan design and
drafting of qualified retirement plans (including profit sharing and
401(k) cash or deferred arrangements) ESOPs (leveraged and non-leveraged),
non-qualified plans (including phantom stock, stock appreciation rights
and restricted stock plans), 403(b) plans, and governmental and nonprofit
457(b) plans. We also advise retirement plans on fiduciary issues
(including 404(c) participant-directed plans), Internal Revenue Service
and Department of Labor reporting and disclosure, QDROs, voluntary
compliance programs (EPCRS, DFVC and VCP) and audits, and issues in
mergers and acquisitions (including plan terminations).
- Health and welfare plan support for insured and self-insured
medical plans, Section 125 cafeteria/flexible benefit plans, short- and
long-term disability plans, medical reimbursement arrangements, dependent
care assistance, tuition assistance, life insurance/death benefits,
employee assistance plans (EAPs) and other fringe benefits. Specific areas
of counsel include design and review of ERISA-compliant plan documents,
summary plan descriptions and administrative materials; COBRA; HIPAA
matters (including privacy); FMLA interaction; nondiscrimination; funding
mechanisms (including VEBAs); and Internal Revenue Service and Department
of Labor reporting and disclosure.
- Litigation support, whether in defense of an employee’s claim
before the EEOC, the U.S. Department of Labor, the Virginia Human Rights
Council, the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission, the Virginia
Unemployment Commission, or in state or federal court representing an
employer in protecting its business from employee claims or an employee’s
wrongful actions.
If you need legal advice on employment and employee benefits issues,
contact Cathleen P. Welsh at 540.437.3113
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