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.