Employment Law

Prince Lobel’s Employment Law Group attorneys have experience handling a wide range of matters in each of the four, key pillars of employment law:

Compliance

• Design and implement scalable policies and procedures to ensure both Massachusetts and multi-state employers are in compliance with an ever-widening range of federal, state and local laws, such as family and medical leave; earned paid sick leave; pay transparency; pay equity; anti-discrimination; workplace safety and health; background checks; reduction in force; and wage payment.
• Design and implement incentive compensation programs, such as commission plans and bonus plans.
• As Department of Labor Certified OSHA trainers, conduct onsite safety inspections compliance audits and training.
• Provide training on various employment topics, both companywide (such as anti-discrimination and harassment training) and targeted (such as Employment Law 101 for Managers).

Counseling

• Guide employers through sensitive and critical decisions, such as performance management, leave of absence management, reasonable accommodation requests, and employee discipline and termination.
• Assist employers with investigations or audits by state, federal and other regulatory agencies.
• Conduct internal workplace investigations.

Transactions

• Draft and negotiate all forms of employment-related agreements, such as offer letters, executive employment agreements, severance agreements and plans, change in control agreements and equity agreements.
• Draft and negotiate restrictive covenant agreements for both Massachusetts and multi-state employers, such as confidentiality, non-disclosure, non-competition, non-solicitation and non-raiding covenants.
• Draft and negotiate commercial agreements with employment-related third parties, such as consultants, independent contractors, HR service providers, benefit administrators and staffing and recruiting agencies.
• Provide employment due diligence support for mergers and acquisitions.

Litigation

• Defend employers in state and federal court against every type of employment claim, including wage and hour violations; discrimination and harassment; whistleblowing and retaliation; leave interference; invasion of privacy; breach of contract and employment torts.
• Prosecute and defend claims for breach of non-compete, non-solicitation and other restrictive covenants, misappropriation of trade secrets and other confidential business information, and related torts.
• Defend employers in administrative actions before federal and state agencies, including the Department of Labor, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, and the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office.
• Defend employers before the Department of Labor and the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission with respect to OSHA investigations and citations, from routine compliance inspections to matters involving fatality.
• Prince Lobel’s employment attorneys are admitted to practice in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Rhode Island, and have experience as prosecutors and in-house counsel.

Race/Disability/Gender/Age Discrimination

We won a favorable decision from the Massachusetts Appeals Court for our client, a 200-officer police department, where the plaintiff, a current police lieutenant, claimed he was disproportionately disciplined due to his race and prior history of complaints.  The Appeals Court adopted our argument that the plaintiff had not demonstrated a right to have his claims go to trial, and it affirmed the Superior Court’s dismissal of the case.

We obtained summary judgment for our client, a healthcare provider, in a gender and sexual orientation discrimination and harassment claim brought by a male nurse. The case involved allegations of nurse bullying. Prince Lobel demonstrated to the court that the plaintiff’s claims were too flimsy to go to trial. The court dismissed the case.

We won a complete victory after a multi-day Public Hearing at the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. The Commission issued a decision fully exonerating our client, a large public agency that was charged with discriminating against an employee on the basis of race and disability.

We obtained summary judgment for our client, a large Massachusetts employer, on a disability discrimination claim where the plaintiff alleged that the employer failed to accommodate her need to work in a fragrance-free environment. Prince Lobel demonstrated that the claim had no merit and the court dismissed the case.

We obtained summary judgment for our client,  a public authority, in a discrimination case in which an employee alleged race discrimination with respect to promotions.

We obtained summary judgment for our client, a prominent teaching hospital, in an age discrimination case.

High Stakes

We successfully defended a public agency in a high-stakes trial in Suffolk Superior Court, a forum that has been notoriously difficult for employers.  In a case where the plaintiff sought millions, the jury found in favor of the agency with regard to all but one claim and awarded just $16,000, a great vindication for our client.

Wage and Hour Matters

We won a favorable decision from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, in a wage and hour action against our client, a large public authority. The SJC agreed with our argument that the claim should be dismissed, holding that the Wage Act does not require the payout of unused sick time.  The court clarified that most forms of incentive bonus compensation are not covered by the Wage Act.

Non-competition Action

We helped our client, a supplier of equipment to police and fire departments, defeat a competitor’s injunction action seeking to prevent two recent hires from working for our client. The plaintiff claimed the employees were in violation of non-competition agreements. Prince Lobel demonstrated to the court that the good will and industry knowledge belonged to the employees and not their former employer.

We achieved a significant victory in a non-competition enforcement action (in the Massachusetts Appeals Court) for our client, a major Cambridge-based biotech company.