Employment law for employees and the businesses that hire them

If you are an employee

Ohio is an at-will state, which means an employer can usually end your job for any reason or no reason. It cannot end your job for an illegal reason, and it cannot keep wages you have already earned. We help with:

• Discrimination and harassment based on race, sex, pregnancy, age, disability, religion, national origin or military status, under Ohio Revised Code Chapter 4112 and federal law.
• Retaliation for reporting harassment, safety violations or fraud, taking FMLA leave, or filing a workers’ compensation claim.
• Unpaid wages and overtime, including misclassification as “exempt” or as an independent contractor.
• Severance agreements. If you have been handed one with a deadline, we review it, tell you what is unusual, and, when it makes sense, negotiate for more.
• Non-compete and non-solicitation agreements, both before you sign and when a former employer sends a letter after you leave.

Deadlines in these cases are short. A charge with the EEOC generally has to be filed within 300 days, and some Ohio claims have even shorter windows. If something has just happened, call sooner rather than later.

Employees get a free one-hour consultation with an attorney. Many cases we take are on contingency, which means you pay attorney fees only if we recover money for you. The details are on What to expect & fees.

If you are an employer

Most employment lawsuits we see could have been avoided with a better handbook, a cleaner termination or a conversation with a lawyer before the conversation with the employee. For Ohio businesses with 5 to 250 employees we:

• write and update employee handbooks, offer letters and contractor agreements;
• draft restrictive covenants that a Franklin County judge is likely to enforce;
• advise on a specific discipline or termination before it happens;
• respond to EEOC and Ohio Civil Rights Commission charges and Department of Labor wage audits;
• defend claims in state and federal court.

Employers can also put us on a monthly HR advice retainer: a fixed amount each month for unlimited short questions answered by phone or email.

Who handles this work

Diane Okafor leads our employment litigation, with Rachel Nguyen handling severance and non-compete matters and Alana Price advising employers on compliance.