I have a passion for seeing businesses succeed.  When businesses succeed, owners, shareholders, employees, families, consumers, other businesses and communities will benefit.  A successful business is good for our economy.

One of the goals of the Law Office of Laura L. Ergood, LLC is to provide businesses with employment law advice and guidance that will help businesses profit by keeping employees happy and productive, while decreasing reliance on more expensive law firms.  Compliance with the many state and federal employment laws that exist today is challenging for business owners, not to mention the myriad of different employee situations and fact patterns that managers and business owners are confronted with daily.  Let the Law Office of Laura L. Ergood, assist your business with its employment law needs.

The Law Office of Laura L. Ergood can serve as your Human Resource office or in-house counsel without actually having to add in-house counsel to your pay-roll.  We can also serve as outside counsel to your company’s in-house counsel or HR Department for all of your employment law needs at a lower cost than big law firms may charge.

While previously serving as General Counsel to a local mortgage company, I dealt first hand with all of the Company’s employment law issues.  The issues ranged from proper classification of employees for overtime pay, to overtime calculations for commissioned employees to investigating and handling sexual harassment and discrimination claims.[1]  I also provided sexual harassment and discrimination training to managers, employees and new hires.  I continually revised the employee handbook as laws were amended, managed and properly documented Family Leave and successfully assisted when the NJ Department of Labor audited the company due to an employee wage and hour complaint.

I  recently assisted a local business through a difficult Federal Department of Labor audit.  I was able to provide this company with valuable information during this difficult time.  I also located an error with their overtime calculations that was being done by a national payroll company which was making the erroneous calculation.  Had the company sought out my services prior to the audit, I would have been able to protect against much of the high costs associated with the audit.  This can happen to any company.  The audit may be random or spurred on by a disgruntled employee.  The risk of liability associated with government audits or employee lawsuits can be staggering.

I can be available to your company when you need me.  Here is a list of some of the services that I can provide to assist with seeing that your company is compliant with federal and state employment laws and regulations, which will ultimately help protect your bottom line against protracted litigation, unhappy employees, and fines and penalties imposed by government entities and keep your business running smoothly.

• Employer/Employee Handbooks – preparation, review and revisions.
• Examine employee classifications based upon job responsibilities – important to avoid overtime issues and back-pay.
• Examine independent contractor classifications – a hot area that the government departments are cracking down on.
• Provide harassment and discrimination training to managers and employees.
• Provide independent discrimination and harassment investigations for objective findings and to protect privacy of those involved.
• Provide advice on employee issues and terminations as they arise.
• Conduct audits of overtime pay records to assure they are correct.
• Assess whether all required federal and state poster are posted properly.
• Assist, advise and represent during government audits.
• Advise of updates in the laws and regulations.
• Provide guidance and audits with regard to tipping policies and “tip-pooling” for restaurant clients.
• Draft job descriptions.
• Review and negotiate severance agreements.
• Represent before the EEOC and other state and federal agencies.
• Prepare position papers in response to employee complaints filed with the EEOC and other state and federal agencies.
• Assist with disability reasonable accommodations requests pursuant to the ADAAA.
• Assist with FMLA and NJ FLA leave of absence requests – this can be very tricky sometimes.

And the list goes on…

If you are interested in learning more about these valuable services and how they may benefit your business, please call me at 856.266.9525 and we can talk on the phone or meet in person. I welcome the opportunity to assist your business to be as compliant with the employment laws as it can be.