Employment Services for Employers
Our attorneys have extensive experience representing employers in executive compensation and employment transactions and in advising employers on various employment issues. Several examples of our services follow:
General Employment Counseling. Our firm provides proactive and cost-effective counseling on a broad array of general employment issues faced by employers, including terminations, leaves, wage and hour issues, discrimination and harassment, disability rights and trade secrets.
Employment and Separation Agreements. Our firm negotiates and documents employment agreements, indemnification agreements, separation agreements and other employment-related agreements. We are skilled at structuring complex executive compensation and equity arrangements.
Stock, Stock Option and Equity. The firm structures stock option plans, equity incentive plans, and other equity arrangements. Our attorneys have valuable experience with stock option and other equity structures for start-ups and private companies.
Bonus and Compensation Plans. Our attorneys prepare bonus and other compensation plans and agreements and advise employers on the legal issues raised by these arrangements.
Competition by Employees and Former Employees. We advise employers on the legal steps that they can take to protect themselves from unlawful competition and solicitation by current and former employees.
Protection of Trade Secrets and Intellectual Property. Our attorneys develop programs and prepare agreements that protect trade secrets, intellectual property and confidential business information.
Independent Contractors, Directors and Advisors. Our firm prepares agreements and develops compensation and equity arrangements with our clients’ independent contractors, directors and advisors. Our attorneys advise companies on the intricacies of independent contractor relationships.
Administrative Claims and Litigation Counseling. Our firm helps employers resolve disputes with employees and former employees. If the dispute results in a wage claim, DFEH claim, EEOC claim, or other administrative claim, we will respond to administrative claims filed by the employees. If the dispute results in litigation, we will find litigation counsel and assist as necessary with the litigation, but we are unable to represent the employer in the lawsuit.
Billing Terms for Employment Services
Our goals are to charge you the fair value of the legal services we provide to you and to become your long term partner for employment matters. To accomplish this goal, we provide several different billing arrangements for employment services depending upon your needs, your budget, and the amount of time that will be needed to accomplish your goals. The most common arrangements we provide for employers are hourly billing, project billing and monthly billing. However, we are willing to work under any alternative billing arrangement that is reasonable for both of us. Please contact one of our employment attorneys to discuss any alternative billing arrangement:
Hourly Billing. In an hourly billing arrangement, the fees for each matter are determined based on the hours billed for that matter and the attorney’s hourly billing rate. Please contact our office for our current billing rates. Hourly billing arrangements are still the most common billing terms and are the only billing arrangement offered by the majority of other law firms. The primary way we make sure our legal services are cost effective is by limiting the hours spent on a matter to the number of hours that are appropriate in light of the services you request and the results you seek. However, in an hourly billing arrangement, we are still committed to making sure the amount of your bill is equal to the fair value of the legal services we have provided, and if we determine that the fair value of our legal services is less than the actual hours billed on a matter, we will reduce the amount billed appropriately.
Project Billing. In a project billing arrangement, we will give you a fixed price for a particular matter, which will be based on the value of the project to you (as opposed to the time required). We will also track the time spent on the matter. Upon completion of the matter, you will receive a bill showing both the fixed project price and the hourly billing amount (based on the time spent on the matter), and you will be charged the lesser of these two amounts. So your legal fee will never be more than the fixed project price and may be less if the matter ends up requiring less time than we anticipate. Please contact one of our employment attorneys to discuss a fixed project billing rate for the services you need.
Monthly Billing: In a monthly billing arrangement,we will charge you a fixed monthly fee for all employment services. The monthly billing rate will cover all hours spent on employment services up to a cap that is between two and three times the number of hours that would be covered under an hourly billing arrangement. As with project billing, we will continue to track the time spent on employment services, and at the end of the monthly billing period, if the total hourly billing amount (based on the time spent on employment services) is less than the total monthly billing amount, we will refund you the difference. So your legal fee will never be more than the monthly billing price and may be less if you end up requiring less time than we anticipate. Please contact one of our employment attorneys to discuss a monthly billing rate.
