Brown McCarroll Attorneys at Law

Our team of labor and employment attorneys works with you to position your company for success.  We do this by focusing on preventive compliance and, when necessary, arbitration and litigation.

Develop a Superior Workforce

Every business has employees, but not every business has a productive workforce.  Our attorneys partner with management and human resources professionals to transform their workforce into their greatest asset.  How is this done?

• Hiring the right people.  The most important step to a productive workforce is hiring the right people.  We assist clients in establishing processes for hiring the best employees and building diversity within their workforce.
• Supervisor selection and training.  Supervisors are critical to a productive workplace.  Have your supervisors been trained to supervise employees?  Are they more management or more coworker?  Have they bought into management strategies?  Do you automatically promote your best performers to supervisor positions even though they may not have good supervisory skills?  Our attorneys work closely with clients on the selection and training of supervisors.
• Respect in the workplace.  Employees thrive in a work environment where they feel valued and respected.  Our attorneys work with clients to develop human resource policies and implementation strategies, which include supervisor and employee training. 
• Feedback.  Employees need to know what is expected of them and to receive honest, constructive feedback from their supervisors.  We assist clients in establishing an effective appraisal process and train supervisors on the process, giving employees the best chance to succeed and in facilitating the departure of those employees who will not or cannot perform at a high level (ever wanted to fire a poor performing employee, but his performance appraisals were good and there was no documentation of performance issues?)
• Up or out.  Most supervisors spend a majority of their time addressing poor performers rather than supporting their best performers.  Often, businesses find themselves passing poor performers from supervisor to supervisor, instead of addressing the poor performance.  We assist employers in giving poor performers the best chance to succeed, and if they do not improve, letting them go.   
• Compensation.  We help businesses develop compensation plans that provide effective incentives for strong performance, reward high performers, align employee interests with your business interests, and build in protections against unforeseen consequences.   
• Nip it in the bud.  We assist clients in developing and implementing open door policies that encourage employees to raise issues when they are small, and train supervisors on how to respond to those issues. 
• Retaining great employees.  We assist clients in retaining their best employees.  These retention measures involve the items discussed above. We also assist in preparing enforceable noncompete agreements and implementing strategies for avoiding competitor raiding of employees.

Comply With The Law

There are a myriad of employee-related laws and regulations.  We know the in’s and out’s of these laws and regulations and help you develop and implement compliance policies and strategies.  Did you know:

• Employers must report information on new employees to the Texas Attorney General’s office within 20 days from their hire date. 
• If you decide not to hire an applicant based on a background check, you must first send a pre-adverse action notice to the applicant and then follow up with a post-adverse action notice. 
• If you lay off two or more employees and offer a severance package, you may need to provide those employees certain statistical information and give them 45 days to consider your release document and a seven-day revocation period after they sign it, in order to release age discrimination claims.  
• Incentive bonuses have to be included in an employee’s regular rate for calculating overtime. 
• Many businesses have at least some employees misclassified as exempt employees, exposing themselves to significant liability. 
• Many businesses have at least some employees misclassified as independent contractors.  The Department of Labor (DOL) has announced new cross-agency efforts to help states detect violators. 
• Under the new health care reform legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, businesses with 50 or more employees must, beginning in 2014, provide health insurance to their employees or pay a penalty.
• The National Labor Relations Act protects concerted activity of two or more employees even if they aren’t represented by a union. 

Reduce Your Employee Costs

We advise clients on how employment laws and regulations can be used to cut employee costs.  Did you know: 

• There is a DOL-approved plan where you can pay, if certain requirements are met, non-exempt employees a fixed salary and only pay .5 times their regular hourly rate for overtime hours (instead of 1.5 times)
• You may be able to obtain a significant tax credit in 2010 and beyond if you are a small business and provide health insurance to your employees. 
• You can do your own criminal background searches on the Texas Department of Public Safety website for $3.07 a search.
• You can earn tax credits for hiring from certain targeted groups:
  • In 2010, a business can save up to $6,600 by hiring someone who has been unemployed for at least 60 days. 
  • A business may be able to earn tax credits of up to $2,400 for hiring veterans, low income, food stamp receipients, ex-felons, persons with disabilities, and other groups.

Reduce Your Risk With Practical and Effective Solutions

When employee issues arise, you need a trusted advisor to provide you with practical and effective solutions, not generalities or roadblocks.  Our attorneys provide those solutions, including accurate risk assessments, so that you can make the best business decision.  This requires an in-depth knowledge of employment laws, experience in addressing employment issues, and the confidence to provide specific recommendations.  For example, how do you address an employee who has been on extended medical leave, but still comply with FMLA, ADA, and workers’ compensation requirements?  How do you supervise a poor performing employee who feels he/she is bulletproof after filing an EEOC charge?  What do you do when a wage and hour investigator is coming to your office tomorrow and you may have some exempt/non-exempt misclassification issues?  We have the solutions.   

Protect Your Confidential Information

We assist business clients in implementing programs to help protect their confidential information and trade secrets.  This deters employees from leaving with your information, and it makes it easier to discover their actions and prosecute them if they do.  We know the cutting-edge technology and techniques for investigating employee theft and have significant experience in prosecuting those employees.  We also know the steps to take to prevent competitors from using your confidential information. 

Real Labor Lawyers

Unions are becoming aggressive, particularly in the health care industry.  We have real experience working with businesses on union avoidance, labor strategies, negotiations, in-contract issues, employee discipline, grievances, arbitrations and matters before the NLRB.

Aggressively Defend Your Interests

Our lawyers have significant experience in defending our clients in government investigations, before federal and state agencies, in federal and state court, and arbitrations.  Our experience covers the full range of employment related matters, including: 

• Prosecuting former employees and competitors for:
  • Breach of noncompetition, nondisclosure and nonsolicitation agreements
  • Breach of fiduciary duties by employees and tortious interference by competitors who induce them to do so
  • Theft of trade secrets
  • Employee raiding
• Defending against:
  • Employment discrimination and retaliation claims
  • Whistleblower claims (e.g., nuclear, DOT, OSHA)
  • Wage and hour claims
  • OSHA Claims
  • Federal contractor compliance claims
  • NLRB charges
  • Discipline and contract interpretation arbitrations

Representative Industries Served

• Health care
• Energy
• Manufacturing
• Distribution
• Construction
• Technology