Employment Attorneys On Retainer For Businesses: Their Role In Your Company
As a company owner, you want to make sure that everything you do is on the up and up. One false step, and you could be looking at a lawsuit. Keeping ahead of the game, you are likely to hire a team of business attorneys to ensure that everything is copacetic. On that note, you are likely to have an employment attorney as part of your legal team. The role an employment attorney plays in your company is as follows:
As a Consultant
Before you hire anyone, you would probably want to consult your employment attorney to make sure that you are hiring a candidate that does not have any past or prior legal issues. The employment attorney takes on the task of investigating the candidate you are interested in hiring. Usually this is done for any top executive positions where it may be necessary to have candidates with as little historical scandal and criminal history as possible (preferably none!). If the candidate checks out with the employment attorney, then the employment attorney will advise you to hire the candidate. If the candidate has any shady past dealings, the attorney would advise you of that as well.
As a Defense Lawyer in Lawsuits Where You or Someone in Your Company Is Accused of Discrimination
More often than not, an employment lawyer will help defend you and/or you company's good name if you are being sued for any sort of discrimination. This type of case is the most common with bigger companies and job candidates who think that they have been snubbed in favor of someone younger, older,or of a different gender or race. Your lawyer's job in this capacity is to disprove the claims of discrimination and avoid paying compensation to the litigant for the their claims.
Frequency with Which This Lawyer Might Be Working for You
Even though you might be tempted to skip having an employment lawyer on retainer and on your company's legal team, it is important to remember that when you least expect to need this type of legal counsel, you will need it the most. In the meantime, they may not be doing much else for you, but that is what a retainer is for; to hold onto the employment lawyer in the event that you actually do need their services. Some companies need such lawyers more than others, and your company may be one of them.