Employment Law Advice and Compliance Counseling

Sherri works closely with human resources and in-house legal teams to daily provide advice and counsel on a wide range of human resources and employment law matters, including but not limited to those related to non-compete and confidentiality restrictions, hiring and employment background checks, worker classification, wage payment, remote work and alternative work arrangements, employee disciplinary matters, employee accommodations, leave of absence, independent contractors, temporary staff, employee retention, internal workplace complaints, and employment termination.  She works regularly with clients to develop, implement and update effective workplace policies and practices for today’s modern workplace, and harmonize those policies and practices as much as practicable when governed by competing state laws.  Sherri routinely assists clients in performing confidential wage audits and in planning workforce restructurings, layoffs and reductions in force – helping them achieve desired workforce changes while successfully avoiding litigation.

Sherri’s primary goal is to help her clients effectively navigate ever-evolving federal, state and local laws and regulations that apply to their workforces in a collaborative way that reinforces their business cultures, prevents organizational problems, and sets their companies up for success in their employer-employee relations.  Sherri regularly partners with clients to identify creative, practical and cost-effective solutions for workplace concerns, and advise, counsel and train them on the ever evolving laws and regulations which apply to their businesses.   Sherri strives to serve her clients promptly and efficiently, mindful of business practicalities and operational needs.  She often serves as an outside “in house” counsel to provide efficient and effective legal direction aimed at retaining talent, assuring an engaged and productive workforce, and avoiding litigation.   

Sherri’s advice and compliance counseling practice regularly includes:

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Other Workforce and Management Training

Sherri recognizes and understands the multitude of benefits businesses derive from cultivating a diverse, inclusive and respectful workplace cultures. Diversity in business is not simply assuring that a wide range of individuals with diverse characteristics are hired, but fostering a culture of diversity where managers and employees are supported in developing the capacity to appreciate and value individual differences as they drive business performance goals.  Individuals who have diverse characteristics and come from diverse backgrounds bring varied perspectives based on their unique attributes and experiences that help businesses confront challenges, solve problems, drive innovation, retain talent, advance performance initiatives, and thrive overall. 

To assist clients in appropriately cultivating respectful and inclusive work environments, Sherri regularly provides cost-effective and impactful individual and group training on the following topics:

• Respectful Workplace/Non-Harassment/Non-Discrimination for Management Personnel

• Respectful Workplace/Non-Harassment/Non-Discrimination for Non-Management Employees

• Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

• Unconscious Bias

• Bystander Intervention

Sherri has also been called upon by clients to provide one-on-one training as part of both proactive and remedial coaching for managers on respectful workplace topics, including unconscious bias, non-harassment, non-discrimination, non-retaliation, and diversity, equity and inclusion.

Additionally, Sherri assists to set employers up for success through a variety of other training programs for managers and human resources personnel, as appropriate, including topics such as:

• Effectively Managing Employee Performance Concerns

• Handling “Problem” Employees

• Properly Managing Employee Leaves of Absence

• Disability Accommodations

• Appropriately Conducting Internal Investigations

• Social Media Concerns

• ADA Title III Accessibility Matters

Workplace Investigations

Sherri has been called upon by clients, large and small (including both public and private companies, and non-profit organizations), to perform confidential investigations into a variety of workplace concerns.  When performing investigations, Sherri serves as a neutral fact-finder to conduct witness interviews, gather evidence, and review relevant documents and other materials.  Sherri will also guide and counsel clients from the outset of a matter in preparing correspondence for employees reminding them of the employer’s prohibitions against retaliation, and will, upon conclusion of an investigation, prepare a thorough investigation report.  Whether serving as the investigator herself, or evaluating the factual summaries and evidence gathered by a separate internal or third-party investigator, Sherri provides strategic advice and recommendations for businesses (and, where applicable, their Boards of Directors) that is appropriately aimed to halt and if necessary, remediate, inappropriate workplace behaviors, and, when needed, implement disciplinary action.  Sherri counsels clients to make lawful and strategic decisions to best mitigate the chance for litigation and best posture clients to defend litigation based on the factual discoveries learned from the investigation, and assists in the preparation of all necessary documentation for the investigation and any associated disciplinary action. She has also been retained to provide a second opinion on investigation strategies, outcomes and resultant disciplinary action plans.

Subject matters of investigations Sherri has performed include:

• Claims of Discrimination and Harassment, including Race, Gender/Sex and Age Bias Claims

• Claims of Workplace Bullying and other Unfair Treatment

• Retaliation Concerns

• Theft or Misuse of Company Funds and other Property

• Other Employer Policy Violations

• Whistleblower and Alleged Compliance Violations

• Workplace Incidents

• Compensation-Related Claims

• Other Employee Misconduct

ADA Disability and Public Accommodations Defense and Counseling

Sherri has a broad range of unique experience in helping businesses and employers alike in managing their obligations under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and similar state laws and regulations for both their clientele and their employees.

Sherri has assisted businesses in a number of industries, including financial services, hospitality, entertainment, restaurant, car rental, retail and other services, to identify and mitigate risks for non-compliance with accessibility laws for physical and digital access and the provision of products and services.  Sherri has routinely partnered with appropriate experts to perform confidential compliance surveys and thereafter assist clients to develop risk mitigation plans, policies, contractual requirements for third parties, and compliance training.  Sherri has also provided effective representation for clients faced with compliance investigations and charges brought by the federal Department of Justice and similar state agencies or complaints filed in state and federal courts, securing successful resolutions that avoided reputational damage and other risks, including by providing a thoughtful defense that helped regional and national clients to contain matters locally in the jurisdiction where filed.  Additionally, Sherri has been called upon to assist clients in responding to customer accessibility complaints and/or mediating matters in a manner that defuses situations and results in mutually-agreeable resolutions.  Sherri’s experience with ADA Title III litigation and compliance matters includes a variety of programs, products and services addressing issues related to facility access, service animals, effective communication, sign language interpretation, shuttle transportation services, hotel accommodations, appliance manufacturing, automated teller machines, self-service equipment, and websites. 

Sherri also regularly counsels and advises employers around all aspects of employee disability and medical accommodations in the workplace, including the often intersecting federal and state laws that provide leave and benefits rights for employees.  Sherri routinely helps employers establish their employment policies and practices to assure non-discrimination against individuals with disabilities and appropriately inform employees of their leave and benefits rights.  When workplace accommodations are sought, Sherri regularly partners with human resource teams and guides them through the interactive process to provide reasonable accommodations where necessary and appropriate.  Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Sherri has helped human resources teams navigate the myriad of ever-changing federal and state health and safety measures as those impact the workplace, with due consideration of disability, pregnancy and medical accommodation needs when developing, implementing, managing and updating policies and practices in the workplace (including policies and practices around remote work, COVID-19 testing, face coverings, and vaccinations). 

Workforce Restructuring and Employment Due Diligence

Working in cooperation with corporate counsel, Sherri has extensive experience in managing the employment law due diligence review for both buyers and sellers in strategic business transactions, including asset sales, mergers, and acquisitions.  During these often fast-paced evaluations, Sherri will carefully review and assess employment personnel practices compliance of the target entity with all applicable laws and regulations and will provide counsel to clients with respect to human resource practices and documentation, policies, onboarding, wage and hour policies, wage payment practices, worker classification, employment agreement terms, contractual obligations, regulatory audits, previous employment and labor litigation, prior employment audits and investigations, and federal and state WARN Act and other plant closing or reduction in force notifications.  Through the due diligence exercise, Sherri will summarize employment-related matters, identify material employment-related risks, resolve business culture issues, and raise any concerns of legal violations or material non-compliance.  She will discuss the associated consequences of such matters, and assist clients to minimize employment liabilities, reduce future employment litigation risks and, where applicable, create a workforce structure that sets the new business up for success going forward. 

Sherri also works with clients in preparation for the closing of a transaction, including drafting of necessary employment provisions for the transactional documents, such as, for example, employment warranties and indemnities.  Additional services, at the client’s request and pertinent to the associated needs of the transaction, may include preparing and negotiating executive employment agreements, preparing confidentiality and other restrictive covenant agreements, drafting offer and transfer letters for non-executives, preparing retention agreements, developing bonus plans, drafting separation agreements, developing employee and public communication scripts, and otherwise assisting in the planning and implementation of employee furloughs, reductions in force, layoffs and other workforce reorganizations and restructurings.

Employment Litigation Defense

Sherri applies her 25+ years of litigation experience to assist clients in evaluating and minimizing risks over their employment decisions and business practices, and in investigating and responding effectively and economically to resolve litigation demands prior to suit when they occur.  When litigation is unavoidable, Sherri has effectively defended all types of single and multi-plaintiff employment claims filed in state and federal courts in New Jersey and Pennsylvania including but not limited to matters alleging:

• Violations of Wage and Hour

• Wage Payment Claims

• Commission Payment Disputes

• Violations of Public Policy

• Breach of Confidentiality

• Whistleblower Rights

• Defamation

Sherri has appeared and successfully defended claims filed within the United States District Courts in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, as well as the state and appellate courts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, along with other jurisdictions where admitted pro hac vice for select matters (including Delaware and Tennessee).  She has also successfully defended charges, claims and investigations before numerous federal and state administrative agencies, including the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the New Jersey Department of Labor, the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights, the Pennsylvania Human Rights Commission, the New York State Division of Human Rights, the New Jersey Department of Labor & Workforce Development and the Pennsylvania Department of Labor.