Introduction to HR & Employment Law

Introduction to HR & Employment Law // BUSINESS 438

Dan Waldman, General Counsel & Co-Founder, StyleOwner, Inc. 

Monday, June 27th, from 8:00 pm to 9:30 pm. 

The very characteristics leading to a successful start-up venture—creativity, risk-taking, frugality, and the vision to see opportunities where others don’t—are precisely the same characteristics that blind start-ups from the human resource and employment law traps that can easily become catastrophic if not addressed from the outset. Although these issues are usually invisible to most new companies, especially during the start-up phase, ignorance is not bliss.

This class will provide students with tools to identify some especially dangerous human resource and employment law issues and suggest some easy tools for navigating this complex landscape.   Among the topics to be covered:

Hiring the First Employees:  After identifying the best people to hire, start-ups frequently struggle with the practicalities of bringing people on-board.  We will go over interview strategies, techniques, and traps; and developing offer letters or employment agreements.

Independent Contractors: To avoid the cost and complexity associated with paying true employees, many start-ups love to “hire” independent contractors instead.  This practice frequently violates the law and exposes businesses to potentially devastating liability.  We will explore the contours of the appropriate use of independent contractors and present some simple alternatives to protect the business.

Non-Competes, Non-Solicits, and Trade Secrets:  We will explore how far a business can go to prevent it employees from taking the business’s “soft” intellectual property with them when they leave (e.g., customer lists, vendor agreements, employee lists, proprietary processes).  Non-competes and non-solicits are also a valuable—but tricky—tool to use to prevent your employees from leaving and becoming your most dangerous competition.

Workers’ Compensation and Disability Insurance:  Penalties for failing to have legally-required workers’ compensation and disability protection can potentially bankrupt a new venture before it’s even operating. Start-ups can’t rely on payroll companies to accurately advise them on when it’s needed.  We will identify these traps and provide attendees with the ability to spot the issues enough to ask the right questions.

Personnel Handbooks:  Although many entrepreneurs see handbooks as a luxury item, we will discuss the risks that new business face by not having them in place.  Further, we will consider some important provisions that businesses should make sure to include in their handbooks.  And finally, we will discuss how a handbook can be a roadmap for developing a corporate culture that adds substantial value to a business, rather than just being a “check the box” item.

Dan Waldman is co-founder and General Counsel for StyleOwner, Inc., an Internet-based fashion retailer.  He is also the Founder of Waldman Law, LLC: LeanEmploymentLaw, a revolutionary employment law practice that fuses top employment lawyers with Lean Production processes to deliver unparalleled services for a fraction of the cost of major, old-world law firms.  Until recently, Dan worked for Morrison & Foerster and Paul Hastings in Silicon Valley, where he provided employment law services to some of the world’s most relevant technology companies.  Dan was also the chief employment lawyer and litigator for Cypress Semiconductor Corporation in Silicon Valley.  More recently, Dan has also served as Vice President and Assistant General Counsel for Cantor Fitzgerald in New York.

Dan, a life-long entrepreneur who started his first profitable business at age 14, obtained his JD and MBA degrees (cum laude) from the University of Wisconsin.  He received his BA from the University of Rochester.  Dan is admitted to practice law in New York, California, and Wisconsin.

Use the hashtag #gahrforstartups to ask follow-up questions and continue the conversation.

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