When financial services, technology, retail, health care, real estate, security services, entertainment businesses, hospitality, among others, from start-ups to Fortune 50 companies, need practical advice to address wage and hour, HR, and other employment law issues, they turn to Jeff Ruzal. Clients view Jeff as a business-focused “partner” who helps them achieve employment best practices and risk mitigation without sacrificing their business objectives and goals.
Jeff assists employers with all issues related to wage and hour laws, a focus he developed when he served as a Trial Attorney for the Office of the Solicitor for the U.S. Department of Labor. Employers rely on Jeff to conduct exempt employee and independent contractor misclassification audits, handle federal and state departments of labor investigations, and prepare incentive pay, commission, and equity participation agreements. Jeff also drafts wage and hour policies, offers management training to achieve best practices (including avoidance of off-the-clock work), and assesses compensable activities (such as certain on-call and travel time).
While compliance and litigation avoidance are always the aim, employers rely on Jeff for class and collective action wage and hour litigation.
For in-house employment attorneys and HR directors, Jeff helps them solve a variety of everyday employment-related issues, including general employment law and HR compliance; mitigating the risk of actual and alleged discrimination, harassment, and retaliation in the workplace; and employee redundancy issues and reductions-in-force exercises. He also assists their employers in fortifying the workplace with sound, workable policies, practices, and training.
Jeff has been interviewed and quoted by NPR News, Law360, Bloomberg BNA Daily Labor Report, and the Society for Human Resource Management. He has also written numerous articles on significant employment law issues that have been included in, among other leading publications, Law360, Thomson Reuters Practical Law, and Bender’s Labor & Employment Bulletin. Jeff frequently speaks at national conferences and webinars on a variety of important employment law topics.
Jeff is a main contributor to Epstein Becker Green’s award-winning Wage and Hour Defense Blog. He is also a contributing author to Lexis Practice Advisor and the ABA FLSA Mid-Winter Report.