Overview
Employers that haven’t required their employees to return to the office full-time need to navigate the complexities and challenges created by remote and hybrid work policies.
At Epstein Becker Green, our attorneys have decades of experience helping employers pivot and overcome new legal and workforce management challenges and adapt to highly nuanced circumstances. That’s why employers turn to us for advice on issues relating to remote and hybrid work, as well as bringing employees back to the office.
Work Arrangements for the Long Term
Remote and hybrid work arrangements will, for many employers, remain in place for the foreseeable future. We’re helping employers with remote or hybrid workforces stay compliant with wage and hour, accommodations, leave of absence, workplace safety, employee benefits, discrimination, and harassment laws, among others. We also provide comprehensive support to our clients as they address global legal mobility issues, organizational changes, the impact of collective bargaining arrangements, potential class action litigation, corporate governance, and other related matters.
Interstate Employment Issues
Remote work arrangements can result in work locations crossing state lines. Because we’re a national law firm, clients rely on us to guide them through the different insurance, employment, and other laws and regulations that will apply in interstate employment situations.
Privacy and Data Security Concerns
Businesses that maintain client and customer data have legal obligations to protect that data from unauthorized access, and all companies seek to protect their trade secrets. We help clients design legally compliant solutions that strengthen their security systems against cyberattacks and employee wrongdoing, including the theft of trade secrets.
Training for Safety & Compliance
For those employers transitioning workers from remote to hybrid or fully in-office work, a successful return-to-work strategy must involve training. We train HR and in-house legal teams, executives, and managers to equitably manage hybrid workplaces, including how not to engage in any form of intentional or inadvertent discrimination or retaliation when making work assignments or responding to work accommodations requests.
Internal Training Solution
Epstein Becker Green offers a comprehensive safety training solution, developed by our Employment, Labor & Workforce Management practice, that addresses return-to-work considerations and guidelines to help employers bring their workforce back in a safe and compliant manner. This presentation can be tailored to a company’s internal branding and may be administered by either a member of the company’s own training team or one of our experienced attorneys. For more information about our internal training solution, please contact Susan Gross Sholinsky at sgross@ebglaw.com.
Avoiding Litigation Pitfalls
By staying ahead of the curve, our litigators help clients anticipate potential discrimination claims that could arise while implementing a remote or hybrid work model or transitioning employees to fully in-office work. We also keep employers informed of a range of other legal considerations, including those that may lead to a risk of a class action lawsuit, as employers reevaluate their remote and hybrid work policies.
Read less
Focus Areas
Experience
- Advised numerous clients on all aspects of COVID-19 workforce management. We prepared leave of absence and remote work policies and leave request forms for during- and post-COVID-19 workforces and provided return-to-work safety training and facilitated the creation and enforcement of protocols to address actual and suspected positive COVID-19 cases in the workplace.
- Provided counsel to a D.C.-based economic consulting firm on the application and effect of COVID-19 and related laws, including revising a leave policy under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act and D.C. law, identifying essential employees, addressing employees’ telework and return-to-work questions and concerns, and advising on return to work plans and the administration of a bonus plan in light of furloughs.
- Advised a sports league on policy drafting and administration, corporate communications, employee relations concerns, Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility matters for return to work and return to play, furlough advice, as well as advice regarding setting up a COVID-19 relief fund for furloughed employees.
- Assisted several high-end retailers as they closed and then reopened stores and other facilities around the country, including managing furloughs and layoffs, procuring job-sharing arrangements through local departments of labor, and managing public accommodation concerns.
Contacts
- Member of the Firm
- Board of Directors / Member of the Firm
- Member of the Firm
Media
Events
Past Events
- January 23, 2023
- November 29, 2022
Insights
Insights
- Firm Announcements
Adam S. Forman Named to the 2024 Michigan Super Lawyers List
7 minute read - Media CoverageJennifer Barna Quoted in “Workers Feeling PWFA's Impact After 1st Year in Effect”2 minute read
- BlogsVideo: Projections and Perspectives: Navigating Labor and Employment in 2024 - Employment Law This Week2 minute read
- Firm AnnouncementsEpstein Becker Green Announces 2024 Promotions6 minute read
- Media CoverageSusan Gross Sholinsky Quoted in “5 Compliance Considerations for Companies with a Remote Workforce”2 minute read
- Media CoverageSusan Gross Sholinsky Quoted in “Staying Compliant in an Era of Hybrid and Remote Work”7 minute read
- Media CoverageNancy Gunzenhauser Popper Featured in “Panelists Discuss New Law Requiring Posting of a Salary Range in Job ...2 minute read
- Firm Announcements
Four Epstein Becker Green Attorneys Named to the 2023 Ohio Super Lawyers and Rising Stars Lists
2 minute read - Firm Announcements
Epstein Becker Green Named a 2022 “Go-To Thought Leader” in Employment Law by the National Law Review
2 minute read - Firm AnnouncementsEpstein Becker Green Announces 2023 PromotionsOctober 28, 20225 minute read
- Firm AnnouncementsMichael Ferrell and Epstein Becker Green Receive the Grant Park Music Festival “2022 Advocate for the Arts” Award ...3 minute read
- Media CoverageArena District Gains National Law Firm Tenant: Epstein Becker Green Moves into New Office Space in Columbus, Ohio ...2 minute read
- Firm AnnouncementsEpstein Becker Green Expands Columbus Office in New Arena District Location3 minute read
- Firm Announcements
Adam S. Forman Named to the 2022 Michigan Super Lawyers List
6 minute read - Media CoverageAdam Tomiak Quoted in “Be Aware of Legal Challenges with Hybrid Work”3 minute read
- Firm Announcements
Susan Gross Sholinsky Receives 2022 JD Supra Readers’ Choice Award
2 minute read - Media Coverage
Kathleen Barrett Featured in Chicago Daily Law Bulletin: People
1 minute read - PublicationsCalifornia Rolls Out New COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave for 20227 minute read
- PublicationsNew York State Adopts CDC’s New COVID-19 Quarantine and Isolation Rules for Employers11 minute read
- PublicationsCalifornia Adopts CDC’s New COVID-19 Quarantine and Isolation Rules for Employers, Extends Mask Mandate9 minute read
- PublicationsNew York Rings in 2022 with Employment Law Updates10 minute read
- PublicationsNew Year’s Recommendation for New Jersey Employers: Review Employment Law Updates and Employee Posters15 minute read
- Firm Announcements
Three Attorneys Named to the 2022 Ohio Super Lawyers and Rising Stars Lists
2 minute read - PublicationsSixth Circuit Lifts Injunction on OSHA’s COVID-19 ETS—New Enforcement Deadlines Announced10 minute read
- PublicationsNew Year, New Laws Impacting California Employers14 minute read
- PublicationsNYC Releases Guidance for Private Employers on the New Vaccine Mandate16 minute read
- Media CoverageFrank Morris Quoted in “Health Worker Vaccine Mandate Expected to Withstand Challenges”3 minute read
- PublicationsBiden’s Vaccine Mandate Rules Are Out and the Deadlines to Comply Are Sooner Than You Think: What Employers Need to Know Now ...24 minute read
- Media CoverageSusan Gross Sholinsky Quoted in “Law Firm Leaders Idealize 'Collaboration' in the Office Space Race, Despite So Much ...2 minute read
- Media Coverage
Epstein Becker Green’s Recent Ohio Expansion Featured in The Columbus Dispatch
3 minute read - Firm AnnouncementsEpstein Becker Green Expands New Ohio Team to 20 Attorneys3 minute read
- Media CoverageEpstein Becker Green Adds 8 Attorneys to New Ohio Office: Group Expands to 202 minute read
- Media CoverageSusan Gross Sholinsky Quoted in “4 Questions Employers Have About Biden's Vaccine Mandates”3 minute read
- PublicationsAll New York HERO Act Safety Plans Must Be Placed Into Effect: New Guidance Issued11 minute read
- Media Coverage
Steven Di Fiore Quoted in Article in The American Lawyer About Office Returns
2 minute read - PublicationsHow Employers Can Enforce Compliant Vaccine Mandates2 minute read
- Media CoverageEpstein Becker Green Featured in Bloomberg “Wake Up Call”1 minute read
- Media Coverage
Epstein Becker Green's Columbus, Ohio, Expansion Featured in Law360
3 minute read - Firm AnnouncementsEpstein Becker Green Continues Growth Through Major Midwest Expansion with Group of Attorneys in Ohio5 minute read
- Media Coverage
Epstein Becker Green’s Expansion in Columbus, OH, Featured in Columbus Business First
3 minute read - Media CoverageEpstein Becker Green Opens a New Office in Columbus, Ohio, and Adds a 12-Partner TeamSeptember 2, 20212 minute read
- Media CoverageEpstein Becker Green Opens in Ohio with 12 PartnersSeptember 2, 20213 minute read
- Media CoverageNancy Gunzenhauser Popper Quoted in “Gov't Vaccine Mandates Pave Way for Private Sector Policies”3 minute read
- PublicationsNew York State Department of Labor Releases NY HERO Act Model Safety Plans: Employers Have 30 Days to Adopt Conforming Plans ...15 minute read
- PublicationsThe State of Emergency in New York Is Over: What That Means for Employers7 minute read
- Media CoverageSusan Gross Sholinsky Quoted in “Why Wall Street Is in Such a Rush to Get Workers Back to the Office”2 minute read
- PublicationsNew York HERO Act Amendments Signed Into Law7 minute read
- PublicationsOSHA Issues Updated Guidance for Most Non-Health Care Employers and Businesses6 minute read
- Media CoverageFrank Morris Quoted in “Osaka’s French Open Exit Spotlights Employment Disability Issues”2 minute read
- PublicationsNew York State Updates Interim Guidance for Office Environments9 minute read