Labor & Employment
Preventative Counseling
We have extensive expertise in traditional bargaining, interest-based bargaining (IBB), modified interest-based (hybrid) bargaining, and expedited negotiations. Moreover, our firm's labor negotiators are able to assist boards in determining which method of negotiations is right for their college and provide the appropriate training. When assisting the board negotiation team during successor contract negotiations, we recognize the importance of clear, unambiguous contract language to enable leadership to administer the negotiated collective bargaining agreement and reduce the colleges’ exposure to grievances and arbitration.
All Aspects of the Personnel Relationship
We have deep experience in traditional and expedited bargaining, grievance arbitration, unfair labor practices, and all aspects of certified personnel management, including hiring, evaluations, discipline, termination, and reductions-in-force. We also handle employment agreements, harassment investigations, ADA and FMLA accommodations, and discrimination complaints.
Our labor negotiators help trustees choose the right bargaining approach, provide training, and serve as advocates. We have managed hundreds of grievance arbitrations and guide clients through personnel matters from hiring to dismissal.
Employee Leave
Our attorneys have experience in guiding colleges on the proper proactive actions and responses that ensure our clients are in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and a variety of state and federal requirements for employee leave and accommodation requests.
Our familiarity with these issues ensures our clients are well-advised when dealing with employee leave and accommodation issues. Our early involvement ensures the client has complied with its legal obligations, which deters claims and better positions clients to successfully defend charges that are filed.
Hiring, Termination, Discipline & Reduction-In-Force
We help our clients navigate personnel matters ranging from the initial hiring decision to reductions-in-force, discipline, and dismissal. These matters have involved tenured faculty, non-tenured faculty, adjunct faculty, support staff, and non-unionized professional staff, and all types of legal issues, including incompetency, sexual misconduct, criminal acts, and insubordination. Our services for such matters include consulting with the leadership team concerning various concerns, drafting disciplinary notices and notices of remedial warning, and assisting leadership in monitoring and reviewing staff performance.
Investigations
We regularly counsel clients regarding employee misconduct and related investigations. At times, we serve as an advisor to guide the client through an investigation, but we also serve as the primary investigators of employee misconduct when requested. Regardless of our role, we approach each issue with the goal of addressing the problem in a way that best protects the interests of the client and, when possible, avoids unnecessary litigation.
Tenured Faculty Member Dismissal Hearings
Tenure laws grant extensive employment rights to tenured faculty members, including the right to an independent hearing after a board of trustees dismisses the tenured employee. The independent dismissal hearing process is high-stakes and requires a keen knowledge of the facts and applicable tenure law.
The decades of experience our firm has representing higher education institutions is invaluable in guiding clients throughout a tenured faculty member dismissal hearing. We help clients navigate this challenging process to ensure the desired outcome is achieved.
Title IX
Our attorneys work to provide expert advice to ensure our clients are in compliance with the Title IX rules and regulations. We maintain a Title IX attorney working group to ensure efficient and effective expert analysis in this highly technical area. We also provide the legally required Title IX training to ensure clients understand and meet their compliance obligations.
When needed, our attorneys conduct Title IX investigations for clients. Our knowledge and experience in this area allows our attorneys to provide comprehensive support to ensure their compliance with the Title IX rules and their regular updates
Employee Discrimination
We have extensive experience litigating and defending colleges in administrative hearings, state court, and federal court on claims involving discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and wrongful discharge. Our attorneys regularly secure favorable outcomes at all stages of litigation, including motions to dismiss, summary judgment, trial, and appeal.
As approved defense counsel for many major liability carriers, including CLIC, we provide clients with continuity of representation and reduced costs through insurance coverage. While fully prepared to litigate when necessary, we work closely with our clients to pursue the most effective and cost-efficient strategies to achieve their goals.
Collective Bargaining
At Robbins Schwartz, we have extensive experience representing higher education institutions in collective bargaining, helping them negotiate fair agreements while protecting management rights and ensuring compliance with state and federal labor laws.
Labor organization has always been strong in Illinois schools. Because unions often attempt to encroach upon management rights, employers with unionized workplaces need to be mindful of the collective bargaining process in order to retain key management rights while also avoiding violations of state and federal labor laws.
Our firm represents clients throughout the collective bargaining process, including traditional and interest-based bargaining. We regularly assist and counsel clients on negotiating collective bargaining agreements and successor agreements to ensure that colleges are able to meet their objectives through a fair labor agreement. Based on our extensive experience guiding clients through the bargaining process, our firm is able to recognize recent bargaining trends and identify potential pitfalls that colleges routinely face.
Grievance Arbitration
As the board’s advocate, our firm has handled hundreds of grievance arbitrations and frequently consults with the college’s leadership team who have elected to handle their own arbitrations. These grievance arbitrations involve a significant variety of contract interpretation and “just cause” discipline issues.
In addition to our experience as an advocate and consultant for colleges defending grievances, several members of the firm have also served as arbitrators/ mediators in the private sector. This experience affords valuable insights into the type of evidence and arguments that are persuasive to arbitrators.
Our extensive experience with arbitrations allows our clients to reduce overall expenses by virtue of our ability to promptly assess the strengths and weaknesses of a case, recommend cost-effective solutions and, when necessary, successfully defend claims that proceed to arbitration.
Unfair Labor Practice Charges
We have represented clients before the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board and will alert our clients as to any conduct that could subject them to such charges. Consistent with our preventative counseling approach, we assist our clients in understanding compliance with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act and how to avoid actions that can lead to an unfair labor practice charge. If these charges do arise, we are well equipped to defend our clients before the Labor Board.
