Labor & Employment
Preventative Counseling
Our attorneys counsel employers in all aspects of the employment relationship, including collective bargaining, hiring and termination decisions, employee discipline, and reductions-in-force, employee leave and disability accommodation requests, and investigations of employee misconduct and harassment complaints.
Our attorneys are asked to speak on a wide array of employment topics before both state and national organizations. We also provide on-site training and in-service programs tailored to the needs and requests of individual clients.
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 school boards 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.
Personnel Policy and Employee Handbook Reviews
Employment law is always evolving. In recent years, the Illinois and federal legislature have passed several pieces of legislation directly impacting the districts’ obligations and enhancing employee rights. New legal requirements require a review of existing personnel policy manuals and employee handbooks to ensure continued legal compliance.
We regularly assist districts with drafting and revising policy manuals and handbooks. Our team is up-to-date on the newest laws impacting the workplace, as we consistently monitor draft legislation that may impact districts.
Employee Leave
Our attorneys have experience in guiding districts 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 assist clients with all aspects of personnel management, from hiring to discipline, dismissal, and reductions-in-force. Our work spans tenured and non-tenured teachers, administrators, and support staff, addressing issues such as incompetence, misconduct, criminal acts, and insubordination. Services include consulting on employee conduct, reviewing evaluations, drafting disciplinary and remedial notices, and supporting administrators in monitoring and improving 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 have served 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 Teacher and Faculty Member Dismissal Hearings
Tenure law is well-grounded in the Illinois School Code. Tenure laws grant extensive employment rights to tenured teachers, including the right to an independent hearing after a board of education 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 school districts is invaluable in guiding clients throughout a tenured teacher 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 school districts 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 school 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 school districts 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 school districts 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 districts 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 districts routinely face.
Grievance Arbitration
As the board’s advocate, our firm has litigated hundreds of grievance arbitrations and frequently consults with administrators who have elected to handle their own arbitrations. These grievance arbitrations involve a significant variety of contract interpretations and “just cause” discipline issues. We have often been able to cite awards which we received in one district as evidence in a comparable case in another district.
In addition to our experience as an advocate and consultant for districts defending grievances, several members of the firm have also served as arbitrators 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 represent clients before the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board and will alert you as to any conduct that could subject you to such charges. Consistent with our preventive 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 school district clients before the IELRB. This approach avoids unnecessary disputes and, ultimately, unnecessary expense.
Our attorneys advise on the full spectrum of legal issues.
