Employment issues
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What Scale's employment practice handles

Where the technical work lives

Employment law operates at three layers simultaneously. The federal framework, FLSA, Title VII, ADA, FMLA, OWBPA, ADEA, sets the floor. Texas-specific statutes layer on top: the Texas Labor Code, the Texas Payday Law, and the Texas Workforce Commission's regulatory enforcement. The third layer is case law, particularly Fifth Circuit and Northern District of Texas opinions, which determine how the statutes apply in practice.

Where this matters operationally:

• Non-compete enforcement. Texas allows non-competes but only when "reasonable in time, geographic area, and scope of activity" (Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 15.50). Two-year terms typically survive judicial review; five-year terms usually don't. The drafting choices made at signing determine what's enforceable two years later when the relationship has ended.
• Wage and hour exposure. FLSA exempt/non-exempt classification disputes are common, and the back-pay window in a misclassification case can extend two years (three if willful). Audit findings often trigger DOL inquiry across an entire workforce.
• Pre-termination posture. The window between "we've decided to terminate" and "termination conversation happens" determines the defensibility of the action. Documentation, performance management history, accommodation analysis, and the procedural rigor of the decision matter more than the rationale itself.

When clients call us

Four moments drive most employment engagements:

1. Before a termination, particularly involving a protected class issue, an executive with a written contract, an employee with a complaint history, or a reduction in force. The decision posture is set before the termination, not after.
2. At executive hire, when the offer involves equity, restrictive covenants, garden leave, severance triggers, or change-of-control protection. These provisions get litigated when the relationship ends; the drafting choices made today determine the outcome.
3. When something surfaces, a written complaint, an EEOC charge, a DOL audit notice, a demand letter from an employee's attorney, or an internal report of harassment or discrimination. The window from "issue surfaces" to "issue is documented" is the period that determines legal posture.
4. Periodically, for audit, handbook reviews, classification audits, FLSA compliance checks, harassment training refresh, and policy updates. Reactive audits cost more than proactive ones, every time.

What engagements cost

Most employment work is hourly. Rates at Scale LLP for senior employment partners typically run 30-40% below Am Law 100 rates in Dallas or Houston for comparable work, a function of the firm's distributed model and lower overhead.

Some work runs project-based: handbook drafts and reviews, executive agreement packages, classification audits, and harassment-prevention training programs. Project pricing is quoted upfront when the scope allows it.

Litigation work, EEOC charge response, discrimination defense, wage and hour disputes, runs hourly with budgets developed against the procedural posture of the matter. The firm does not take employment plaintiff work; defense only.

There's no minimum engagement. A single advisory call about a termination decision is a legitimate engagement. Most employment problems get more expensive the longer they sit, so the math favors calling early.

How this fits with the rest of the work

Employment work intersects with my primary practice areas in three specific places:

• Cross-border M&A integration. When a U.S./Canada deal involves employee transfer, retention, or termination, the employment work has to clear both frameworks simultaneously. Two-firm coordination on this is slow; integrated counsel moves faster.
• Corporate governance. Boards approve executive employment terms, severance packages, equity grants, and termination decisions. The governance documentation that supports those decisions, board minutes, compensation committee resolutions, written consent, is where the legal record gets made or broken.
• Texas business transitions. Ownership changes, succession events, and sale processes all have employment-side considerations: key-person retention, severance for non-continuing executives, equity acceleration, and the structuring decisions around how employees experience the transition.

These intersections are where the integrated model adds real value. The employment specialist handles the substance. I handle the connective tissue.