What We Do

The attorneys at Kainen, Escalera & McHale work exclusively for employers in Connecticut and elsewhere. Our attorneys regularly address and solve problems in the following employment-law related areas for both private and public sector employers:

✓ Defense of employment discrimination & harassment claims
✓ Compliance with affirmative action requirements
✓ Employment “at-will,” wrongful discharge and other employment-related torts
✓ Review of employment handbooks, job applications, offer letters and other personnel documents
✓ Employee family/medical leave & disability accommodation issues
✓ Workplace privacy and monitoring & whistleblower/free speech issues
✓ Wage and hour compliance
✓ Non-solicitation, non-competition & trade secret protection
✓ Unemployment compensation
✓ Workers Compensation

Members of Our Employment Law Team

Our Approach to Employment Law Issues

We are Connecticut’s law firm for employers and we have vast experience in employment law. We pride ourselves on developing strategies with our clients to implement appropriate performance review processes, disciplinary techniques and termination methods to reduce the risk and uncertainty of costly litigation. By regularly counseling our clients about new developments in employment law, and reviewing and revising employment application forms, offer letters, employment policies/employee handbooks and other employment related forms and practices, we are able to provide successful strategies for effective employee management.

Should litigation arise, we are committed to obtaining the earliest possible resolution of an employment dispute in a manner satisfactory to our employer clients. We explore early settlement opportunities and frequently employ a variety of alternative dispute resolution procedures. We take pride in developing cost-effective strategies at the outset of any litigation and then implementing those strategies to produce a successful outcome.

As part of our initial assessment, we conduct an immediate investigation of the facts pertinent to the claims, including:

1.  interviewing and safeguarding witnesses;
2.  reviewing relevant policies and procedures;
3.  analyzing and safeguarding pertinent documents; and
4.  investigating whether favorable statistical evidence or comparative data exist.

We then develop an effective strategy at the outset of the case factoring in:

1.  the merits of the complaint and the defenses;
2.  the strength and availability of witnesses;
3.  the tendencies of the opposing counsel and the judge;
4.  the degree to which the challenged action appears “fair”;
5.  the objectives of the client; and
6.  the business judgment rule.

And often, we use discovery to gain a litigation advantage by:

1.  propounding discovery and aggressively pursuing remedies for non-compliance;
2.  using requests for admissions with wrap around interrogatories to limit or eliminate issues; and
3. deposing the plaintiff thoroughly to establish a basis for dispositive motions and eliminate any surprises at trial.

We have also been extremely successful using dispositive motions to obtain dismissal, narrow the issues or to place the case in a better posture for settlement.