Our clients include every form and size of organization ranging from small family businesses to nationally recognized construction companies. On a daily basis, we provide management with advice and participate in strategic planning concerning all aspects of the employment relationship, including:
- Development of employment policies: procedures and employee handbook or personnel manual
- Collective bargaining
- Defense of fringe benefit fund contribution audits under ERISA
- Reduction-in-force and other corporate restructurings
- Employee hiring, discipline and discharge
- Union avoidance
- Wage and hour practice audits and litigation under state and Federal law
- Strikes, Picketing and Lockout
- Defense of claims before EEOC, NLRB, State and Federal Department of Labor
- Defense of claims under LMRA, ADEA, ADA, FLSA, FMLA, discrimination claims based upon race, sex, national origin, pregnancy, religion, age, WARN
- Alternative dispute mechanics such as grievance and arbitration
- Pension withdrawal liability under MPPAA
- Military Leave under USERRA and related laws
- Employee Communication Privacy and Employer monitoring
- Illinois Prevailing Wage Act and federal Davis-Bacon Act
- AAP, MBE, WBE and O.F.C.C.P. audits
- Defense of “whistleblower” claims
- Union elections
- Employment Agreements/Non-Compete Agreements
Our professionals have vast experience in representing a wide variety of clients including developers, design-build professionals, general contractors, subcontractors and material suppliers. We continuously provide representation and advice concerning all aspects of the construction process, including:
- Construction contract negotiation, drafting, planning and scheduling involving delay and acceleration claims
- Contract disputes during ongoing projects including cost issues, control and change order issues, and dispute resolution
- Analyzing and litigating mechanics lien and breach of contract claims on public and private projects
- Compliance with statutory bidding statutes
- Surety bond and bond litigation
- Contract claims in a bankruptcy setting
A large number of our clients are signatory to a collective bargaining agreement which obligates the signatory employer to remit fringe benefit contributions on behalf of its union employees performing covered work. To ensure contractor compliance, the union trust funds will perform contribution audits. In the event the union trust fund audit reveals the employer failed to remit all required contributions, a suit to collect the amounts may be filed.
Our professionals have represented employers in the defense of hundreds of union fringe benefit collection actions involving the following union fringe benefit funds: Bricklayers, Carpenters, Plasterers, Operating Engineers, Painters, Teamsters, and Laborers. Our firm prides itself on being one of the to concentrate in this area of labor law.
We have tried cases in the following Counties: Cook, Lake, DuPage, Kane, McHenry, Pike, Adams, Rock Island, and Sangamon, Illinois; and South Bend, Valparaiso, and Indianapolis, Indiana.
We have tried cases in Federal courts in Chicago, Springfield and Peoria, Illinois; Madison, Wisconsin, and South Bend and Indianapolis, Indiana.
We have tried cases before administrative judges for OSHA, NLRB and Illinois Human Rights Commission.
Our litigation experience also includes shareholder disputes, defense of employment discrimination actions, contract disputes, construction errors and omissions, mechanics’ liens, labor injunctions, ERISA defense, prevailing wage laws, perishable commodities, litigation before administrative agencies (EEOC, IDOL, NLRB), and defense of wrongful termination actions.
In business, many contract documents are negotiated, implemented and many times disputed. We provide practical advice in the negotiation and drafting of contracts in a manner that best protects the client’s business and personal interests.
Unfortunately no contract is litigation proof and our professionals utilize their extensive courtroom experience to achieve the best outcome for our client’s business.
We have represented employers and employer associations in negotiating union contracts with Bricklayers, Carpenters, Laborers, Painters, Operating Engineers, Tile Setters, Terrazzo Workers, Production Workers, Textile Workers, Teamsters, Millworkers, Chicago Truck Drivers.
The representation included units as small as 10 employees and as large as 10,000 employees. In many of the negotiations, the representation included acting as chief spokesman and, in many cases, participation in negotiations as part of a bargaining team providing legal and practical advice and strategies.
Many employers have implemented a plan to be open shop. Our advice has included termination standards, “at will” protection, implementing recruiting and hiring standards, training supervisors in union avoidance, post termination procedures and releases, including OWBPA released under age discrimination laws.
We have often handled union organizing campaigns from campaign through the NLRB conducted election and post-election challenges and hearings.
Are you like many business owners:
• A majority of closely held and family owned businesses will change hands within the next five years; but many business owners may not have taken active steps to transition out of ownership.
The reasons for failing to plan may be:
• You may have simply been too busy working in your business to be working on it – at least until now
• You may be unsure of how to begin Exit Planning, who to use or even where to begin. Those uncertainties can be addressed today.
Start Exit Planning today and you can help to avoid the sad fate of many business owners’ liquidation versus continuation and dollars paid to you.
By engaging in an Exit Planning Process, you control your own fate. An Exit Plan begins by answering the following questions:
1. Do you know your retirement goals and whit will take – in cash – to reach them?
2. Do you know how much your business is worth today?
3. Do you know the best way to increase the income stream generated by your ownership interest?4. Do you know how to sell your business to a third-party and possibly lower your taxes?
5. Do you know how to transfer your business to family members, co-owners, or employees while lowering taxes and potentially enjoying financial gain?
6. Do you have a continuity plan for your business if the unexpected happens to you?
7. Do you have a plan to help secure finances for your family if the unexpected happens to you?
These questions are almost misleadingly simply to ask but to answer them affirmatively requires thought and action on your part.
Creating and implementing your Exit Plan may be the most important business and financial event of your life.
Are you a contractor or supplier of a project and you haven’t been paid? A Mechanics Lien is your best tool for recovering money rightfully owed you and your company.
