In business as in health care, nothing beats the human touch. Hinshaw helps companies strengthen the employer/employee relationship. 

It's been said by business leaders in virtually every industry: "People are our greatest asset." In the health care industry, this is an understatement—for all intents and purposes, your people are your only asset. Nothing can replace the knowledge, skills, intelligence, and compassion of health care providers, the executives who guide them, and the staff who support them. 

Our lawyers have extensive experience advising employers across the industry spectrum on all traditional labor and employment matters. We also understand the emerging economic, educational and social forces that affect today's highly skilled workforce. For example, as employees and medical professionals become increasingly mobile and the "gig economy" takes hold in every sector, we counsel clients on issues that arise with respect to independent contractors, temporary labor, and short-term employees, including employee classification and government investigations, immigration, employee benefits, and organized labor and union relations. 

We have specific experience in several key areas, including:

Advice and Counseling

To help encourage top performance and minimize the risk of employment-related lawsuits, we regularly draft and review employment/independent contractor, restrictive covenant, separation, non-compete, non-solicitation, and other agreements; develop and draft policies, prepare employee handbooks, and offer counsel on recruitment and hiring; conduct wage and hour audits; prepare affirmative action and EEOC compliance plans; and advise on separations, discharges, and RIF planning and implementation. 

Employee Benefits and Compensation

We counsel clients on the full range of executive and employee compensation and benefits plans, options, and strategies such as health and welfare plans, qualified retirement and deferred compensation plans, ERISA, COBRA and HIPAA compliance, plan due diligence in the context of mergers and acquisitions, stock option and phantom stock plans, ESOPs, and restricted stock awards.

Workers' Compensation

Hinshaw's workers' compensation defense practice members offer a full range of services to self-insured employers and insurance companies, including litigation defense, risk management programs and consulting services which include the development of return-to-work programs. We have assisted clients in claims before state Industrial Commissions, common law and appellate courts, and have handled some of the most complex and high-financial exposure workers' compensation, class action and third-party liability cases involving fatalities, catastrophic injuries, and toxic tort exposures.