Johnnie Brown, OwnerIn an interview with Manage HR magazine, Johnnie Brown, owner of PFFB&P, talks about how its robust legal expertise helps public and private employers navigate and adhere to employment laws from litigation and compliance perspectives.
PFFB&P’s Unique Value Proposition in Employment Law Litigation
Our firm is unique in representing private and public employers with a broad perspective on the various laws that impact their two distinct groups of employees. We are extensively involved in defense litigation cases from private corporate and insurance defense work.
Our decades-long journey in defending and litigating cases for numerous clients has helped us gain immense knowledge in appropriately addressing pertinent issues from a compliance standpoint. The experience of handling and trying various claims has given us a unique understanding of the risk compliance aspect of representing corporations, small businesses, and individuals. This experience also helps us handle private compliance work.
Client Challenges and PFFB&P’s Approach to Ensuring Compliance Adherence
From a litigation standpoint, we are witnessing a trend of more aggressive prosecution of employment law claims by employee attorneys. Their complaints in the ensuing lawsuits are very detailed with salacious facts. This results in the employer having to deal with bad publicity from a lawsuit as they tend to get highlighted frequently in the media. This means the company is left on a defensive foot in dealing with the lawsuit and fighting off the bad publicity.
Regarding compliance, the proliferation of employment laws has made it quite difficult for companies to keep up with regulatory changes. It has become a task for them to ensure their personnel policies are state and federally compliant and up-to-date with the almost constant regulatory changes.
To address these issues, we leverage our extensive background in defense litigation. We have represented our state, counties, and municipalities for decades and gained an in-depth understanding of the employment law issues faced by public employers. We have a similar background in dealing with issues faced by private employers. Our knowledge of an industry’s intricacies, gained through litigation practices, forms the basis of our interactions with clients in private consultations or in providing employment law compliance to a particular industry.
Our approach to ensuring adherence to employment laws involves asking the right questions to determine the business methodologies of clients, their manner of engaging with employees, and the company culture. We use the knowledge of these parameters to design legal solutions to foster better compliance with employment laws that fits within the set company guidelines.
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Our firm is unique in representing both private and public employers with a wide perspective on the various laws that impact their two distinct groups of employees
Factors that Set PFFB&P Apart
Our long-term defense and litigation experience, spanning our firm’s nearly 35-year-long existence, allows us to gain an in-depth understanding of our client’s issues and to determine the right approach to resolve them. This extends to our attorneys, who have vast experience handling employment matters of all types. Ranging from common types of claims involvin harassment or discrimination to specific claims related to the Fair Labor Standard Act or the Family and Medical Leave Act, our experienced attorneys can handle it all.
At the core of our offerings is a true partnership with clients. We ensure clear and constant communication in our client engagements, so they are always well-informed on every aspect of employment law compliance. We make sure nothing comes as a surprise to them regarding any aspect of their personnel policies or the legal technicalities in lawsuits. We have upfront conversations to help them understand the risk factors in their policies or legal cases and evaluate them properly for the best outcomes. In essence, we emphasize being their partner.
Creating Impactful Outcomes for Clients
A good example would be a client just starting a business, where our knowledge of employment laws can help the owner take great strides. Regardless of the type of business they’re operating, new business owners tend to be largely unaware of the existing employment laws and the laws they need to operate. They don’t realize they need a handbook or policy to address recruitment and employment-related issues.
We successfully address all possible compliance issues related to employment laws for new businesses, enabling them to legally commence their operations. Our ability to help them establish good practices, especially good compliance practices from the beginning, helps them focus on their business vision and goals. With good practices in place, they need to pay minimal attention to the legal compliance aspect, focus more on the business side of operations, and generate significant revenue. This enables them to adequately compensate their employees, provide benefits, and create the ideal company culture for their workforce. That is where I see our company creating the most significant impact for our clients.
