Sara Shok’s employment practice include a broad range of topics related to national employment issues covering the full life cycle of onboarding to offboarding an employee, including managing employee performance issues, disciplinary actions and terminations. She advises with the goal of creating a separation strategy focused on minimizing client liability.
In addition, Sara’s practice involves helping clients navigate difficult disability accommodation matters, leaves of absence issues and implementation of, review of and revisions to employment policies and procedures. Her focus is the integration of client business strategy and overall compliance approach.
Sara advises clients regarding matters related to discrimination, harassment, retaliation and workplace investigations. She also creates customized harassment prevention, discrimination prevention and workplace investigation training plans. She regularly provides general management training sessions for her clients and assists the management suite with the best approach related to employee performance management and discipline.
Sara guides clients through various wage and hour issues, focused on a strategy that reduces client exposure related to employment law violations, including classification analysis and wage considerations related to employees versus contractors and exempt versus nonexempt employees.
Sara works closely with clients to advise on businesses planning workforce reductions and reorganizations, creating a customized solution for each client’s needs. She advises on compliance with federal and state Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Acts and the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act (OWPBA). She also partners with clients to create comprehensive reduction-in-force plans that include reasoned business justifications, defensible selection criteria, adverse impact analyses, multistate severance agreements, and a clear communications strategy for affected and nonaffected employees.
