Lawyers who advocate on behalf of employees often operate as private detectives. It can be challenging for an employee to figure out on her own whether her termination was the product of some legitimate reason (like poor performance or job elimination) or an unlawful one (like discrimination or retaliation).

Our role requires a full exploration of all the facts surrounding the termination, including the underlying employment, to figure out where the truth lies—or at least where the evidence points. In these unchartered waters known as the coronavirus, this task can be particularly daunting to navigate alone. Is the employer exploiting the coronavirus to cover up what otherwise would be a clearly discriminatory or retaliatory termination, or is the company simply making difficult but necessary decisions to protect its long-term viability?