The toughest decision that lawyers, in-house or otherwise, help clients make is whether to impose the employment-law equivalent of capital punishment: termination of an employee. While clients look to attorneys for counsel, sometimes they really want us to make the decision for that cup to pass from them. Here are five questions to ask to ensure the decision is the right one at the right time.
No. 1: Is it a game of “gotcha” at work? Difficult employees are everywhere. Perhaps they should be terminated. But sometimes problem employees are terminated for minor or trivial reasons. So, when operations comes to the lawyer and says, “Now, we finally have a reason to get rid of this employee,” counsel needs to put the brakes on the decision-making train.
