Recognizing that an organization’s workforce is one of its most valuable assets, our Employment and Labour Group works with your in-house team to provide practical guidance and valuable insight on the day-to-day challenges faced by human resources professionals. By thinking long-term, we are able to provide proactive and strategic advice to ensure your business is consistently delivering best employment-related practices and minimizing risk or liability. In many situations, our employment lawyers are able to calm relations before they escalate by providing timely legal counsel. When workplace issues do lead to complaints or litigation, Cassels is able to deliver skilled and effective representation.
As part of our commitment to provide value-added services to our clients, we offer in-house training and assistance in drafting the human resource documents needed to effectively protect your business interests. As the employment law landscape is constantly evolving, we strive to keep clients up-to-date on new legislation and court decisions that could affect their business, and to provide innovative solutions on how to address potential new challenges.
Cassels takes pride in not only understanding your legal issues, but the business factors shaping them. Let us address your needs, so you can get down to business.
Employment Law
Our professionals have both comprehensive employment law expertise, along with more specific knowledge of niche areas in this vast and diverse area. We partner with clients of all sizes – from startups to mid-size retailers to multinational corporations – and from across all sectors, including the government and public sector.
Our clients call upon us for advice on:
- Workplace investigations
- Executive employment agreements
- Executive terminations
- Employment standards compliance and claims
- Enforcement of obligations involving departing employees
- Privacy issues
- Sexual harassment
- Human rights claims
- Major restructurings
- Wrongful dismissal
- Independent contractor agreements
- Response to pandemics or other large-scale business continuity events
Pensions, Benefits & Executive Compensation
The Pensions, Benefits & Executive Compensation team at Cassels brings knowledge, insight, and innovation to all aspects of incentive and equity-based compensation, pension plans, and group benefits, including plan design, day-to-day compliance, cross-border issues, and transactional advice. Our cross-functional team includes lawyers with deep experience in Canadian securities law and corporate governance, as well as employment, pensions and benefits, and taxation law.
Our clients consist of domestic and international organizations, including large public and multi-national corporations, partnerships and limited partnerships, private corporations, financial institutions, private equity funds, professional service firms, and domestic and foreign governmental agencies.
We advise and represent employers and administrators on all legal issues relating to incentive compensation plans, pension plans, supplementary pension arrangements, and savings plans including:
- Compliance and responding to regulatory inquiries
- Plan design, implementation, and termination for stock options, performance share units, restricted share units, deferred share units, phantom plans, share appreciation rights, carried and profits interest, retirement compensation arrangements, profit-sharing plans, employee life, health and welfare trusts, and bonus plans
- Group benefits, including negotiating with service-providers, taxable benefits, employee life and health trusts
- Cross-border advice on executive compensation plans for US and international clients, including dual-listed public corporations
- Preparing and negotiating executive employment agreements, compensation plans, and arrangements
- Incentive compensation, pension and benefits advice related to mergers, acquisitions and other corporate reorganizations, including implementing mirror plans and purchasing annuities.
Clients trust the multi-disciplinary Pensions, Benefits & Executive Compensation team at Cassels to handle their most challenging projects with practical solutions that align with their business objectives.
Labour Law
Our focus is on representing management on labour and union-related issues. We have the experience needed to offer the strategic and tactical advice critical to properly managing your labour relations.
We can provide guidance on:
- Collective bargaining
- Union organization attempts
- Grievance arbitrations and proceedings before labour relations boards
- Strikes, lockouts and other forms of union-related industrial conflict
