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Termination, Layoffs, and Plant Closings

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Termination, layoff, and plant-closing counsel guiding employers through individual firings, reductions in force, and facility shutdowns with WARN Act compliance and separation strategies that cut litigation risk on the way out.

Ending employment is where exposure concentrates, whether you are letting one person go or closing a site. We help you handle individual terminations, reductions in force, and plant closings in a way that meets the legal requirements and reduces the odds that a separation turns into a lawsuit.

Individual Terminations

A single termination can spawn discrimination, retaliation, or breach claims if it is handled carelessly. We review the documentation, weigh the litigation risk before the decision is final, and advise on timing, messaging, and final pay. We also draft separation agreements and releases that hold up, including the ADEA and OWBPA terms required to release age claims.

Reductions in Force

Layoffs invite scrutiny of who was selected and why. We help you build neutral selection criteria, run a disparate-impact analysis across age, race, sex, and other protected groups, and document the business rationale. Catching a skew in the numbers before announcements go out is far cheaper than explaining it to an agency afterward.

WARN Act and Plant Closings

Mass layoffs and facility closings can trigger the federal WARN Act and stricter state mini-WARN laws, with back-pay penalties for blown notice. We determine whether a triggering event has occurred, calculate the required notice periods, identify who must be notified, and structure the timeline so you stay compliant while keeping the closure on schedule.

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Employment Litigation

Frequently asked questions

The federal WARN Act requires employers with 100 or more employees to give 60 days' advance written notice of a plant closing or mass layoff that affects the threshold number of workers. Many states have their own mini-WARN acts with lower employee thresholds and longer notice periods, so check the law in every state where you're cutting jobs.

Start with a legitimate business reason and objective selection criteria, then run an adverse-impact analysis to see whether your choices fall disproportionately on protected groups. Build in WARN Act compliance, draft separation agreements with proper releases, and plan how and when you'll communicate the news. Doing this before you finalize the list is what keeps a layoff defensible.

The usual exposure is wrongful-discharge, discrimination, retaliation, breach-of-contract, and defamation claims. The best protection is documenting the performance or conduct problem as it happens and having someone review the decision before you act, so the reason for the termination is clear and consistent.

Cover the payment amount and schedule, a general release of claims, and confidentiality, non-disparagement, return-of-property, and cooperation terms. If the employee is 40 or older, the age-discrimination waiver has to follow the OWBPA rules, which include specific consideration and revocation periods, or the release of age claims won't hold up.

Use objective, job-related criteria like skills, performance ratings, and seniority, and apply them the same way to everyone. Before you finalize the list, run a statistical adverse-impact analysis across protected categories to catch any skew, and document both the criteria and the business reason behind them.

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Casey Scott McKay
Attorney
Washington, D.C.
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