Kunkle and Sennett

Employment attorney in Chester County, Pennsylvania

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(610) 692-8911

Attorney in Chester County, PA

PO Box 318 Westtown, PA 19395

Kunkle and Sennett > Areas of Expertise > Employment Counsel to Small Businesses

Excellent representation should be available to businesses and to employees. Both can have legal positions worthy of representation.

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Employment Counsel to Small Businesses in West Chester, PA

At Kunkle and Sennett, employment attorneys in West Chester, PA, we primarily represent primarily employees. However, our attorneys each began their practices at large urban law firms representing only employers. Over the years, our practice has evolved to provide legal counsel to the largely underserved employee segment in the suburbs or Philadelphia and beyond.

We have been called upon over the years to represent many closely held (nonpublicly-traded) businesses. Where those opportunities have not presented a legal conflict and have meshed with our ethics, we have been honored to serve as business counsel. We believe that excellent representation should be available both to businesses and to employees, as our experience is that neither segment has a monopoly on worthy (or unworthy) legal positions.

We tend to focus our employer legal representation on “break-the-bank” types of legal matters. This refers primarily to matters that can go to the existential lifeline of the employer. These matters typically involve class-wide, or multiple plaintiff, types of situations that can have an overarching impact on the employers’ finances. Such matters can include:

Misclassification of employees as exempt from overtime or as independent contractors
Tolerance of sexually or racially hostile working environments
Tolerance of retaliatory managers who insulate corporate leadership from knowledge of employment law violations or vulnerabilities
Inadequate or inconsistently applied personnel policies, e.g., the failure to have an appropriate policy prohibiting sexual harassment and providing for unbiased internal investigation and reporting back of complaints without retaliation

We also work with employers in such areas as:

Preparation and negotiation of employment agreements
Severance negotiations and severance agreements
Hostile working environment claims and harassment investigations
Employee handbook drafting and review, and policy and procedure violations
Statutory requirements and avoidance of violations
Defense of unemployment compensation claims
Department of Labor audits regarding minimum wage or overtime payment
Human resources consulting
Enforcement of noncompete or nonsolicitation agreements
Protection from employee theft of intellectual property

Contact Kunkle and Sennett If Your Business Requires Seasoned Employment Law Counsel

Contact Steve Kunkle, attorney in West Chester, PA, if you would like to discuss your company’s need for any of the employment law services set described above. Our goal is to provide superior legal representation to clients who have compelling and significant legal problems. We do not seek to attract a high volume of clients, preferring instead to handle a manageable number of matters on behalf of clients who can benefit from our services.

I have referred many of my friends and colleagues to Steve

Stephen Kunkle and his firm have been representing my company's interests since 2002. Steve is a trusted and highly respected partner for me and my senior management team and has provided us with invaluable representation and counsel in all areas of our business.

When our relationship with Steve began, we relied on him for guidance in matters that mostly related to our corporate structure, the drafting and review of contracts, and general business matters. As we've grown, from 4-6 employees in 2002 to over 100 employees operating in seven states in 2012, we quickly came to realize how invaluable Steve was to us. He was instrumental in our decision to make wholesale changes to our employment practices and our use of independent contractors. He assisted us in drafting our current Employee Manual, Employment Agreements, and all of the associated employment forms and documents we utilize to ensure compliance with state and federal employment laws. When needed, he has researched and enlisted out of state counsel on our behalf to ensure the company's interests remain protected in other parts of the country.

What I appreciate most about Steve's services is that he is able to not only provide sound, effective counsel in all areas of employment law, but he can also be an effective ally in matters where our business decisions are part and parcel to his legal advice. He has learned much about our business which enables him to provide practical, relevant advice on virtually any area of our company.

In closing, I have referred many of my friends and colleagues to Steve with the knowledge that they will be well represented and receive great legal advice.

- Steven M.

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Frequently Asked Questions

One of our employees has posted negative commentary about his working conditions on social media. Can we discipline her/him for that?

It may be an unfair labor practice, in violation of the National Labor Relations Act, to discipline an employee for complaining about working conditions.

Legal Help in West Chester

Employers should seek competent legal counsel in such instances, because the remedy they may be forced to afford the employee could include reinstating a terminated employee to the same position and paying the employee all lost compensation.

Meet Our Partner:

Steve Kunkle

Steve Kunkle graduated from Dartmouth College in 1979 and the University of Pennsylvania School of Law in 1982. His primary areas of practice have been in the fields of employment and civil rights litigation, veterans’ benefits, personal injury litigation, and more recently, transactional and employment risk management matters for his business clients. In the employment area, Steve handles a broad range of compensation and benefit matters, long-term disability, pension, retention bonus, and change in control matters, severance agreements, FMLA and other statutory employment claims, wrongful termination, sexual harassment, wage and hour disputes, and ...

Featured Blog Posts - Employment Counsel to Small Businesses

February 19, 2020

Arbitration Provisions in Employment Agreements Can Affect Your Legal Rights

Provisions requiring that the parties to an agreement must arbitrate all disputes rather than go before the court system are favored by employers and large companies, because arbitration proceedings generally protect such businesses from being subject to meaningful discovery of information and documents that may help to prove improper conduct. Arbitration proceedings also are not generally a matter of public record and not searchable in online databases.

In the 2011 case of AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, the United States Supreme Court ruled that states may not ban arbitration agreements in consumer contracts. The case resulted from a class action filed on behalf of AT&T cell phone users whose accounts were charged sales tax on phones that they were supposed to receive ...