Helping you develop and maintain a satisfied and productive workforce is the primary mission of Foster Garvey’s Labor, Employment & Immigration attorneys. We want you to spend less time and resources managing unproductive and disgruntled employees and more time and resources managing your business. One way we help you achieve this objective is by keeping you up-to-date about and in compliance with labor and employment laws. By staying compliant, you avoid, or at least minimize, employment disputes that can seriously disrupt your business and lead to costly litigation.

Clients in Virtually Every Industry
Foster Garvey represents both large and small employers. We have deep experience in multiple industry sectors, such as health care, assisted living, organizations serving the developmentally disabled, Native American Tribes, municipalities, higher education, shipping, manufacturing, construction, retail, restaurants, insurance brokerages, small public entities, consulting, financial services and professional services.

Meeting Challenges with Innovative Solutions
We believe our role as lawyers is not to focus on what you cannot do, but instead to help you find innovative ways to achieve your objectives while avoiding unnecessary legal risks. When you decide to take risks, we help you manage them.

People Management
We all understand that compliance is an important part of the HR function. However, of equal importance today is how employers treat and motivate employees. Employers who manage employees well have a more satisfied, productive workforce and fewer employee lawsuits. Our legal advice and training focus on both compliance and people management. This focus helps you establish and maintain a strong HR function that can significantly improve your operations and bottom line.

Tailored Training Sessions
Foster Garvey believes strongly in the value of employment-related trainings. Training is a cost-effective way for a business, particularly its managers, to learn how to knowledgeably and successfully prevent and resolve a variety of workplace issues. Our training sessions provide practical, easy-to-understand content and are tailored for the particular audience. The sessions mix lecture, visuals and audience participation. Real-world scenarios are worked through by participants, equipping them with practical tools. Participants consistently rate our trainings very highly and our speakers are considered some of the best in their fields. These training programs cover a broad spectrum of topics. Those commonly requested include the following:

• • Basic managerial skills such as interviewing and hiring, performance reviews, and discipline and termination
  • Proper administration of injured and ill workers, including Family and Medical Leave Act and Washington State's Family Care Act basics, Americans with Disabilities Act and state disability law, and managing chronic absenteeism
  • Wage and hour basics including employee classification, meal and rest periods, on-call and travel time, and working off the clock
  • Investigating harassment and other complaints
  • Preventing harassment/discrimination
  • Guidelines for legally permissible conduct by managers encountering union-organizing activity
  • Preventing and addressing workplace violence, fraud and theft
  • Diversity and cultural awareness seminars and workshops

Foster Garvey is recognized by SHRM to offer Professional Development Credits (PDCs) for the SHRM-CP^SM or SHRM-SCP^SM. For more information about certification or recertification, please visit www.shrmcertification.org.

Blog Posts