Employment and Discrimination Law Attorney Minnesota

Discrimination occurs whenever an employee (or applicant) is treated differently because of protected status. It’s that simple. Workplace discrimination, however, is often subtle, so employees being treated differently at work need an advocate with deep experience in understanding how to prove discriminatory intent.  Our Minneapolis employment attorneys have decades of experience in all areas of protected class discrimination, and we will not charge for a call to evaluate your situation.

When you retain the Minneapolis workplace discrimination attorneys at Schaefer Halleen, you can be confident that you’ve found an advocate who can trace different treatment to discriminatory intent. We know how to demonstrate how general unfairness actually stems from a discriminatory motive, and how the employer’s alleged reason for the actions we challenge for you are either not true, or are being advanced to mask a discriminatory motive.  We usually will do so on a contingency basis, so we don’t get paid until we get reasonable compensation for you. Learn more >

In Minnesota, we have many laws which not only prohibit retaliation in the workplace, but define what are “protected reports” or what constitutes “participation in an investigation” giving rise to the obligation not to retaliate.

These protections are often far broader than many employees understand. A protected report can be verbal, it can stem from a violation of a common Minnesota employment law or contract obligation, not just statutory protections. It can stem from failure to follow an internal company policy. It can stem from past participation in an investigation of alleged wrongdoing in any of these areas. If action is taken against you that is motivated by any of these kind of circumstances, you likely have a viable employment retaliation claim. The Minnesota employment retaliation lawyers at Schaefer Halleen not only understand these legal protections, we have helped to change the law in this state to broaden these protections. We, as Minneapolis employment law attorneys, are privileged to advocate for whistleblowers subject to employment retaliation of any kind in the workplace, not just termination. Learn more >

We deploy this experience to protect our client at the outset of these important relationships, so that disputes in the future are minimized when difficult issues arise. Whether relating to compensation, bonus structures, equity awards, deferred compensation, or the circumstances relating to the employment relationship ending, we know what language is “state of the art” to protect executive or physician employment rights.

View the firm’s Services for Physicians and Medical Professionals.

Severance agreements, whether triggered by contract rights or legal claims supporting a release of claims for reasonable compensation, comprise a very significant portion of the legal practice at Schaefer Halleen. Our employment attorneys Minnesota know how to develop the relevant facts, and to “leverage” these facts to result in productive negotiations for our clients. When you have been offered a severance if you have been terminated, the law requires that you be encouraged to consult with legal counsel before any release of claims can be effective. Schaefer Halleen severance employment attorneys can not only help you understand the legalese often contained in these agreements, but can, most importantly, advise you whether the compensation offered is reasonable for releasing the potential legal claims at issue. If it isn’t, we can formulate and execute a legal strategy designed to secure this reasonable severance compensation for you. Learn more >

We are committed to doing the hard work of eradicating harassment from the workplace, and holding workplace offenders, and corporate enablers, accountable. Our Minneapolis sexual harassment lawyers have literally created many of the protections against sexual harassment, especially when it occurs on a class-wide basis. Jean Boler and Larry Schaefer were two of the lead counsel in the seminal Jenson v. Eveleth Mines class action case (the first ever case certified as a class action on a sexual harassment claim), later made into the movie “North Country.”

Sexual harassment is gender discrimination, and its effect are devastating. Illegal harassment isn’t just “sexual” conduct. It can be abusive or bullying conduct or comments directed at one gender. Legal violations can be based on even a single incident, if it can be characterized as “severe.” We know how to prove when a work environment has become “hostile” from sexual harassment, how to develop the #MeToo testimony that other targets are now often more willing to provide. We know how to prove when sexual harassment discrimination takes the form of conditioning workplace privileges on acquiescing to sexual advancements – known as quid pro quo harassment. When you retain the Minneapolis sexual harassment discrimination attorneys at Schaefer Halleen, you can be assured you have an advocate who won’t give up until your rights to be free from harassment are vindicated. Learn more >

Whether grounded in federal or state law, these protections are robust, requiring that employees with disabilities be accommodated when necessary, be allowed full and equal employment opportunity with or without accommodations, and that employees who qualify for leave must be granted this leave, be returned to the same or similar position, and be free from any discrimination or retaliation for having taken this leave.

Employers, however, sometimes fail to follow their obligations in these areas. They fail to recognize qualified disabilities, deny needed accommodations, or erect roadblocks that make this process difficult or even futile for an employee seeking legally obligated protections. Employers sometimes either deny leave required under the Family Medical Leave Act or similar state law protections, or thereafter retaliate against employees who request and need this leave, whether based on their own medical condition or a loved one. If you are experiencing any of these illegal actions, the Minneapolis disability and leave discrimination lawyers at Schaefer Halleen can help. We can and will enforce your rights, and hold offending employers accountable. A telephone consultation with a Minneapolis discrimination attorney on these issues is free, and our representation often thereafter proceeds on a contingency basis. Learn more >

Employers often inform employees of this doctrine, in writing, in the hopes that the employee will thereafter believe that they can’t legally challenge any subsequent termination because of the at-will discretion. Nothing could be farther from the truth, and terminated employees do not need to feel powerless because of this doctrine. The experienced lawyers at Schaefer Halleen can and will enforce any rights which have been violated.

Larry Schaefer, the founder and President of Schaefer Halleen, refers to employment-at-will as the “swiss cheese” of legal doctrines. That’s because, in his 30-plus years of successful advocacy, he knows there are more holes than cheese in this doctrine. Mr. Schaefer, and the wrongful termination lawyers at Schaefer Halleen he has trained and worked with, can usually convert unfairness in a termination into a viable legal claim. While “wrongful termination” is not a recognized legal claim, statutory protections against discrimination cover many protected classes, retaliation can arise by statute or common law in so many circumstances, terms of a contract or a prior promise may be violated, or common law protections against defamation or other tortious conduct can all give rise to claims where termination unfairness has legal consequences. Call the Minnesota wrongful termination lawyers at Schaefer Halleen to determine if your circumstances fit within any one of these many holes. If it does, we can and will enforce your rights. Learn more >