LAW 639 – Writing Assignment 3 – Employment Handbook

Objective:

This final project is designed to challenge you to apply employment law concepts in a practical, business-specific context. You will demonstrate your understanding by drafting original handbook provisions tailored to the unique needs and risks of your chosen company and industry. This assignment emphasizes original drafting and critical thinking, requiring you to create policies from scratch that reflect both legal requirements and the operational realities of your business. This handbook is being prepared to send to your Outside Counsel for review.

Assignment:

1. Cover Memorandum To Outside Counsel

Prepare a cover memo to accompany your handbook draft. Your memo must include:

Industry Analysis: Write a concise analysis (1-2 paragraphs) of the legal and operational challenges specific to your chosen business and industry. Identify any unique risks, regulatory concerns, or business practices that outside counsel should be aware of. Highlight any particular concerns you have for your company or the industry as a whole.

Implementation Plan: Outline a detailed plan for rolling out the handbook to employees. Specify how you will communicate the policies, obtain employee acknowledgments, and ensure ongoing compliance. Address how you will handle updates and retraining.

2. Employment Handbook Draft

You are to draft the first provisions of an Employment Handbook for a real or hypothetical company of your choice. As such, it should be in close to final format when you send it to outside counsel. Your handbook must:

Be Substantially Original: Draft all major provisions from scratch, using your own language and tailoring each policy to the specific needs, risks, and culture of your business. Avoid copying and pasting from templates or existing handbooks. If you consult outside sources for inspiration, you must clearly identify and cite them.

Address Required Topics: Your handbook should include:

Reiteration of at-will employment

Anti-discrimination and harassment (ADA, ADEA, Title VII) (*For this provision, you may use sample languages from sources or combine language to create your own. Please cite your sources).

Policies specifically relevant to your industry (For example, if your company operates in construction, detail your approach to safety and personal protective equipment; if in healthcare, address HIPAA and patient privacy;

Additional ideas: Licensure and Continuing Education Requirements; Drug and Alcohol Testing; Loss Prevention and Security; Customer Service Expectations; Intellectual Property and Inventions; Data Security; Tip Pooling and Wage Compliance; Food Safety and Sanitation; Guest Privacy and Security

Dress Code (tailored to your business)

Hiring and onboarding procedures

Performance Management and Improvement Plans PIPs)

Terminations and Severance

Additional Topics: Examples of additional topics/provisions you may include (no maximum amount but please use at least 5):

Social Media Policy

Workplace safety (with industry specific considerations)

Remote Work and Telecommuting Policy

Use of Company Equipment and Technology

Confidentiality and Non-Disclosure Policy

Conflict of Interest

Accommodations for Disabilities

Workplace Violence Prevention

Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) compliance (wage and hour)

Paycheck deductions and considerations, etc.

Payout of vacation at termination (along with state law compliance)

Note: FMLA provisions are relatively standard across handbooks. You do not need to include an FMLA provision for purposes of this assignment, but you may include other leave provisions that you want to address (jury duty, military, unpaid sick leave, etc.)

3. Include Annotations

This is an annotated draft assignment. Since it is sent to outside counsel for review, you must include comments, questions and notations to outside counsel to highlight what you believe is critical for review and questions you need answered. For example:

Ask outside counsel any questions you have about the provision;

You may wish to include on certain provisions, a comment of the reasoning for including specific provisions and why it is important to your industry; and

Identify any legal uncertainties or compliance concerns you have that you need your attorney to specifically review

You may include these annotations in any of the following ways:

Use comment bubbles in Word.

Use footnotes in the document.

Use red font within the text to make your annotations stand out.

Remember that these annotations are a critical part of your final grade (please refer to rubric).

4. Demonstrate Critical Thinking

For each policy, think about the specific needs and risks of your business.

Guidelines

Follow the general instructions above. Your final document should be carefully proofread and be free of grammatical errors or typos.

While this is the first draft of an initial Employment Handbook, it will be read by others within your Company and outside counsel. You want to ensure it has all of the content where it could be the final version once the attorney has approved the necessary sections and your comments/notes/annotations have been removed.

Follow These Document Formatting Requirements:

• Use 12-point font, single-spaced, with clear section breaks.
• One-inch margins on all sides.
• Page numbers in lower footer of the document (placement is up to you).
• Number all pages and all substantive sections.
• Table of contents not required, but helpful.
• Place your name and course at the top of the first page only.

Sources

• You may consult outside resources (e.g., SHRM, Workable, sample handbooks), but you must draft your own language for each provision, except as noted.
• Clearly identify any sources you consulted for each provision, even if you only used them for reference or inspiration. Provide links or brief citations in your annotations (hyperlinks to source are fine, does not need to be bluebook or APA format).
• Do not submit a handbook that is substantially copied from any single source. This will result in a significant grade deduction or failure of this assignment.
• You may not use a handbook that you have previously drafted or revised prior to taking this course (the idea is that you will use what you have learned in this class to create a new handbook)
• Please refer to the Syllabus for Statement of Use on Generative AI which is not authorized for this course or assignment.