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DescriptionEven after years of legislation and nation-wide public awareness, people with disabilities still often find themselves in situations where accessibility was not taken into account. This has resulted in thousands of lawsuits in federal court in the last year, many of them in New York, under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) alleging inaccessibility in public buildings. This riveting CLE will be presenting by a panel of speakers who will address the rise in this type of litigation and provide tips for how businesses can reduce their risk of being named in such a lawsuit. Issues pertinent to accessibility in “brick and mortar” businesses, the identification and removal of accessibility barriers and how to strategically approach ADA lawsuits alleging website or facility inaccessibility will all be discussed.
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Instructor Bio
Andrew Singer
Andrew W. Singer leads Tannenbaum Helpern's Employment Law Practice Group, which offers a full spectrum of legal services from everyday counseling to complex employment litigation. With extensive experience in all aspects of employment law, he regularly advises companies with various human resource and compliance issues:
Employment
- draft and negotiate employment agreements and executive compensation structures
- draft non-competition, non-solicit and confidentiality agreements
- counsel companies on restrictive covenant enforceability
- draft and negotiate severance agreements
Regulation/Compliance
- wage and hour compliance, including overtime computation and exemptions from overtime, minimum wage, payment and deduction from wages, commissions and draw structures, bonus and incentive compensation, governmental wage and hour audits, recordkeeping, and federal and state labor laws
- independent contractors, misclassification analyses, consulting agreements, and governmental audits
- privacy concerns, including federal and state workplace privacy laws, off-duty conduct laws, drug-testing, and background and credit-checks
HR Policies
- social media policies and technology and e-mail usage policies
- anti-discrimination, including sexual harassment, retaliation, accommodating the disabled and religion, and handling internal corporate investigations
- employee termination, WARN Act compliance, and COBRA
- human resource and compliance counseling, including drafting and reviewing employee handbooks, drafting job descriptions, vacation and PTO policies, family and medical leave compliance, military leave policies, and issues related to employment applications
Litigation & Dispute Resolution
- defend discrimination and retaliation claims based upon sex, race, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, disability, age and any other protected class in federal and state courts
- handle discrimination matters filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the New York State Division of Human Rights, and the New York City Commission on Human Rights
A frequent speaker on employment law topics and emerging trends, Andrew regularly conducts training seminars for supervisory and managerial employees covering equal employment laws and sexual harassment, the Americans with Disabilities Act, wage and hour laws, independent contractor misclassification, workplace violence, social media policies, the Family and Medical Leave Act and other leave policies, workforce reduction and the WARN Act, and other employment law developments.
Andrew has been selected for inclusion in New York Super Lawyers for 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013.
Joseph Lockinger
As an associate in Tannenbaum Helpern’s Employment Law practice, Joseph Lockinger works primarily on management-side employment litigation and counseling. When counseling clients on employment-related issues, Joseph works to provide the information and knowledge clients will need to navigate through the decision-making process, while mitigating their risk and ensuring that the client’s bottom line is always respected and considered. Joseph also regularly defends clients facing allegations and charges of unlawful conduct (such as discrimination, hostile work environment, harassment, retaliation, wrongful termination, or wage and hour violations) and he uses his extensive employment litigation experience to develop effective defense strategies for the claims asserted against his clients. He has litigated cases in the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, the Supreme Court of the State of New York, the New York State Division of Human Rights, the New York City Commission on Human Right, and the National Labor Relations Board. Joseph also defends and provides counseling for clients facing claims brought pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Title III (along with comparable state or local statutes). These cases typically involve allegations that barriers in public accommodations (businesses that are open to the public) impede full access for persons with disabilities.
Joseph’s clients include large businesses, non-profits, small to mid-size businesses and start-ups. He has experience working with clients in a variety of industries, such as: hospitality, financial services, professional services, staffing, and technology.
Mark Jackson
Mark S. Jackson, CASp, is an Accessibility Consulting Director at SWA with over 12 years of experience. He oversees the commercial building project portfolio for the Accessibility Consulting and Compliance Group. Mr. Jackson and his team provide full service accessibility compliance and consulting services, including plan review and field inspection services, due diligence and barrier removal surveys, remediation development, design assistance, litigation consulting, technical assistance and training to commercial stakeholders and project teams. He routinely works on new construction, alteration, and existing facility retrofits throughout all stages of project development, design, construction, and fit out. His experience spans the spectrum of commercial project types such as schools, healthcare, hotels, restaurants, retail, theaters, offices, and much more.
Mr. Jackson is an International Code Council (ICC)-Certified Accessibility Inspector/Plans Examiner and California Certified Access Specialist (CASp) with specialized expertise in the accessible design and construction requirements of federal, state and local laws, as well as building codes, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
