A better way to deal with HR issues and a better way to work with your lawyer

The old model for working with an employment lawyer was pretty simple: call the lawyer when things get bad.

You get a demand letter. An employee threatens to sue. You are about to fire someone and realize there may be a legal issue. Something has gotten serious enough that you finally decide it is worth paying the lawyer.

I think that model is outdated, especially if you own multiple restaurants.

There are simply too many employment issues that come up in food service now. Leave. Accommodations. Scheduling. Wage and hour questions. Discipline. Terminations. Employee complaints. Workers’ comp issues that overlap with employment issues. And then, every once in a while, a claim shows up that has no basis at all.

Sure, better culture and better leadership will reduce some of this. They absolutely matter. But that is not really the point here.

If you employ a lot of people, HR-related legal issues are going to be part of your operating environment. I think you are better off accepting that reality and figuring out how to manage it well.

Here is the system I recommend.

Keep a running list of HR issues as they come up. I literally mean a note on your phone, a Google Doc, or a pad of paper on your desk.

Then, every one, two, or three weeks, depending on how many things have accumulated, sit down and go through the list.

For each issue, write out two things:

The context. Who is the employee? What is the relevant history? What happened that caused you to have a question?

The actual question. What are you trying to decide?

That second part is important.

Don’t just tell your attorney, “We’re having an issue with an employee.”

Instead:

• Can we require this employee to provide additional medical documentation?
• Do we have to accommodate this scheduling request?
• Can we reduce this employee’s hours?
• Are we able to terminate this person?
• What should we document before we do anything?

I would also take the write-up and run it through ChatGPT, Claude, or whatever AI tool you use.

Not because you want AI to make legal decisions for you. You don’t.

Use it to organize the facts, make the issue easier for your attorney to understand, and educate yourself on the general subject before the conversation. I find that I ask much better questions when I have spent a little time understanding the issue first.

Then send the whole list to your employment lawyer and schedule 30 minutes or an hour to work through it.

I think a few things happen when you start working this way.

First, your lawyer is going to appreciate it.

Most people don’t give their lawyers much to work with ahead of time. They get on the phone and spend 20 minutes explaining what happened.

If your attorney gets a reasonably organized summary beforehand, they can read it, think through the questions, research anything they need to research, and come to the conversation prepared.

You end up spending more of your legal bill getting advice and less of it explaining the story.

Second, you are going to learn a lot.

Probably more than you expect.

Do this consistently for a year and you will start to understand how employment issues actually work. You will recognize the situations that create risk. You will know when documentation matters. You will get better at handling leave, discipline, accommodations, scheduling problems, terminations, and all the other strange situations that come with employing a lot of people.

If you have an operating partner or area manager you really trust, I think it makes sense to include them in some of these conversations too. Over time, you want what you are learning from counsel to make its way into how your organization operates.

Third, and maybe most importantly, you start to feel like you are managing HR issues instead of HR issues managing you.

I think this matters more than people realize.

One of the things that can wear on you as a restaurant owner is the feeling that there is always another employee issue around the corner. Something happens, you don’t know exactly what you are allowed to do, and suddenly a relatively small operating problem feels like a legal crisis.

Having a process changes that.

You write it down. You gather the facts. You know you are going to review it with someone who understands the law. Then you make the decision and move on.

Yes, this costs money.

Maybe it is $500 a month. Maybe it is $1,000. Some months it will be more.

I still think that is a much better approach than trying to avoid your lawyer at all costs until something has already gone wrong.

Because that is the real problem with the old model.

By the time you “need a lawyer,” you may have already made the decisions that created the problem.

You already changed the schedule. You already sent the email. You already denied the request. You already handled the leave incorrectly. You already terminated the employee.

At that point, your attorney can help you deal with the situation, but they can’t go backward and help you make a better decision.

For today’s multi-unit restaurant owner, I think the better model is to build an active, ongoing relationship with employment counsel so fewer things get bad in the first place.

Your employment lawyer should not just be the person you call when you get sued. At this point, I think they need to be part of the operating infrastructure of the business.

Sad but true.

Better to accept it, plan for it, and get back to running and enjoying your business.