Employer Counseling & Day-to-Day Legal Support
Employment law issues usually need attention before there is a claim to defend. A poorly documented termination, an unclear offer letter, a manager’s offhand response to a complaint, or a policy that no longer matches the law can each turn a routine decision into an agency charge or a lawsuit. Sparks Willson advises employers on the day-to-day workplace questions that arise in between those events: hiring and offers, accommodation and leave requests, performance management, employee complaints, difficult personnel situations, reorganizations, and terminations.
The usefulness of employment law advice depends on your attorney knowing the business. Our attorneys build long-term relationships with our employer clients and develop real operating context, including who the managers are, how the workforce is structured, what the handbook actually says, and what the company can live with commercially. That produces practical answers on a short timeline rather than a memo cataloging every theoretical risk.
Much of this work happens by phone or email as questions come up, often as part of a broader outside general counsel relationship. Clients reach a senior attorney who already knows the company or industry rather than starting over with an intake process. For employers with in-house HR or general counsel, we supplement their capacity and serve as a sounding board on difficult issues.
Employment Agreements & Executive Contracts
The documents that establish an employment relationship determine what happens when it ends. We draft and negotiate offer letters, employment agreements, executive compensation and incentive arrangements, confidentiality agreements, independent contractor agreements, and equity, commission, and bonus terms for employers across a range of industries.
Colorado employment law has changed materially in recent years, including new limits on confidentiality and nondisparagement terms in agreements with employees. Outdated agreements that were sound when drafted may no longer be enforceable. We can review and update your agreements as needed to ensure compliance.
For executive hires and key employees, the negotiation matters more than the template. We advise on how to structure the arrangement, negotiate with counsel on the other side, and coordinate with the client’s tax and benefits advisors where deferred compensation, equity, or change-of-control terms are involved. Senior attorneys handle the drafting and the negotiation.
Handbooks & Workplace Policies
An employee handbook is not a formality. It is the document a plaintiff’s attorney, an agency investigator, and eventually a jury will read to decide whether the employer followed its own rules. Handbooks that are outdated, internally inconsistent, or adapted from an out-of-state form tend to create the exact problem they were meant to prevent.
We draft and update handbooks and standalone policies for Colorado employers, including anti-harassment and complaint procedures, paid sick leave and other leave policies, accommodation processes, timekeeping and overtime rules, remote work, use of company systems, drug and alcohol policies, and discipline and separation procedures. Colorado imposes requirements that national handbook templates routinely miss, among them the Healthy Families and Workplaces Act (HFWA), the Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI) program, the pay transparency and promotion notice requirements of the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act, and the harassment and recordkeeping standards of the POWR Act.
We also help employers put policies into practice rather than simply adopt them. That includes walking managers through how the policies work, revisiting them when the law changes, and confirming that the handbook, the offer letters, and company practices are consistent.
Wage & Hour and Worker Classification
Wage and hour law is one of the few areas where a well-run company can be substantially out of compliance without knowing it. Colorado’s standards exceed federal law in several respects, including daily overtime, meal and rest period requirements, and a salary threshold for exempt status that is higher than the federal threshold and adjusts every year. The consequences have grown as well. Recent amendments to the Colorado Wage Act expanded who can be held personally liable for unpaid wages and increased the automatic penalties for misclassifying workers.
We advise employers on exempt and nonexempt classification, independent contractor arrangements, overtime calculation, commission and bonus plans, off-the-clock and remote work time, permissible deductions, expense reimbursement, final pay obligations, and vacation and PTO payout. We conduct classification reviews, correct problems before they compound across a workforce, and structure contractor relationships that hold up under the wage statutes as well as the unemployment and workers’ compensation tests.
When a claim is filed, we defend wage claims before the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment and the federal Department of Labor, and in single-plaintiff, class, and collective actions.
Restrictive Covenants & Trade Secrets
Colorado is now among the most restrictive states in the country on noncompetition and customer nonsolicitation agreements. A covenant is void unless the worker meets an earnings threshold that adjusts annually, the covenant is no broader than reasonably necessary to protect trade secrets, and specific pre-signing notice requirements are met. Recent legislation went further, voiding most noncompete and patient nonsolicitation covenants with physicians, advanced practice registered nurses, dentists, and certified midwives regardless of compensation, and narrowing the sale-of-business exception for minority owners. Employers face penalties for presenting or attempting to enforce a covenant that does not comply.
We prepare restrictive covenant and confidentiality agreements built for that framework and audit existing agreements signed under prior law. For most employers, the more durable protection comes from a well-designed confidentiality and trade secret policies, including identifying what genuinely qualifies as a trade secret, controlling access to it, documenting protective measures, and handling onboarding and departures consistently.
We also handle disputes over restrictive covenants and trade secrets, including enforcement and injunctive relief when appropriate, in both state and federal courts.
Internal Investigations & Employee Discipline
How an employer responds to a complaint often matters more than the underlying conduct. An investigation that is slow, incomplete, run by the wrong person, or poorly documented can turn a defensible situation into evidence of indifference. Colorado’s harassment standard no longer requires conduct to be severe or pervasive to be actionable, which raises the stakes on internal response and on the records the employer keeps.
We advise employers on complaint intake and investigation procedures involving harassment, discrimination, retaliation, and misconduct allegations, and we counsel management on the decisions that follow. We help clients work through privilege, confidentiality, interim measures, witness handling, documentation and appropriate disciplinary action if warranted.
We advise on performance management and discipline more generally, including progressive discipline, performance improvement plans, how accommodation and leave may interact with performance issues. We also advise on proper documentation to support our client’s decisions.
Separations & Severance
Terminations, reductions in force, and executive exits are moments most likely to generate claims. The risk usually comes from process rather than the underlying decision: timing that closely follows a complaint or a leave request, inconsistent treatment of comparable employees, missed final pay deadlines, or a release that does not do what the employer assumed it did.
We advise employers on individual terminations and group reductions in force, including selection criteria and disparate impact review, notice obligations, final pay and accrued vacation, benefits continuation, and communications to the remaining workforce. We draft and negotiate severance and separation agreements, executive transition arrangements, and releases, including compliance with the older worker waiver requirements that govern age claims and Colorado’s limits on confidentiality and nondisparagement terms.
For higher-risk separations, we prefer to be involved before the final decision is made and communicated. A short conversation in advance is frequently the difference between a clean exit and a charge of discrimination. If a former employee does bring a claim, the attorneys who advised on the separation handle the response.
Employment Litigation
When a claim is filed, employers need counsel who will assess it quickly and honestly. Some matters should be resolved early. Others should be defended to the end, and knowing the difference affects both the outcome and the cost. We defend employers in claims and litigation involving discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wrongful discharge, wage and hour violations, breach of contract, and misappropriation of trade secrets.
We represent employers before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Colorado Civil Rights Division, the federal Department of Labor, and the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, including position statements, investigations, and agency mediation, as well as in state and federal court and in arbitration.
Senior attorneys lead every engagement. They evaluate the claim, run the defense, take the depositions, handle the negotiations, and stay involved through resolution. We coordinate with the client’s insurance carrier where coverage applies and keep the matter staffed to what the case actually requires.
Employment Attorneys
Employment Paralegals
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