Severance Compensation & Agreements
Experienced Severance Agreement Attorneys in St. Louis & Kansas City
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Was your employment terminated, and your former employer has now offered you some form of severance compensation—almost certainly in exchange for you signing a severance agreement that, among other things, waives your right to seek legal recourse against the prior employer? Or maybe you received a severance offer from your former employer and are wondering whether it is a good idea to try and ask for more money or better terms in the severance agreement.
If you have been presented with a severance offer/agreement from your former employer, it is critically important that you consult with an experienced employment attorney to walk you through the rights you will be receiving, and just (or more) importantly, giving up should you accept a proposed severance offer by signing an agreement. At Hollingshead & Dudley, our attorneys have decades of collective experience advising hundreds of current and former clients facing the same decision you now face. Additionally, our experienced employment attorneys have collectively tried dozens of employment cases (such as wrongful discharge, discrimination, etc.) to juries through the State of Missouri.
If you have been presented with a severance offer (likely accompanied by a written severance agreement), you probably already know that time is of the essence. Few companies offer departing employees more than a month to review/consider a severance offer and its corresponding severance agreement. Most companies require a decision within 7-14 days, and some companies provide as little as 24-48 hours for you to make such an important decision. Additionally, because it is impossible to provide accurate legal advice to the countless unique circumstances we have seen in our practice regarding severance agreements, after you have finished reading this page, we would encourage you to contact Hollingshead & Dudley today at (314) 480-5474 to schedule your initial consultation with one of our firm’s experienced employment attorneys.
If you are reading this page, we know that you probably have a lot of questions about severance agreements in Missouri. These are the three common questions that our employment attorneys have been asked by Hollingshead & Dudley’s former and current severance offer clients:
1. “What, specifically, am I agreeing to do if I sign a severance agreement?”
It probably doesn’t surprise you that most written severance agreements contain paragraph after paragraph of complicated legal jargon that leaves just about any non-lawyer baffled as to what the agreement’s terms, conditions, or provisions even mean! Truth be told, many employers’ attorneys draft severance agreements in this manner for precisely this reason—to make it difficult for people to understand. This allows companies to sometimes hide unfavorable provisions among the various provision’s legal jargon.
Without being absolutely sure what you would be agreeing to do and receive by signing any agreement, you can’t make an informed decision about whether it is in your best interests to do so. However, by employing the services of one of Hollingshead & Dudley’s experienced employment attorneys, you can have peace of mind that, whatever choice you make, you are fully aware of the potential risks and rewards of your decision. Even if your former employer steadfastly refuses to budge one inch on either the terms or monetary amount of a severance agreement, you need to know what rights you are exchanging for the monetary compensation you will be receiving.
If you are like most people, the absolute last thing you would want to do is accidentally breach one of the severance agreement’s terms and find yourself on the other end of legal action taken by the very employer who terminated your employment! The first step in avoiding such a mistake is by seeking qualified legal counsel who can provision-by-provision explain your obligations should you decide to accept.
2. “Is it possible to negotiate better severance agreement terms or possibly a higher monetary severance amount?”
While it is sometimes possible to negotiate either a higher amount of severance compensation or to alter the terms of your former employer’s proposed severance agreement, there are certain risks in pursuing this type of approach. Understanding the potential risks and rewards is critical to making the most informed decision possible.
Hollingshead & Dudley’s employment attorneys can explain both the potential risks and rewards associated with engaging your former employer in severance agreement negotiations—both as to the agreement’s terms and the monetary compensation being offered. After carefully weighing the pros and the cons, should you decide to pursue severance negotiations, your employment attorney can provide you with a good-faith estimate of the legal costs you would expect to incur if you decided to retain Hollingshead & Dudley to engage your former employer in severance negotiations on your behalf.
3. “If I didn’t sign a severance agreeing waiving my rights to future litigation, would I have a case for wrongful termination instead?”
Whether you may have a viable legal claim against your former employer for wrongful termination (or other unlawful employment conduct) depends on a wide variety of factors that can only be answered after an experienced employment attorney has an opportunity to carefully review the unique circumstances of your employment/termination. Fortunately, Hollingshead & Dudley’s employment attorneys have represented hundreds of clients on wrongful termination, discrimination, and other unlawful employment practices’ claims, including having successfully tried countless wrongful termination cases to juries.
After carefully reviewing the circumstances surrounding your employment/termination and applying applicable Missouri employment law to the unique facts of your case, your Hollingshead & Dudley employment attorney will be able to explain his or her legal opinion about what, if any, legal claims you may have available to you. If your employment attorney advises you that a legally viable state or federal employment claim exists against your former employer, the attorney will walk you through the potential risks, rewards, and legal costs associated with pursuing legal action in lieu of accepting a severance offer. Should your employment attorney believe that another viable legal claim exists (and that Hollingshead & Dudley would be interested in representing you on the claim), it will be your choice (and your choice alone) whether to forego a severance offer in lieu of pursuing another legal claim.
Schedule Your Initial Consultation Today!
If you think that scheduling an initial consultation with one of Hollingshead & Dudley’s experienced employment attorneys is the right decision for you, call now to speak with one of our intake receptionists at (314) 480-5474. Once you’ve provided some basic information about your legal needs and how you can be reached, you’ll receive a call from one of Hollingshead & Dudley’s experienced intake specialists to begin the process of getting you scheduled to speak with one of our employment attorneys. We understand that you don’t have a lot of time to waste in obtaining legal advice, so at Hollingshead & Dudley, we strive to complete the intake process and get you scheduled with an experienced employment attorney as soon as possible!
Hollingshead & Dudley believes that this process should be as transparent as possible. Thus, before you call, please read the following information about what to expect (and how much it will cost) to obtain an initial legal consultation from one of the firm’s experienced employment attorneys:
“Is an initial consultation with one of Hollingshead & Dudley’s employment attorneys free?”
No, Hollingshead & Dudley charges a $300.00 initial consultation fee for meeting with our one of our employment attorneys. Some of you may know (or have heard) that our firm used to provide free legal consultations to prospective clients. While we naturally understand the appeal in free consultations, without any “skin in the game,” so to speak, our employment attorneys found themselves inundated with callers who had no reasonable basis for believing they might have a viable employment law claim. Thus, charging a consultation fee is part of Hollingshead & Dudley’s ongoing, concerted efforts to provide higher quality legal advice/representation to the firm’s employment law clients—something which requires our employment attorneys to spend considerably more time carefully reviewing the unique circumstances surrounding each clients’ employment situation.
We understand many prospective clients’ hesitation in paying to meet with an attorney, but please keep a few things in mind. First, most professionals (e.g., accountants, physicians, mechanics, etc.) charge their clients for all consultations whereby they anticipate providing valuable professional advice. Hollingshead & Dudley’s employment attorneys are no different.
Second, by charging a consultation fee, our employment attorneys consult with less prospective clients, allowing them to devote more time and attention to each prospective client seeking legal advice. The reason our firm’s employment attorneys have devoted considerable time to writing detailed articles on our firm’s website is to prevent employees who have not likely been subjected to unlawful employment practices—or are otherwise in need of our firm’s employment law knowledge (e.g., severance agreement review, etc.)—from wasting their valuable money on a legal consultation, only to discover that they do not have a case.
“What services will I receive as part of my initial $300.00 legal consultation with one of Hollingshead & Dudley’s employment attorneys?”
Your initial $300.00 legal consultation with one of the firm’s employment attorneys includes the following services:
Personal Intake Specialist: You will be provided with direct and timely access to one of Hollingshead & Dudley’s experienced intake specialists who is responsible for guiding you through the process of submitting relevant information and documentation that will be necessary for your Hollingshead & Dudley employment attorney to thoroughly and accurately review your severance situation. Ordinarily, your assigned Hollingshead & Dudley intake specialist will not change throughout the legal consultation process, and during normal operating hours, is always available by email or telephone to answer any follow-up questions that you may have about the intake process. If you call your intake specialist and he/she does not answer, please leave a message, and you will receive a timely call back.
Initial Consultation: After you have provided your intake specialist with the information and paperwork necessary for your Hollingshead & Dudley employment attorney to thoroughly understand your situation, the assigned attorney (typically a firm employment law partner) will personally email you to schedule a mutually agreeable date and time to conduct your initial consultation.
During your initial consultation, your Hollingshead & Dudley employment attorney will not have you “on a clock” where the consultation ends after a specified period of time. Rather your employment attorney will take the time that, in his or her best professional judgment, is necessary to thoroughly address your legal situation and provide you with sufficient time to ask any questions that you may have. Your employment attorney will also discuss additional legal options that may be available to you, along with any additional legal expenses that you should expect should you choose a particular option.
“How do I go about scheduling my initial consultation with one of Hollingshead & Dudley’s employment attorneys?”
The process of scheduling your initial legal consultation begins with calling our St. Louis office (even if your employment situation has occurred elsewhere in the State of Missouri) at (314) 480-5474. One of Hollingshead & Dudley’s intake receptionists will take down some basic contact information and ask you to briefly describe your anticipated legal needs. That information is immediately conveyed to one of the firm’s experienced intake specialists who will timely call you to gather some additional information and advise you as to the next steps in scheduling your initial consultation.
Initial Contact: During your conversation with one of Hollingshead & Dudley’s intake specialists, you will be asked to complete some paperwork that is required by the firm prior to scheduling your initial consultation. However, rest assured, the process of scheduling your initial consultation will not be overly tedious, and you will be able to schedule the consultation in a timely manner (typically within 48-72 hours of initially contacting the firm).
Necessary Documents/Steps: To give you a head start in Hollingshead & Dudley’s initial client intake process, before your initial consultation with one of the firm’s employment attorneys will be scheduled, your intake specialist will need to receive the following:
Consultation Fee Payment: Shortly after you speak with your Hollingshead & Dudley intake specialist, you will receive an email from the firm’s payment processing service (LawPay) containing an encrypted link that will allow you to securely make your $300.00 initial consultation payment. Once payment is made, your Hollingshead & Dudley intake specialist will receive electronic confirmation of your payment.
Signed Fee Agreement: Second, you will receive an email from Adobe DocuSign which contains Hollingshead & Dudley’s standard client consultation fee agreement. This fee agreement is required by the firm’s malpractice insurance carrier and is strongly encouraged by the Missouri Bar.
In short, the fee agreement simply explains that, for your $300.00 initial consultation fee, Hollingshead & Dudley has agreed: a) for one of its employment attorneys to review/discuss only your current legal situation; b) to provide you with a telephone consultation discussing the attorney’s legal opinions about your current situation; and c) if both you and your Hollingshead & Dudley employment attorney were to jointly agree on pursuing additional legal remedies on your behalf, a new fee agreement would need to be discussed, agreed-upon, and signed.
Once received, you will review the fee agreement, and follow Adobe DocuSign’s instructions for completing, signing, and electronically submitting the fee agreement to your Hollingshead & Dudley intake specialist.
Hollingshead & Dudley Client Intake Form: Finally, you will receive a second email from Adobe DocuSign requesting that you complete Hollingshead & Dudley’s initial client intake form. You’ll note that this form requests personal information from you that you may consider to be highly confidential. Rest assured that this information is important for Hollingshead & Dudley’s staff and employment attorneys to complete certain aspects of your case—depending on which legal option you may choose. If you remain uncomfortable providing any requested information, simply type “WILL PROVIDE LATER,” and that information can be requested at a later time in a manner by which you are comfortable.
In any event, please know that any information or documentation you provide to Hollingshead & Dudley is stored on the firm’s secure, encrypted server, and except as is required by law—such as for filing claims/lawsuits with federal or state governmental entities—will be maintained as strictly confidential by the firm’s staff and attorneys. Please follow Adobe DocuSign’s instructions for filling out the intake form and electronically submitting it to your Hollingshead & Dudley intake specialist.
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