MT|SHRM Monthly Chapter Meeting

Managing Employee Leave: A Practical Legal Playbook for HR

Presented by Emily Mack, Partner, Burr and Forman LLP

Managing employee leave has never been more complex. With overlapping federal, state, and local requirements—and heightened enforcement and litigation risk—HR professionals must be equipped to navigate leave administration with precision and confidence. This program provides a practical, in-depth look at today’s leave landscape, focusing on how core federal laws such as the FMLA and ADA/ADAAA intersect with paid family and medical leave, paid sick leave, and pregnancy accommodation laws across jurisdictions.

Participants will gain actionable guidance on building compliant leave policies and workflows, from intake and designation to intermittent leave tracking, benefits continuation, medical certifications, and return-to-work practices. The session will also address common compliance traps, including interference, retaliation, attendance policies, and documentation missteps that can expose employers to risk.

Through real-world scenarios and interactive discussion, attendees will learn how to manage complex and sensitive situations—such as coordinating ADA accommodations when leave is exhausted, evaluating modified schedules or remote work as reasonable accommodations, addressing suspected abuse, and handling pregnancy, postpartum, mental health, and safety-sensitive roles—using a defensible, well-documented interactive process. This session is designed to help HR leaders confidently administer leave, reduce risk, and support employees while maintaining operational consistency across multi-jurisdiction workforces.

Learning Objectives:

• Master the legal framework: Understand how federal laws (e.g., FMLA, ADA/ADAAA) interact with state and local paid family and medical leave, paid sick leave, and pregnancy accommodation laws, including eligibility, coverage, notice, certification, reinstatement, and recent legal developments impacting multi-jurisdiction workforces.
• Administer leave compliantly and reduce risk: Build and implement compliant policies and workflows for intake, designation, intermittent/overlapping leave tracking, benefits continuation, medical certifications and fitness-for-duty, and return-to-work; identify and avoid interference, retaliation, and attendance-related pitfalls.
• Navigate complex scenarios with confidence: Coordinate ADA accommodations when leave is exhausted, evaluate modified schedules/remote work/extended leave as reasonable accommodations, manage concurrent leave entitlements, address suspected abuse, and handle specialized cases (pregnancy and postpartum needs, mental health, safety-sensitive roles) through a defensible, well-documented interactive process.

Schedule:

8:30 a.m. – Registration, Breakfast and Networking
8:50 a.m. – Welcome, Sponsor Introduction
9:00 a.m. – Program Presentation
10:00 a.m. – Meeting Concludes

Certification:1 SHRM and HRCI CEU

Meet Our Speaker - Emily Mack, Partner, Burr and Forman LLP

Emily handles employment law and complex litigation matters. She has defended claims for wrongful discharge, retaliation, discrimination, harassment, wage and hour, business torts, trade secrets, and other complex matters arising from a variety of laws. She has also handled appeals at the state and federal levels and appeared before numerous state and federal agencies. She has considerable experience drafting employee contracts, non-competes, handbooks, and policies, and providing in-depth training to clients.

Thank You To Our Sponsor For Making This Event Possible. 

Learn more about our sponsor here!