2118 Old Lakeshore Rd., Burlington, Ontario L7R 1A3
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905-491-6888
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smendelssohn@watershedlaw.ca
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Our Practice Areas

Our Practice Areas 2017-09-14T17:58:22+00:00

Expertise in Labour and Employment Related Issues

Watershed Law Professional Corporation takes a personal approach with each of our practice areas. By working with us, you can rest assured that we have the expertise to meet your needs and a billing philosophy that offers options including traditional hourly rates, fixed fees, day rates and retainers. We pride ourselves on providing our clients with the ability to budget and manage their costs accordingly, rather than being left with the uncertainty of having to plan for contingencies.

Day-to-Day Legal Services

We provide timely and practical human resources and labour relations support to management on a broader range of day-to-day issues – recognizing that many of the matters we are retained for are sensitive and require immediate attention. We are committed to partnering with our clients to ensure that they are provided with cost-effective and practical advice to assist in managing their day-to-day workplace issues.

In providing day-to-day advice to our clients, we view our role as one of identifying legally possible options rather than simply pointing out problems and risk.

Among other things we assist clients in the following areas:

Hiring

We assist our clients through the entire hiring process, from recruitment to drafting the employment agreement and developing other hiring documentation.

Termination

Get the advice you need with respect to individual and group terminations. We support with the documentation required for these difficult business decisions to ensure our clients’ interests are protected, while navigating the legal challenges and litigation risks.

Ongoing Employment Relationship

We’re prepared to support you with legal advice on employment standards, altering or modifying policies, practices and conditions of employment, progressive discipline, attendance and absenteeism management, and accommodation under the Human Rights Code. For our unionized clients, we also provide advice and support on a full range of collective agreement administration issues from interpretation to discipline and discharge, to managing the relationship with the union.

Workplace Restructuring and Reorganization

Our experience as counsel or as the lead in-house human resources practitioner in workplace restructuring initiatives (small or large, union or non-union) is extensive. Through this service offering, we share our specialized knowledge and experience dealing with the implementation of these complex matters. We realize change in the workplace raises a host of business and employee concerns and are focused on solutions that help you minimize disruption and cost.

Collective Bargaining

In unionized workplaces, the collective agreement sets out the terms and conditions of employment. Unlike any other negotiation, collective bargaining creates a unique workplace environment. There is an underlying tension between developing work rules that support the business direction and competitive position while still fostering a long-term relationship with the employees and union officials. In any other negotiation, you can walk away and develop a new business relationship with other parties. In collective bargaining, the employer, the union and its members are bound to one another. At Watershed Law, we believe that thorough preparation and analysis, a sound understanding of both short-term and long-term business objectives, and proper management of the relationship at the bargaining table will allow our clients to meet their business objectives.

Workplace investigations

We have extensive experience working with clients, employers and other law firms to conduct workplace investigations into a host of alleged conduct violations. The policies we support with regularity include workplace harassment, violence, bullying, fraud and other conduct potentially giving rise to discipline or discharge.

Training and Development

We provide customized and interactive training that incorporates substantive legal content with practical exercises and plain language. Our training is highly interactive with hands-on and relevant exercises that encourage collaboration and group learning. We approach training in a highly practical and relevant way that meets the various needs of our clients. Because of this, we custom-design the training for your organization. We firmly believe that one of the greatest opportunities for business is to ensure that front-line supervisors and managers are well versed on identifying and managing complex workplace issues.

It was a shock to us when two of our dental clinics chose to join the union

I interviewed a number of lawyers who would be able to act on my behalf, and Steve’s enthusiasm, passion and commitment to the process stood out to me and my wife. When we first met with Steve in person, he was up front in setting and managing my expectations, and preaching patience in order to achieve our desired outcome. Having never been through this process, it was great to work with someone who was so responsive in answering questions, phone calls and e-mails to ensure that we were completely aligned throughout the process.

Steve laid out a strategy at the outset and carried out our instructions in order to meet our expectations. Steve was a pleasure to work with and his counsel, advice and experience allowed us to maintain our non-union status. He is truly a subject-matter expert on labour relations and collective bargaining. Steve continues to provide advice and counsel to us on employment related matters and he has become very active in working within the dental community. It is my pleasure to continue to refer others to Steve and to have him as a trusted advisor.

Vik Soota, President, We Care Dental

Denninger’s was referred to Steve by a competitor in our industry

We are extremely thankful for the introduction and the opportunity to work with Steve. In late 2015, our plant was organized and we were required to negotiate a first collective agreement. At the very first meeting, Steve took his time to understand the issues, our objectives and how to support us in this process. At the bargaining table he was firm, respectful, was able to anticipate the Union tactics and in my opinion, was two steps ahead of the Union at all times. Steve has long standing relationships with many of the Union officials that we worked with. Although our bargaining was tough, he was able to maintain these relationships throughout the process.

In early 2017, our Associates decertified and today Steve is our lead Employment Law lawyer. He continues to provide strong legal and practical support to our now non-union business. I firmly believe that we would not have achieved this result without his expertise. He was practical, ethical and a tremendous support to Denninger’s.

Over the last year and a half, I have had the opportunity to get to know him well. Steve has a very high level of integrity and, in addition, is a kind and compassionate person. One of Denninger’s guiding principles is to “build and sustain trusted partnerships with our diverse community of vendors” and these are among attributes that we look for with our vendors and service providers.

Mary S. Aduckiewicz, Chief Executive Officer – R Denninger Limited

Steve was instrumental in navigating through a complex process at The Keg

As a franchisor, we have 93 non-union locations across the country. One of our stores organized at the end of 2015, and not having any experience in labour relations we retained Steve to assist in the process of negotiating the first collective agreement. Steve was instrumental in assisting us in navigating through a long and complex process. His passion for collective bargaining, presence as a subject matter expert and calm demeanor gave us complete confidence that we could achieve our objectives through the collective bargaining process. We couldn’t have been happier with the result that was achieved, as we continue to run 100% of our locations as a non-union Employer. We could not have done this without his strategic approach and judgement throughout the process. The decision to retain counsel on these important matters is of paramount importance. Any employer would be well served by engaging Steve as a subject-matter expert.

Dean Sockett, VP People and Culture – Keg Restaurants Ltd.

Steve was instrumental in navigating through a complex process at The Keg

As a franchisor, we have 93 non-union locations across the country. One of our stores organized at the end of 2015, and not having any experience in labour relations we retained Steve to assist in the process of negotiating the first collective agreement. Steve was instrumental in assisting us in navigating through a long and complex process. His passion for collective bargaining, presence as a subject matter expert and calm demeanor gave us complete confidence that we could achieve our objectives through the collective bargaining process. We couldn’t have been happier with the result that was achieved, as we continue to run 100% of our locations as a non-union Employer. We could not have done this without his strategic approach and judgement throughout the process. The decision to retain counsel on these important matters is of paramount importance. Any employer would be well served by engaging Steve as a subject-matter expert.

Dean Sockett, VP People and Culture – Keg Restaurants Ltd.

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