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Employee handbooks are critical for employers in today’s litigious world. Drafted properly, they are an essential bulwark against employee claims for liability. Yet drafted improperly, they can have the opposite effect. This informative webinar will explain the difference by focusing on three learning objectives:
- Key disclaimers and policies to include in handbooks, including in today’s increasingly remote-work environment;
- Phrases and terms never to include in handbooks; and
- What courts have said about these issues.
About Austin Riter:
Austin Riter is a commercial litigator. He has broad experience representing clients in an array of complex business and commercial litigation matters, including First Amendment, employment, intellectual property, appellate, contract, tort, real property, securities, and other general business disputes. He has particular expertise in First Amendment and media litigation, including open records laws, access to court proceedings, defamation, and privacy; and in public and private employment law, including employment contracts and policies and procedures, employee misconduct, investigations, termination and discipline, and civil rights.
Mr. Riter is a member of the American Law Institute, a frequent lecturer on federal courts and media and employment law-related issues, and an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law. He also dedicates a significant portion of his practice to pro bono legal work, including helping to staff the Utah Freedom of Information Hotline at Parr Brown, which provides free legal assistance to Utah journalists; representing plaintiffs in civil rights and wrongful conviction cases; and representing children as a Utah Private Guardian ad Litem in cases involving issues of custody, visitation, abuse, or neglect.
Mr. Riter’s experience includes trial and appellate litigation, mediation, and arbitration, and he is admitted to all state and federal courts in the State of Utah as well as the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. His philosophy for his law practice is to be a problem solver for his clients, helping them to find legal and practical solutions to their disputes in a cost-effective manner.
From 2013-2020, Mr. Riter has been named to the Mountain States Super Lawyers list, a recognition received by the top five percent of Utah lawyers each year. He has most recently been recognized by Utah Business magazine as one of Utah’s Legal Elite “Up & Coming” lawyers. Mr. Riter was included in the 2022-2023 editions of The Best Lawyers in America® for Labor and Employment Litigation.
