Employer Lawyers Who Protect Your Organization and Your Bottom Line

An employment lawyer for employers advises and represents businesses, organizations, and HR professionals on all aspects of workplace law. This includes drafting employment contracts, advising on terminations and severance, conducting or overseeing workplace investigations, defending against wrongful dismissal and human rights claims, and representing employers before courts and tribunals.

At Achkar Law, our employer lawyers also provide proactive HR guidance, helping organizations build compliant policies and practices that reduce the likelihood of disputes arising in the first place.

Employers should contact an employment lawyer before making significant decisions, not after. The most common situations that benefit from early legal advice include terminating an employee (especially a long-service or senior employee), receiving a complaint of harassment or discrimination, conducting a workplace investigation, responding to a Ministry of Labour audit, and drafting or updating employment contracts.

Early advice is almost always less expensive than fixing a problem that has already escalated. If you are unsure whether your situation warrants a call, it usually does.

Severance obligations in Ontario depend on several factors, including the employee's length of service, age, position, and the terms of their employment contract. Under the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA), employees may be entitled to termination pay, severance pay, or both. At common law, courts often award significantly more than the ESA minimums, sometimes referred to as "reasonable notice."

The only reliable way to determine your severance obligations for a specific employee is to get legal advice based on the facts of that situation. Achkar Law regularly advises employers on severance calculations and how to structure defensible termination packages.

Yes. Employers in Ontario and British Columbia can generally terminate an employee without cause, provided they give the employee proper notice or pay in lieu of notice. The amount owed depends on the employee's contract, their length of service, and applicable legislation.

However, without-cause terminations can still give rise to wrongful dismissal claims if the notice offered is insufficient, if the termination is conducted improperly, or if an employee argues constructive dismissal. Legal advice before a termination significantly reduces your exposure.

Constructive dismissal occurs when an employer makes a significant and unilateral change to an employee's working conditions, such as a demotion, pay cut, change in duties, or hostile work environment, to the point where the employee is effectively forced to resign. Courts treat this as a dismissal, and the employer may owe the same damages as if the employee had been terminated.

Constructive dismissal claims often arise unexpectedly from decisions that seem routine, like restructuring a role or changing reporting lines. Employers should get legal advice before implementing significant changes to terms of employment.

Yes. Achkar Law has offices in Toronto, Ottawa, and Vancouver and serves employers across Ontario and British Columbia. We regularly advise and represent employers remotely using secure telecommunications, meaning your location within these provinces is not a barrier to getting focused, experienced employer-side legal advice.

Our employment lawyers represent employers before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB), the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO), the Ministry of Labour, the BC Human Rights Tribunal, the BC Employment Standards Branch, and arbitration panels under collective agreements. We also handle appeals to the Divisional Court and the Court of Appeal for Ontario where necessary.