Introduction

Employment Law, Severance Agreements, and Unemployment Appeals

Improving workers’ lives by protecting their rights has been the passionate cornerstone of Hugh McGavick's legal career for more than 40 years. He feels blessed his career has given him a platform for social justice, a chance to help level the playing field between workers and both private and public employers. Hugh works closely with clients to understand the unique facts and circumstances of their case, because facts win cases, and the best negotiation strategy is full preparation. As a skilled courtroom advocate and negotiator, Hugh prefers to avoid courtroom battles if possible, and to litigate when necessary.

As a semi-retired, senior attorney, Hugh’s strong preference now is handling cases that are much less time intensive than litigation and trial work, though he still has a fair amount of cases in litigation. He now prefers shorter shelf-life cases, with a chance to try to help someone quickly through a difficult situation that may have a huge impact on their life. Severance negotiations and unemployment appeals are now my two preferred areas to be of service.

Severance negotiations: Is your job coming to an end, or already has? Have you been offered or would like to request a severance package? Negotiations near the end of employment can be a critical win-win opportunity for all involved to move forward, with the closure and certainty everyone needs to recalibrate. Sometimes litigation can be avoided through negotiated communication with employers, which can happen as working conditions deteriorate on the job, or instead of litigation. The earlier negotiations give peace a chance, the better for everybody.

Unemployment appeals can be scary, with a lot at stake. Hugh’s successfully handled more than 100 of these appeals for workers between 2020 and 2022, related to the pandemic, most as either a pro bono or low bono volunteer attorney with the excellent non-profit Unemployment Law Project, which is a great resource for both workers and attorneys.