Meeting/Event Information

ADA/FMLA/Workers’ Compensation Overlap – Navigating the Bermuda Triangle of Employment Law

This seminar addresses one of the most challenging areas of employee management – the interaction of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, and workers' compensation law. Through the seminar presentation and discussion, learning objectives include at least the following:  (1) recognizing the distinctions between the ADA, FMLA and workers’ compensation, especially regarding “disability” definitions and appropriate employer responses when an employee disability, injury or other serious health condition is disclosed;  (2) what “reasonable accommodation” means, and when it’s required or at least recommended;  (3) the types of accommodation that might be appropriate under these laws;  (4) how leaves of absence under the ADA, FMLA or workers’ compensation interact with employer leave policies or lack thereof; and  (5) the legal issues and potential “hidden traps” often encountered in situations when two or more of these laws overlap.

ABOUT OUR SPEAKER:

Ken Carlson is a partner with Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete, LLP, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, one of the nation’s oldest labor and employment defense firms with offices in 17 states across the country. Ken is a senior litigator, mediator and arbitrator whose legal practice is concentrated in virtually every aspect of employment law. Most of his practice now consists of serving as a certified mediator, especially in the areas of employment law, covenant not to compete/trade secret matters, FLSA and wage & hour (including collective and class actions), and ERISA issues. Ken also regularly consults with companies in how to avoid legal problems before they occur, and frequently conducts training on appropriate management and employee practices in the workplace.

Ken is consistently named to Business North Carolina’s annual “Legal Elite”, to the list of North Carolina “Super Lawyers,” and to the Best Lawyers in America for labor & employment law and/or alternative dispute resolution. He has repeatedly received the Best Lawyers’ “Lawyer of the Year” recognition in alternative dispute resolution for North Carolina or the Winston-Salem/Greensboro metropolitan area, and is a former chair of the Dispute Resolution Section of the North Carolina Bar Association.

Ken is also a Fellow with the American Bar Foundation, and an adjunct professor at the Wake Forest University School of Law where he teaches courses in negotiation and trade secrets/unfair competition law, and for many years also taught trial practice and advanced trial practice. He has been a frequent speaker through the years at continuing legal education seminars, and has published numerous articles and CLE materials on various employment law topics – including trade secret/unfair competition law and such ADR topics as mediating in a manner to help avoid impasse, “best practices” for a successful mediation, legal ethics in mediation, and the pros and cons of employment law arbitration. Ken received his J.D. degree from the Wake Forest University School of Law, is a 1976 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and also holds a Master of Divinity from Yale University.