Attig Law Firm P.L.L.C

The past few years, our nation has experienced several major disasters, from a major terrorist attack, to a massive regional electrical blackout, to a hurricane which wiped out an entire city. Few small and micro business owners-operators are prepared for such disasters - they rarely have a business continuity plan in place to get their business back on its feet, quickly and efficiently, after disaster strikes. Fewer still have ever heard about a business continuity plan.

A business continuity plan is exactly what it sounds like: “ a plan, prepared before a disaster strikes, that will quickly and efficiently get the business back on its feet and resume services after the disaster strikes. The plan could address anything from massive natural disasters (tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes) to national disasters like terrorist attacks or power grid blackouts to business disasters, like the death or disability of a key officer or operator.

A business plan doesn’t have to be complicated, particularly if you are a smaller operation. In fact, the shorter and more concise it is, the easier it will be to implement. The best continuity plans outline the following information: a) what has to be done after a disaster strikes, b) who will do it, c) how they will do it, and d) what resources are available to help them do it.

By sitting down with a small business attorney now to develop a business continuity plan, the small business owner/operator will get a much clearer picture of what he or she can do today to keep from going under when disaster strikes.

The Attig Law Firm provides Business Continuity plans on a fixed fee basis.  Contact us today for a consultation.

The very general rule among many Federal agencies is that a Federal employee who is terminated during a probationary period has no MSPB appeal right, unless the employee alleges the removal was motivated by discrimination, partisan political reasons, or the employee’s marital status.

That landscape is changing very quickly. A series of Federal Circuit and MSPB decisions dating back to 1989 has started to broaden the protection available to probationary Federal Employees.

While other cases laid the groundwork for the change, McCormick is the lead case. [McCormick v. Department of the Air Force, 307 F.3d 1339, 1342-43 (Fed. Cir. 2002), pet. for reh’g en banc denied, 329 F.3d 1354 (Fed. Cir. 2003).]

In McCormick, the Federal Circuit found that even though the employee was serving a probationary period when she was removed from Federal service, she had an MSPB appeal right since she had completed more than 1 year of “current continuous service” under other than a temporary appointment limited to 1 year or less.

If you aren’t clear on what that means, you’re not alone. The MSPB stated, in a recently published report, “These decisions have complicated the task of determining whether an individual serving a probationary or trial period has pre-termination procedural and post-termination appeal rights.”

One thing is clear, however: the Board will be looking a little closer at whether or not a particular probationary employee has an appeal right, and if so, whether that employee was afforded the proper procedural due process. In their report, the Board stated: “Agencies must now proceed with caution when terminating probationary employees because the cost of violating a probationer’s pre-termination procedural rights can be high.”

If you are a probationary employee, and you have been removed or think you are about to be removed, the best thing you can do is talk to a Federal Employee attorney familiar with the rules, procedures and decisions of the MSPB.

I read one Sports Law Blogger’s comment on Cal Ripken’s recent election to the Hall of Fame:

“Cal Ripken[’s] consecutive-games-played streak [is] something associates should try and emulate to when deciding whether they should come into work on a given day, no matter how sick they feel or what the doctor tells them to do…”

I think I know what the blogger was trying to say, but I think the way it came out sounds cliche and trite. To be quite honest, though, I get a little tired of seeing Cal Ripken as the Poster Child for the “Great American Work Ethic”.

Ripken will probably be the first to tell you that he wasn’t trying to set any records. I don’t know the man, but I’m sure he’d say he wasn’t trying to win any medals for having a great “work ethic”. Instead, I think he’d probably tell you that, even in the hard times, going to work at shortstop every game for 2,632 games was easier because he loved what he did.

For many years, I have kept a photo of Cal Ripken in my office; even in law school, I kept his photo above the desk where I studied (I also keep a photo of Roger Clemens, but that’s another story altogether.) When times get rough, or when I feel like I don’t want to be at work doing what I’m doing, I often look at the picture and think for a minute.

I don’t think “What would Cal do?” and I certainly don’t think “If Cal can do it, I can do it”.  What I do think is this: “Chris - are you enjoying what you’re doing?”

When I enjoy my work, sticking with it in hard times is a little easier. If I don’t want to show up for work when things get nasty, maybe it’s because I’m not enjoying what I’m doing.   If it ever stops being fun, then maybe I’d have to consider moving on.

That’s the real lesson of Cal Ripken. One that Carl Pavano would do well to learn (at least the moving on part).

Chances are you’ve been told that your small business is going to be hurt the most by the proposed minimum wage increase.  Chances are, you are getting bad information.

Many politicians and organizations “ even those claiming to advocate the interests of small business owners “ speak out both sides of their mouth. Here’s my favorite from the National Federation of Independent Businesses:

NFIB Website:Â Most minimum-wage jobs are offered by small business.

NFIB Spokesman Mike Donohue was quoted in Inc. in December 2006: “A majority of workers are in states where the minimum wage is already higher, so it’s not going to be felt [by small business] that much.”

I wonder sometimes if the folks at NFIB just think we’re dumb.