Terminations & Severance
Guidance on structuring individual dismissals and severance packages to minimize legal exposure.
Learn more Ongoing HR Advisory
Outsourced employment counsel for your business.
Not every workplace question needs a full-time legal department, but most need more than a Google search. We act as your employment counsel, giving you practical answers to day-to-day issues before they become disputes.
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Ongoing HR Advisory for Employers
In-house judgment, without the in-house cost
Growing businesses face a steady stream of employment questions, a difficult termination, an accommodation request, a leave, a performance problem, a policy question, a threatened complaint, but rarely have the volume to justify in-house employment counsel. We fill that gap: a knowledgeable, responsive point of contact with extensive experience as in-house counsel, who already understands your business and can give you a straight answer when you need one.
The kind of questions we handle
- How to manage a performance or discipline issue without creating a claim
- Responding to human rights and other accommodation requests, and managing leaves
- Handling a harassment or human rights discrimination complaint, including when to investigate
- Whether, and how, to terminate a specific employee
- Day-to-day contract, policy, and employment-standards questions
- Early guidance when an employee raises a legal threat or complaint
- How to prepare for terminations and recommend severance budgets
The value of ongoing advice is timing. Most employment disputes are far cheaper to prevent than to defend; a five-minute call before a termination or a difficult conversation routinely avoids a much larger claim after it. Having counsel who knows your business on hand is what makes that possible.
Grounded in in-house experience
Before founding the firm, Simon Pelsmakher served as senior legal counsel at a major multinational company with over 10,000 employees, working alongside HR leadership on exactly these issues. That perspective means advice that's not just legally correct, but practical to actually implement in a real workplace.
How it works
Engagements are flexible: an ongoing retainer for regular access, or simply as-needed support when something comes up. Either way, you get advice from someone who knows your business, not a stranger starting from scratch each time.
How we help
- Serve as your go-to contact for day-to-day employment questions
- Guide sensitive terminations, accommodations, and complaints in real time
- Keep your contracts and policies current as the law changes
- Step in early to contain issues before they escalate
- Respond to demand letters from terminated employees
- Provide full representation throughout employment or human rights litigation
Ongoing HR Advisory FAQs
Common questions about ongoing advisory.
Practical, Canadian-law guidance for employers who want a go-to point of contact, across Ontario and Canada.
Practical, cost-effective, and accessible advice for the employment issues that come up in running a business: terminations, discipline, accommodations, leaves, complaints, and contract or policy questions. The goal is to give you a knowledgeable point of contact who already understands your business.
Not necessarily; we work both on ongoing retainers and on an as-needed basis. The right arrangement depends on how often issues come up. We're flexible and nimble in our approach, and the aim is quick access to practical advice when you need it.
Yes. Many employers come to us for a single difficult situation, a termination, a complaint, an accommodation, and decide from there whether ongoing support makes sense. There's no obligation to commit to more than the matter at hand.
It's designed for exactly that. Smaller employers get the benefit of experienced employment counsel without the cost of a full-time in-house legal team, paying only for the advice they actually need. Pelsmakher Law has the technical and practical experience to support businesses of all sizes and industries.
Consultation
Need a go-to employment lawyer?
We'll give you practical answers to your day-to-day workplace questions, without the overhead.
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