1. Load

   ~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/employment-legal/CLAUDE.md

   → termination review triggers, high-risk flags, severance practice, jurisdiction rules.
2. Use the workflow below.
3. Walk the checklist. Check every high-risk flag.
4. Final pay timing per employee's jurisdiction. Severance + release if applicable.
5. If any high-risk flag fires: escalate per table, don't proceed without sign-off.

• Employee name (or role if staying abstract)
• Jurisdiction (where they work)
• Reason for termination (performance, misconduct, RIF, position elimination)
• How long employed
• Age (relevant to release requirements for older-worker protections)
• Whether any other employees are being terminated as part of the same decisional unit or program (relevant to group-termination release rules)
• When is the planned term date

~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/employment-legal/CLAUDE.md

1. The employee works in a state with a high exempt salary threshold — CA, NY, WA, CO, AK (and any other state listed in

   ~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/employment-legal/CLAUDE.md

   →

   ## Wage & hour

   → Known classification risk areas as a high-threshold state) — AND
2. The employee is classified exempt (salaried, no overtime) — AND
3. The employee's title contains "supervisor," "lead," "coordinator," "analyst," "administrator," or "specialist" (case-insensitive, and any equivalent-scope title the practice profile flags as risky).

🔴 Potential exempt misclassification — [title] earning $[X] in [state]. The exempt salary threshold in [state] is approximately $[Y]

[model knowledge — verify]

. Before termination, route to

/employment-legal:wage-hour-qa

for a classification check — a misclassified employee who's terminated has a ready-made FLSA and state-wage claim with liquidated damages, attorneys' fees, and (in CA) PAGA exposure, which the separation agreement may not be able to release cleanly. A terminated plaintiff with unpaid-OT exposure is the most litigated wage-and-hour fact pattern in these states.

/employment-legal:wage-hour-qa

wage-hour-qa

[verify — consult wage-and-hour counsel before asserting or paying]

~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/employment-legal/CLAUDE.md

Research the applicable rules for the employee's jurisdiction before finalizing the plan. Specifically:

• Final-pay timing — this varies widely by state and often depends on whether the employee was terminated or resigned. Research the currently operative rule, including any waiting-time or late-pay penalties.
• Accrued-PTO payout — research whether the jurisdiction requires payout, and any interaction with accrual-cap or use-it-or-lose-it policies.
• Required notices — research any jurisdiction-specific notices required at termination (e.g., state unemployment, continuation-coverage notices beyond federal COBRA, benefits continuation).
• Mass-layoff / plant-closing notices — research federal WARN Act and any state "mini-WARN" or local ordinance that may apply if this is part of a larger reduction. Coverage thresholds and notice periods differ.

Cite primary sources. Verify currency.

No silent supplement. If a research query to the configured legal research tool returns few or no results for the jurisdiction's final-pay, PTO, notice, or WARN rule, report what was found and stop. Do NOT fill the gap from web search or model knowledge without asking. Say: "The search returned [N] results from [tool]. Coverage appears thin for [jurisdiction / rule]. Options: (1) broaden the search query, (2) try a different research tool, (3) search the web — results will be tagged

[web search — verify]

and should be checked against a primary source before relying, or (4) stop here and flag for attorney verification. Which would you like?" A lawyer decides whether to accept lower-confidence sources.

Source attribution. Tag every citation in the plan — final-pay rule, PTO rule, notices, WARN / mini-WARN, OWBPA consideration periods, state release restrictions — with where it came from:

[Westlaw]

,

[CourtListener]

, or the MCP tool name for citations retrieved from a legal research connector;

[web search — verify]

for web-search citations;

[model knowledge — verify]

for citations recalled from training data;

[user provided]

for citations the user supplied. Citations tagged

verify

carry higher fabrication risk and should be checked first. Never strip or collapse the tags.

~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/employment-legal/CLAUDE.md

• Is severance being offered? Per formula or discretionary?
• Release required? (Usually yes if paying severance — that's the consideration.)

Research the applicable release-consideration rules. If the employee is 40 or over, federal law (OWBPA) imposes specific requirements that affect the consideration period, revocation period, required advisements, and — for group terminations — required decisional-unit disclosures. The specific consideration period differs between an individual termination, a group RIF, and a group exit incentive; the rule also depends on the employee's age and the number of employees affected. Do not state the day count from memory — research the currently operative rule for the specific situation and cite primary sources. Also research any state-law analogs or parallel release requirements. Verify currency.

• State-specific waiver restrictions (some states limit what can be released or require specific language).
• Federal or state restrictions on non-disclosure or non-disparagement clauses that relate to sexual harassment, discrimination, or other protected categories.
• Separation-agreement rules on NLRA-protected activity.

• Is there a paper trail? Written warnings, PIP, feedback docs?
• Does the paper trail tell a consistent story?
• Is there anything in writing that contradicts the reason (recent positive review, bonus, promotion)?

Research-connector pre-flight. Before emitting the memo, check whether a legal research connector is reachable for this session — Westlaw, CourtListener, or any firm-configured research MCP. Collect this into the reviewer note per CLAUDE.md

## Outputs

: if no connector returns results in Step 3 (or none is configured at run time), record it in the Sources: line of the reviewer note — e.g.,

not connected — cites from training knowledge; the highest-fabrication topics in termination-law memos are final-pay timing, OWBPA group/individual distinctions, state-specific NDA / non-disparagement rules (e.g., CA SB 331), and NLRB positions (e.g., McLaren Macomb) — spot-check those first

. Per-citation

[model knowledge — verify]

tags remain inline. Do not emit a standalone banner above the memo.

Jurisdiction assumption. This review assumes the employee's jurisdiction as stated in Step 1 and any defaults from

~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/employment-legal/CLAUDE.md

→ Jurisdictional footprint. Employment rules, final-pay timing, release requirements, and notice obligations vary materially by jurisdiction. If the employee works in a different state or country, or if choice-of-law is contested, this analysis may not apply as written.

~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/employment-legal/CLAUDE.md

[WORK-PRODUCT HEADER — per plugin config ## Outputs — differs by role; see `## Who's using this`]

• Final pay: [researched rule and cite; state whether PTO is included per the researched rule and any team policy]
• Required notices: [list, each researched and cited]
• Mass-layoff notice (if applicable): [researched rule and cite]

• Severance: [amount per formula / none]
• Release: [required / not — if required, research and apply the consideration-period, revocation-period, advisement, and (for groups) decisional-unit-disclosure requirements that govern this specific situation; cite primary sources and verify currency]
• [Any state-law release rules or non-disclosure/non-disparagement restrictions that apply]

• Final paycheck ready, correct amount, delivered per researched rule
• Continuation-coverage notices (COBRA / state analogs) prepared
• [State] unemployment notice prepared
• Severance agreement (if applicable) with the consideration period required for this specific situation
• Return of property / access cutoff coordinated
• [etc.]

undefined

## Who's using this

~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/employment-legal/CLAUDE.md

Terminating an employee has legal consequences — wrongful-termination, discrimination, retaliation, and wage-law claims all trace back to how this decision is structured. Have you reviewed this termination with an attorney? If yes, proceed. If no, here's a brief to bring to them:

• Employee, jurisdiction, reason, planned date
• Every high-risk flag the review surfaced (recent complaint, protected leave, protected class + timing, whistleblower, thin documentation, comparator, contract/handbook promise) — with detail
• Jurisdiction-specific findings (final pay, PTO, required notices, mass-layoff rules) and where they were cited from
• Severance/release analysis, including any OWBPA/older-worker-protection angles
• Open questions and what's unresolved
• What could go wrong (the claim theory this fact pattern supports)
• What to ask the attorney (is this a clean term; do we need more documentation first; does the release need specific language; do we need to stagger decisional units)

If you need to find an attorney, solicitor, barrister, or other authorised legal professional: contact your professional regulator (state bar in the US, SRA/Bar Standards Board in England & Wales, Law Society in Scotland/NI/Ireland/Canada/Australia, or your jurisdiction's equivalent) for a referral service. Employment is one of the practice areas where a short consult before the termination meeting consistently outvalues a post-termination claim defense.

• Make the termination decision. It checks the decision.
• Have the conversation. The manager does that.
• State release or jurisdiction rules from memory — every rule is researched and cited at the time of review.
• Guarantee no lawsuit. It reduces the risk by catching the obvious problems.