2026 Labor & Employment Law Seminar

11:00 a.m.
Check-In Opens for Optional Pre-Seminar Lunch Workshop

11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Weeding Through the Gray: Drug Testing and Accommodation Obligations Involving Medical Marijuana
Pamela J. Bourne and Ashley H. Connell, Attorneys, Woods Aitken

Medical marijuana has been federally reclassified—and for employers that has created more questions than answers. While the law is evolving, accommodation requests, safety concerns, drug testing disputes, and policy enforcement issues are landing squarely on employers with no simple answers. This fast-paced practical session tackles the questions employers are facing right now: Should we still drug test for marijuana, and if so, under what circumstances? When does medical marijuana trigger accommodation obligations? When does it not? How do employers reconcile disability laws with safety-sensitive jobs, zero-tolerance policies, and federal compliance requirements?

Using real world scenarios and recent enforcement trends, this session focuses on defensible decision making—not theory. The focus is not on abstract legal standards, but on how managers, business owners, and HR professionals can make consistent, defensible decisions when the law offers gray answers at best. Come for the controversy; leave with practical tools you can use immediately.

Labor & Employment Law Seminar

12:30 p.m.
Check-In Opens for Labor & Employment Law Seminar

1:00 p.m.-1:45 p.m.
Top Wage & Hour Pitfalls
Jerry L. Pigsley, Attorney, Woods Aitken

Wage and hour compliance remains one of the most common—and costly—sources of employment litigation. This session will help employers identify and avoid frequent wage and hour mistakes that can lead to liability under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) and Nebraska’s Wage Payment and Collection Act. Topics will include calculating the employee’s regular rate of pay for overtime, common timekeeping challenges (such as off-the-clock work, compensable travel and training time, and compliant wage statements) and proper application of overtime exemptions.

Think this session is only for payroll? Think again. Wage and hour compliance begins with anyone who directly supervises employees. Through real-world examples and practical guidance, attendees will gain strategies for improving compliance, ensuring accurate recordkeeping, and reducing the risk of wage and hour claims.

1:45 p.m.-2:30 p.m.
Interplay of FMLA, ADA, and Workers’ Compensation
Addison C. McCauley, Attorney, Woods Aitken

Few situations create more confusion—and more risk—than an employee whose circumstances trigger the Family and Medical Leave Act ("FMLA"), the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"), and workers' compensation all at once. Each law has its own rules, timelines, and obligations, and they rarely line up neatly. This session breaks down how these three laws overlap, where they conflict, and what employers must do to stay compliant across all three.

Through real-world scenarios—eligibility, leave requests, return-to-work issues, accommodation demands, and light-duty questions—attendees will learn how to coordinate overlapping obligations, avoid common missteps, and make consistent, defensible decisions when all three laws are in play.

2:30 p.m.-2:45 p.m.
Break

2:45 p.m.-3:30 p.m.
If It Isn't Written Down, It Didn't Happen: Documentation for Defensible Decisions
Ashley H. Connell, Attorney, Woods Aitken

When a decision is challenged, the documentation, or lack of it, often makes or breaks the employer’s defense. This session gets back to basics on the fundamentals of effective documentation—focusing on best practices for performance management, disciplinary action, and workplace investigations. Attendees will learn what to document, when to document it, and how to write it in a way that is clear, factual, and legally defensible.

Through real-world examples of the good, the bad, and the indefensible, attendees will learn how to avoid common documentation mistakes, such as vague or conclusory language, inconsistent enforcement, and gaps that undermine credibility, and will leave with practical tools for building a record that supports consistent, defensible decisions.

3:30 p.m.-4:15 p.m.
Employment Law Jeopardy—Practical Everyday Scenarios
Pamela J. Bourne, Attorney, and Emily P. Obert, Clerk, Woods Aitken

Get back to basics and put your knowledge to the test in this fast-paced, jeopardy-style game show. In this interactive session, teams of audience members take center stage as contestants, working through practical, everyday workplace scenarios across categories drawn from the issues employers face most in hiring and firing, leave and accommodation, wage and hour, discipline, and more. Through friendly competition and real-world hypotheticals, attendees will reinforce key employment law fundamentals, learn how to spot common pitfalls, and walk away with practical answers they can apply immediately. Come ready to play, laugh, and learn.

4:15 p.m.
Closing Remarks