Randall Scott Hetrick

Scott Hetrick is the Labor and Employment Team Leader at Adams and Reese. Scott leads a team of labor and employment attorneys across 20 offices who represent private and governmental employers in all federal, state, and local issues, and advises employers on the legal ramifications and potential exposure that may impact their business and operations.

Practicing law for 30 years, Scott is a management rights advocate who represents employers with federal and state labor and employment law compliance and dispute resolution.

Scott counsels employers with an eye to preventing claims arising from day-to-day employment decisions, particularly terminations of employees and large-scale layoffs. 

Scott also represents insurers with analysis of their defense and coverage obligations under a wide variety of insurance policies, including commercial liability, errors and omissions, property and casualty and liquor liability, in a wide range of third-party claims against their insureds.

Human Resources Policies and Procedures

An important component of Scott’s practice involves drafting and revising employee handbooks, personnel policies and procedures (attendance/payroll, leave of absence, conduct, etc.),  background check disclosure and consent agreements, and employment contracts, including non-compete agreements, trade secret agreements and arbitration agreements.  

Scott advises employers on individual employee discharges (of employees at levels from the CEO on down), mass layoffs of numerous employees, employee requests for accommodations and leaves of absence, appropriate levels of discipline, etc. He drafts and reviews termination letters, requests for medical information letters, and similar communications from employers to employees related to personnel issues. He also advises on severance and release agreements at termination of employment.

Scott coordinates employer obligations and best practices under federal disability/medical leave laws and state workers’ compensation laws while, at the same time, advising on how to navigate conflicting obligations under those laws to avoid litigation.  

Scott works with employers across all industries to tailor their human resources policies and procedures specific to their line of business and operations. He helps employers to run their companies in compliance with labor and employment laws by providing training to managers, supervisors and employees on discrimination and harassment prevention. 

Defense of Employers Against Federal and State Agencies

Scott defends employers and management decisions against legal challenge covering a wide array of claims pending with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Mobile County Personnel Board, the Alabama Department of Labor, and in state and federal courts.

He assists employers with investigations and audits of wage and hour law compliance by the U.S. Department of Labor and litigates discrimination and retaliation lawsuits and minimum wage and overtime law claims in federal and state courts.

In addition, Scott has extensive experience with assisting United States government contractors and subcontractors with their affirmative action plans and responding to compliance audits of those plans by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP). He has prepared more than 200 affirmative action plans and defended against more than 15 OFCCP compliance audits.

Published Author and Frequent Speaker on Employment Law

Scott speaks frequently on employment law and human resource management issues at seminars for personnel managers and business owners. He has also published numerous articles on employment law topics.

Most recently, Scott wrote a three-part series on Paid Family Medical Leave, analyzing the states that have mandatory PFML laws and those that have voluntary PFML laws in place.

Scott has also written on overtime rules, employee accommodation requests, discrimination rulings, and compliance with federal and state agencies. His articles have been published by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), HR Daily Advisor, Salary.com, JDSupra, Birmingham Business Journal, among other national, local publications, and labor and employment media.