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Katherine Hesse, a partner with Murphy, Hesse, Toomey & Lehane, LLP presented for the New England Employee Benefits Council’s webcast titled “New Ways to Work Solutions: Insights & Innovative Tools to Help You Develop Timely Workplace Policies” last month. Her topic was “Legal Considerations for Adapting Employment and Remote Work Policies” and was moderated by Lisa Bertola, Senior Health Consultant at Segal. Nan ONeill, another partner with MHTL joined in to help answer questions at the end of the session. The topics that Ms. Hesse focused on were new CDC guidance, OSHA, state and local reactions, considerations for return-to-work plans with a focus on vaccinations, and remote work considerations. She ended the session with a segment called “what does the future hold?”, where she outlined possible litigations, claims, policies and more that are likely to happen in the future. Other sessions that were held during this webcast were “The Office is Here to Stay, But Its Role Is Set to Change”, “Supporting Your Workers’ Caregiving Responsibilities” and “Creating Experiences that Connect and Support Employees”.

Katherine Hesse is one of the founding partners of Murphy, Hesse, Toomey & Lehane, LLP. Ms. Hesse concentrates her practice primarily in labor and employment and employee benefits law serving as counsel to individuals, business, government, and tax-exempt organizations including hospitals, colleges, churches, and major private and public retirement and health plans. She has litigated numerous employment and benefits cases before the state and federal trial and appellate courts, administrative agencies and arbitrators. Ms. Hesse was a recipient of the Cushing-Gavin Award for excellence in providing management labor relations legal counsel. She also heads the team of attorneys that was named the only firm in New England and one of only eleven in the United States on the special ERISA fiduciary litigation panel for one of the world’s largest insurance companies. Ms. Hesse is a graduate of Smith College and the Boston University School of Law. She is admitted to the Bars of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the District of Columbia, the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and the Supreme Court of the United States.

Ms. ONeill is a Partner at the firm with 30 years of experience counseling and representing employers in all aspects of traditional labor law and employment. She has extensive experience in labor arbitration and litigation of employment-related disputes, including discrimination, sexual harassment and wrongful termination matters, before state and federal courts and administrative agencies. As an employment lawyer, in addition to the litigation of employment-related disputes, Ms. ONeill counsels clients on a day-to-day basis on employment compliance issues. Ms. ONeill is a graduate of Boston College and the Georgetown University Law Center, where she served as Articles and Notes Editor of the American Criminal Law Review.