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Katherine Hesse, a partner with Murphy, Hesse, Toomey & Lehane, LLP presented for the New England Home Care and Hospice Conference virtually last month. Her topic was “Legal Considerations Moving from the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency. Rachel Mills, an associate at MHTL assisted with answering questions at the end of the session. The topics that Ms. Hesse focused on were employee compensation, flexible schedules and what remote-work policies look like going forward. Potential legal implications agency might face when addressing staff vaccination hesitancy was also discussed. Katherine Hesse 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, before joining a virtual speed networking event with Attorney Mills. Other sessions that were held during this webcast were “Revolutionizing Clinician Retention with a Points Compensation Model”, “Blind Spots of Diversity, Inclusion & Implicit Bias’ Caregiving Responsibilities” and “Implementing a Unique Palliative Care Program”.

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. Mills Ms. Mills practices in the areas of labor and employment and municipal law. In her labor and employment practice, Ms. Mills represents both private and public employers. Ms. Mills has done work in the areas of land use, public records, open meeting law, and conflict of interest law. Ms. Mills has also represented municipalities in various litigation matters, including zoning enforcement and contract disputes. Ms. Mills graduated summa cum laude from Boston College in 2016 with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a minor in French. She received her Juris Doctorate from Northeastern University School of Law in 2019. During law school, Ms. Mills participated in the Prisoners’ Rights Clinic and was a member of the Law Review. She held internships at the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts working with Magistrate Judge Kelley and at Veterans Legal Services in Boston. Prior to joining the firm full time, Ms. Mills served as a summer associate at MHTL during her time in law school. She is a member of the Massachusetts Municipal Lawyers Association.