Adam Torres and Alan Crone discuss employment law.
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Show Notes:
The Crone Law Firm is one of the few law firms in Memphis and the Mid-South to focus exclusively on employment law matters. In this episode, Adam Torres and Alan Crone, Founder and CEO of The Crone Law Firm. Explore employment law basics and what business owners need to know.
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About Alan Crone
Mr. Crone is an attorney in Memphis, Tennessee. He is licensed to practice in Tennessee and Arkansas. His practice is focused on disputes involving business issues including disputes between employers and employees, involving intellectual property, and other commercial issues. His experience as Chief Counsel for the Tennessee Department of Employment Security and his years in private practice prepare him to help his clients resolve many diverse and challenging disputes.
Mr. Crone has served as lead counsel in a nationwide class action Fair Labor Standards Act suit, successfully represented employees and employers in cases involving Title VII (race, gender, and other discrimination), age discrimination, the Americans with Disabilities Act, non-compete contract, on the job injuries, ERISA, union representation, union organizing, and other employment related issues. He has represented his clients in Federal District Courts and state courts all over the country. He’s been a speaker at national conventions and regional conferences.
About The Crone Law Firm
Attorneys at The Crone Law Firm are dedicated to serving the needs of individuals who find themselves tangled in a dispute. Having been on both sides of dozens of types of disputes, we understand your situations well. And we have a number of techniques and philosophies that help us to help you, including our dedicated team approach.
The firm concentrates on employment law, business law, wrongful termination, and business formation. So when a legal issue arises in one of our areas of expertise you can count on our team to deliver the sound advice, innovative approaches and creative solutions that your business or you personally need to protect your interests.
Licensed to practice in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas both in state and federal courts, attorneys at the firm of The Crone Law Firm are ready to take on employment cases locally, regionally and nationally.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to mission matters.com and click on Be Our Guest to Apply. All right, today I have Alan Krone of the Line, and he’s founder and CEO of Theron Law Firm, a welcome to the show.
Uh, thank you very much, uh, Adam. I’m, uh, glad to be here. Looking forward to our convers. All right. Uh, well, I’m excited to have you on the line today and, uh, we don’t get to talk to, to Memphis all the time, so I, I’m looking forward to having some fun today and getting into your firm and also into your background.
Um, but before we do any of that, we’ll start this episode the way that we start them all with our mission matters minute. So, Alan, we at Mission Matters. We amplify stories for entrepreneurs, executives, and experts. That’s our. Alan, what mission matters to yield? You know, at the Kron Law Firm, our mission is to help, uh, employees, executives, and entrepreneurs in legal matters that affect their ability, uh, to be breadwinners and pursue the American dream.
Yeah. Um, it’s a great mission and I’m glad to have you on the phone to, uh, and on the line to really highlight it and talk about, um, maybe some of the rights and some of the things that people think about when these situations arise. Cuz there, there are options. So I’m, I’m glad to have you on and maybe just to get us kick.
Off here. Um, a lot of things you can do when you go through law school. A lot of different, you know, types of law. You can practice a lot of different directions. Um, tell us a little bit more about your decision to kind of go this route and phone and found Theron Law Firm. Well, that’s a, that’s a, a long story.
Uh, but I, you know, I think it really starts with my, uh, decision to pursue employment law and like a lot of things, you know, whether it’s the medical field, Legal field or other similar fields. You know, your first job kind of shapes, uh, what you do. And, uh, I, my first job I had a lot of, uh, employment law assignments, along with other assignments, and I really enjoyed employment law.
First of all, it’s, it’s never boring. It’s like having a ringside seat in the assistant principal’s office of a high school, , you know, all the drama, all the drama comes through hr, right? So, Hmm. Um, so I enjoyed that part of it. It was never dull. And then the other thing about it is it’s so incredibly important.
It’s incredibly important for, for a company to have good employment practices because it’s good business. Mm-hmm. . And it’s incredibly important for. Employees and executives that they be treated fairly. Cause your job is the most important relationship you have, uh, except for your, uh, uh, significant other, your spouse, your mm-hmm , your partner, life partner or what have you, and the financial, economic and lifestyle.
um, implications of being either treated unfairly at work or unjustly fired or not being successful. The stakes are too high, uh, not to, uh, pursue your rights when you need to. Hmm. And so, you know, Fast forward a bit. Uh, so you, you obviously started, um, or as you mentioned, you initially had a lot of employment, um, a lot of, a lot of cases to deal with employment law, and at some point, um, you kind of, I guess in, in other forms of business, we have oftentimes say you, you know, you, you, you niche down.
So can you maybe talk about, you know, little bit more about your news? Cause I just wanna be clear to make sure everybody follows. So, is this things like being unlawfully fired or sexually harassed or like other things discriminated against? Is this kind of part of the specialty? That’s, uh, part of what we do.
Uh, we also, uh, represent folks that are subject to non-compete, uh, agreements. Mm-hmm. . We also from time to time, enforce non-compete agreements or help folks that are owners of businesses. sometimes they, they have to get divorced from their, uh, their business partner. We call those business divorces, and we work on those.
We do a lot of HR compliance. It’s, it is basically any legal, uh, dispute or matter that affects your ability to make money. So, mm-hmm. , uh, we draw the line. We don’t do any, uh, family law, but, um mm-hmm. , you know, we represent entrepreneurs and, and help them with their business. . We don’t re, we don’t represent a lot of big companies mm-hmm.
because we just don’t feel that’s our mission. We represent, um, people and some of those people may own businesses, so we help ’em with that. Mm-hmm. , so, you know, I’ve got probably a more expansive definition of employment law than a lot of lawyers would have. Um mm-hmm. . But again, I try to, as you say, I’ve, I’ve niched down, uh, to that.
And it’s something that we really, really enjoy. and, uh, most of our clients are, uh, executives or employees, uh, looking for, uh, help navigating both legal and practical waters with, um, you know, with their employer. . Hmm. Now, I feel like when it comes to employment law, and I don’t, I don’t wanna stereotype, but many times people, you know, kind of get them, employers specifically get themselves, you know, on the wrong side of that because sometimes they, they just don’t know.
Or like they, a lot of times people aren’t like, Trying to do something incorrect. Um, and now there’s the outliers of course. Um, but you know, many times that’s not the case. Maybe somebody’s getting themselves in trouble just cause they simply didn’t know about a particular law or a particular policy or something that they’re supposed to be doing.
Um, I don’t wanna generalize too much, and I’m obviously, this is only a podcast interview, so we recommend people get, you know, specific advice by. Following up and calling you to ask questions or otherwise, but, um, in general, how do, like where do you, are there any themes or things that you find that maybe kind of come up over and over and over again as you kind of go through your day-to-day when it comes to business owners just being kind of caught off guard, um, for lack of better words there?
Well, I think the, the classic example, uh, is incom. Mm. The, the Fair Labor Standards Act, which is essentially the minimum wage and overtime law is very complicated. It’s got a lot of regulations to it, and that’s probably the area where most, uh, business folks get, uh, unintentionally or unwittingly on the, on the wrong side of, of the law or wrong side of compliance.
And, and so I, I, most organizations of any. Probably as we speak, have a overtime violation brewing in their, in their, uh, workforce. Mm-hmm. , just because it’s so hard to, um, you know, to properly apply those laws. And it doesn’t matter what your, your job description says. Oftentimes it matters what’s going on in your business.
And so you can have a job des. that’s perfectly in compliant. But if you’ve got a manager, let’s say, who’s asking people to work, you know, off the clock, or you have a manager that, um, has deleted some duties for a particular person that, uh, that position would’ve been, um, exempt from overtime, but because you deleted some of.
Judgment and autonomy. They’re no longer exempt from overtime. So that, that would be in, in terms of what’s the most unintentionally violated, it’s probably the wage and hour loss. Now, your, the name of your podcast is perfect for my philosophy because I really believe that on a grander scale, most businesses, uh, get in trouble because they, they don’t understand what their mission.
and they’re not organized around their mission. And, and so a lot of the things that you talk about in employment law, sexual harassment, racial discrimination, age discrimination, retaliation, all of those things, uh, could be avoided. If your first question was, is the decision I’m about to make, is it mission driven?
Mm-hmm. , this decision I’m gonna make, is it mission driven? And if the answer is yes, then then, then you’re probably okay. Yeah. Am I firing this person for a mission driven reason? Can I, can I identify the mission driven reason? And for example, in, in a business like mine, attention to detail is mission driven, and that’s reflected in our mm-hmm.
in our core values of excellence and reli. . And if I’ve got an employee who’s not paying attention to detail and I can show them, look, you know, here are four pieces of deliverables where you made these mistakes, and it’s not judgment mistakes. It’s a mistake in that you didn’t, you know, you didn’t copy over the, the, the numbers, right?
Or you did, you got these dates wrong or you, you know, whatever the detail. . And so I’m gonna do some discipline or some training or whatever I’m, whatever it might be, might be fire the person because they’ve repeatedly done those things. Well, that’s mission driven and I can point to to why that’s a contrary to our values and contrary to our mission.
And so if I’m hiring people that are, that pay attention to detail and I understand what I need in each job, I’m much less like, down the road to get a, to get a claim or even have to fire that person. Cause I’m hiring my mission rather than hiring because I got a good feeling about the person in the, in the job interview.
Mm-hmm. . And, uh, I, I, that’s a, that’s a high level con consideration. And of course, as you say, you know, the, the, the devil’s in the details. And so each situation is gonna vary. But I, I’m always struck by how. How disconnected mm-hmm. the hiring and training and discipline functions. How disconnected they are from the company’s mission and the company’s, uh, business output.
Wow. What a, what a great explanation. And I, I’ve never heard anyone else talk about like link, um, mission to this, but what you said makes complete, it’s just, it became pretty obvious , like when you said it, I’m like, yeah, that’s true. If you were using that almost as like a, the lenses at which you make a decision, um, and really aligned on your mission and what matters to you the most, um, as a company in, in general, then.
Um, in theory you should, you should be able to maybe, um, not find yourself in certain situations. So, man, great explanation, Alan. Um, I’m curious, so, you know, people will listen to this. People will, um, Will, uh, will think will, you know, many times self-identify and reflect and think about what they can do better in their lives and in their companies.
Uh, is there, I mean, in my experience, most people don’t really think, always, always think about employment law as a, as a proactive thing. More times reactive. Like, they got this situation, they got this complaint, they got this thing that. Didn’t know they were supposed to do, and you know, now they have to deal with it or they, or they messed up on something.
Right. Is there a way to be proactive on the employment law side, um, employment law side of things for, for business owners? Like, like what does that look like? Well, the way I explain it to my business owner clients is the first thing is you’ve got to, you’ve got to rethink your, you’ve gotta rethink how you approach employment.
and you’ve got to not think of it as a requirement, but think of it as good business. It is good business not to discriminate against people. Mm-hmm. , it is good business to pay your people fairly and to pay your people legally. And so if you approach it as something that if you work through it, it’s gonna improve your business, then you’re gonna be more, more motivated to do it and you’re gonna get a better.
and I’ll give you a great example of something that most people give short trip to that have huge legal implications and that if you get it right, have huge business implications. Mm-hmm. . And that is the low league job description. Um, doesn’t matter what level you are, there are a few executives that really embrace and.
Writing job descriptions in, in my experience, most people see it as a chore, uh, that, that they’d rather not do. And, and so once they’ve got a job description, they write it and they leave it there. Mm-hmm. , well, it, it is, again, it goes back to mission, right? So if, let’s say you’re gonna create a position in your company, first of all, you, you, you know, you need to do it, intent.
you know, what do I need this role to fill? How does it, how does it further my mission? What are the essential functions? What are the essential expectations? What is it gonna take for somebody to be successful? Really think all those things through mm-hmm. , if you go and you just get, you know, a, a job description for, you know, uh, executive assistant off off of a a, a form website and just throw it.
chances are it’s not going to be customized to your situation. Mm-hmm. , and chances are, after a few months in the position, no one’s ever gonna look at the job description again to, um, to orient themselves on what they should be doing. Well, that’s a situation where if that multiplies over a whole bunch of, of, uh, position.
Now you, now you as an executive, as a business owner, you really have no idea what’s going on in your organization. Mm-hmm. And as, as opposed to where you have, you have crafted each position to, uh, and you really understand how that position adds value to your organization and how it propels your, your, your mission, accomplishing your mission.
so that when the person, a, a, a candidate reads your job description, they get excited about the mission, they get excited about the job, or they don’t, or maybe, maybe they read it and say, well, this isn’t the job for me. You would much rather hire that first person than the second person, for sure. And if you don’t really know what the job is, how can you, how can you communicate that to some, to, to potential.
And then hold ’em accountable and, and communicate expectations if you don’t understand what those expectations are. Hmm. So, so I think that’s an example o of it. Um, and then the legal ramifications, you know, your job description, let’s say that, that you give an 88 claim, uh, and the person says, you’re not giving me a reasonable accommodation.
And, um, the job description’s usually the first. that everybody goes to, to begin that analysis. Mm-hmm. , well, if this, if this, if it’s apples and oranges to what’s actually going on in that job, then not only is it not helpful, but it becomes something that’s used against you. So you’ve gotta constantly be updating those things.
And again, it’s not a, it shouldn’t be seen as a chore. You’re, you’re constantly updating and understanding what’s going on in your organization and. You know, that’s a, that’s a kind of a boiled down explanation of that. But, uh, that’s just one example of, of, you know, many, many facets, many things that are going on in every business right now that if they, if the business owner paid more attention to it in a, in a positive way mm-hmm.
uh, your business would be better. But then you would, you would also wouldn’t have the distraction of so much legal. That’s great. Well, Alan, I mean, you, you’ve provided some very, uh, actionable, uh, tips today, which I definitely appreciate and I know our, our business community and executives that are listening will also appreciate and benefit from as well.
Um, that being said, if somebody wants to continue the dialogue and to follow up and connect with you and your team over at the Kron Law Firm, what’s the best way for them to do that? Well, there are a couple of ways. One is our website, theron law firm tlc.com. Uh, that, uh, you can find us, uh, on the web there and there are lot, there’s lots of, uh, information there.
You can contact us there. And then also you can go to Amazon and, um, by my book, which is the Law at Work, uh, by Alan. . Uh, and, uh, there, it, I break down in a similar way, a lot of these concepts and explain the legal concept using, um, stories and illustrations. It’s not written for lawyers, it’s written for people.
And hopefully if you’ve read that book, whether you’re someone who is hired, you know, is an employee or an executive, um, or you’re a business owner or an executive trying to apply the law to, to your company, I think. It’s a two-way street on that. You’ll understand a little bit better, uh, how the law works and how you can make the law work for you.
Fantastic, and we’ll, we’ll put that information in the show notes so that our audience can just click on the links and head right on over. Um, and speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with Mission Matters or engaging with the platform, or listening to an episode Robot, bringing on business owners, entrepreneurs and executives, and having them share their mission, the reason behind their mission, and really what we can all learn and gain from that so that we all grow together again, mission.
all about growth and growing together. If that’s type of content that sounds interesting or fun or exciting to you, we encourage you and uh, and ask you to hit that subscribe button because we have many more mission-based individuals coming up and we don’t want you to miss a thing. And Alan, really, it has been a pleasure.
Thanks again for making some time today and, uh, giving us some education. Appreciate you coming on the show. Oh, it’s my pleasure. Thank you, Adam. Uh, good luck to you.
