Termination Review

/termination-review

1. Load ~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/employment-legal/CLAUDE.md → termination review triggers, high-risk flags, severance practice, jurisdiction rules.
2. Use the workflow below.
3. Walk the checklist. Check every high-risk flag.
4. Final pay timing per employee's jurisdiction. Severance + release if applicable.
5. If any high-risk flag fires: escalate per table, don't proceed without sign-off.

Matter context

Matter context. Check ## Matter workspaces in the practice-level CLAUDE.md. If Enabled is ✗ (the default for in-house users), skip the rest of this paragraph — skills use practice-level context and the matter machinery is invisible. If enabled and there is no active matter, ask: "Which matter is this for? Run /employment-legal:matter-workspace switch <slug> or say practice-level." Load the active matter's matter.md for matter-specific context and overrides. Write outputs to the matter folder at ~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/employment-legal/matters/<matter-slug>/. Never read another matter's files unless Cross-matter context is on.

Purpose

Most terminations are fine. A few are lawsuits waiting to happen. This skill runs the checklist that catches the second kind before the decision is final. The skill does not state the law — every jurisdiction-specific rule and release-period requirement is researched and cited at the time of review.

Load context

~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/employment-legal/CLAUDE.md → termination review triggers, high-risk flags, standard severance, jurisdiction table.

Output header

Prepend the work-product header from ~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/employment-legal/CLAUDE.md → ## Outputs (it differs by user role — see ## Who's using this). Match the memo format from seed term memos referenced in that config where one exists. The work-product header is always first.

Workflow

Step 1: The basic facts

• Employee name (or role if staying abstract)
• Jurisdiction (where they work)
• Reason for termination (performance, misconduct, RIF, position elimination)
• How long employed
• Age (relevant to release requirements for older-worker protections)
• Whether any other employees are being terminated as part of the same decisional unit or program (relevant to group-termination release rules)
• When is the planned term date

Step 2: High-risk flag scan

This is the most important step. Check every flag from ~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/employment-legal/CLAUDE.md. Default set:

Exempt/non-exempt classification flag. Fire this flag when ALL of the following are true:

1. The employee works in a state with a high exempt salary threshold — CA, NY, WA, CO, AK (and any other state listed in ~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/employment-legal/CLAUDE.md → ## Wage & hour → Known classification risk areas as a high-threshold state) — AND
2. The employee is classified exempt (salaried, no overtime) — AND
3. The employee's title contains "supervisor," "lead," "coordinator," "analyst," "administrator," or "specialist" (case-insensitive, and any equivalent-scope title the practice profile flags as risky).

When all three fire, emit:

🔴 Potential exempt misclassification — [title] earning $[X] in [state]. The exempt salary threshold in [state] is approximately $[Y] [model knowledge — verify]. Before termination, route to /employment-legal:wage-hour-qa for a classification check — a misclassified employee who's terminated has a ready-made FLSA and state-wage claim with liquidated damages, attorneys' fees, and (in CA) PAGA exposure, which the separation agreement may not be able to release cleanly. A terminated plaintiff with unpaid-OT exposure is the most litigated wage-and-hour fact pattern in these states.

Do not suppress this flag because the title "looks managerial" — the whole premise of the misclassification claim is that titles lie. Route to /employment-legal:wage-hour-qa for the actual duties-and-salary test.

If a back-pay number is being computed as part of this review (severance modeling, settlement posture, exposure estimate), do NOT compute it in this skill. Route to wage-hour-qa → Step 2a and use its regular-rate scaffold: §207(e) inclusions (non-discretionary bonuses, commissions, shift diffs) in the regular rate, 0.5× premium when straight time was already paid for OT hours (else 1.5×), liquidated damages under §216(b), and 2-year / 3-year willful SOL under §255(a). Every back-pay number carries [verify — consult wage-and-hour counsel before asserting or paying]. A clean-looking wrong number here is the specific failure mode this scaffold prevents.

Any flag fires → escalate per `~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/employment-legal/CLAUDE.md` before the term proceeds. Not after. Before.

Step 3: Jurisdiction-specific requirements

Research the applicable rules for the employee's jurisdiction before finalizing the plan. Specifically: - Final-pay timing — this varies widely by state and often depends on whether the employee was terminated or resigned. Research the currently operative rule, including any waiting-time or late-pay penalties. - Accrued-PTO payout — research whether the jurisdiction requires payout, and any interaction with accrual-cap or use-it-or-lose-it policies. - Required notices — research any jurisdiction-specific notices required at termination (e.g., state unemployment, continuation-coverage notices beyond federal COBRA, benefits continuation). - Mass-layoff / plant-closing notices — research federal WARN Act and any state "mini-WARN" or local ordinance that may apply if this is part of a larger reduction. Coverage thresholds and notice periods differ. Cite primary sources. Verify currency. No silent supplement. If a research query to the configured legal research tool returns few or no results for the jurisdiction's final-pay, PTO, notice, or WARN rule, report what was found and stop. Do NOT fill the gap from web search or model knowledge without asking. Say: "The search returned [N] results from [tool]. Coverage appears thin for [jurisdiction / rule]. Options: (1) broaden the search query, (2) try a different research tool, (3) search the web — results will be tagged [web search — verify] and should be checked against a primary source before relying, or (4) stop here and flag for attorney verification. Which would you like?" A lawyer decides whether to accept lower-confidence sources.