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Laura Fant is a special employment law counsel in the Labor & Employment Law Department and co-administrative leader of the Counseling, Training & Pay Equity Practice Group. Her practice is dedicated to providing clients with practical solutions to common (and uncommon) employment concerns, with a focus on legal compliance, risk management and mitigation strategies, and workplace culture considerations.

Laura regularly counsels clients across numerous industries on a wide variety of employment matters involving recruitment and hiring, employee leave and reasonable accommodation issues, performance management, and termination of employment . She also advises on preparing, implementing and enforcing employment and separation agreements, employee handbooks and company policies, as well as provides training on topics including discrimination and harassment in the workplace. Laura is a frequent contributor to Proskauer’s Law and the Workplace blog and The Proskauer Brief podcast.

A bill passed by the New York State Legislature and awaiting delivery to Governor Kathy Hochul may impose new procedural requirements for employers around separation agreements.

If ultimately enacted, S372A, known as the “No Severance Ultimatums Act,” would mandate a minimum 21-day review period and 7-day revocation period for any separation agreement requiring an

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has signed into law a bill that will provide private and public sector employees and former employees a right to access and dispute their personnel records.  It takes effect on November 8, 2026 (60 days following signing of the bill on September 9).

S3460 adds new Section 210-b to the

Maine and Virginia have become the latest states to join the trend of enacting wage disclosure laws.

Maine

Effective July 29, 2026 in Maine, the new law will require employers with 10 or more employees to include a prospective range of pay in any job posting. This includes both electronic and printed job postings and

Notable leave developments are coming to Virginia. The state has enacted a significant expansion of its existing paid sick leave law—which presently only applies to home health workers—to all employees statewide.  In addition, under the state’s new Paid Family Medical Leave Insurance program, employees will be eligible for up to 12 workweeks of partially-paid, job-protected