As lawyers who practice for both employers and employees, we know that terminations are rarely pleasant for anyone involved. After all, as the Courts have acknowledged, employment is an essential component of identity, self-worth and emotional well-being.
More recent Court rulings have reminded us that the manner in which employment can be terminated is equally important and impactful to the employee as the employment once was.
Each year, our law firm goes out of town and spends a couple of days together in a big AirBnB planning the year, iterating and optimizing our systems, identifying pain points and ways to improve our client service delivery, and developing our legal skills.
Where the Real Magic Happens As a fully virtual law firm, since we started SpringLaw in 2017, these in-person annual retreats are a critical part of our infrastructure. It’s where we all really get to know each other on both a professional and personal level, where real conversations happen about what works and doesn’t work in our firm, and where a ton of problem-solving gets done.
During 2023, we saw the Ontario Court of Appeal uphold two decisions awarding notice periods beyond what was believed to be the “24-month cap” at 27 and 30 months respectively.
In another recent Ontario decision, the Court awarded 5.5 months of pay in lieu of notice to an employee with only 5 months of service prior to dismissal, which is significantly higher than the “one month per year” rule of thumb. These decisions create uncertainty for employers given the wide range of potential liability arising from wrongful dismissal claims. Fortunately, there are proactive measures employers can take to avoid this liability.
Earlier today we learned that Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI the company behind ChatGPT, was returning to his post as CEO, bringing a captivating story to a close (well at least for now).
In case you missed it, the company dismissed Altman on Friday. The company provided few details on its decision to terminate Altman beyond citing a lack of candour on his part when communicating with its Board.
Over the weekend we learned that following a failed attempt at reinstatement, the former CEO had agreed to join the company’s financial backer, Microsoft. Altman was joined at Microsoft by other executives and management who quickly exited the company following his termination. While Microsoft welcomed the employees, it also publicly left the door open for Altman to return to his former company.
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