Severance Negotiation Lawyers for Nevada Employees
They handed you a folder, walked you through the high points, and gave you a deadline. The number on the cover page felt reasonable for about an hour then the doubts started. Is this what your job is actually worth? In most cases the answer is no, and the gap between the opening offer and what you can actually negotiate can be the difference of months of pay. Closing that gap is what we do. We start by reviewing the agreement, then we negotiate.
Deep Experience in Nevada Employment Law
Licensed in Nevada & California
Former Fortune 500 In-House Counsel
Proven Results for Employees & Employers
Why Negotiating Is Almost Always Worth It
Two reasons. First, the document you're holding was written by your employer's lawyers to protect your employer — not you. Second, the moment you sign, you give up the right to do anything about whatever may have actually happened on your way out. The cover-sheet number is rarely the ceiling. It's the opening offer in a negotiation the employer hopes you don't realize you're in.
What we negotiate up
- The dollar number itself (base severance, signing payment)
- Accelerated vesting of equity, RSUs, options
- Unpaid commissions, bonuses, accrued PTO
- COBRA premiums paid by employer
- Outplacement services and a real reference letter
- Mutual (not one-sided) non-disparagement language
- Narrowed or removed non-compete / non-solicit clauses
What You're Giving Up If You Sign
- Discrimination claims (race, sex, age, disability, religion)
- Sexual harassment claims
- FMLA retaliation / interference claims
- Whistleblower and other retaliation claims
- Wrongful termination and public-policy claims
- Unpaid wage, overtime, tip, and bonus claims
- The right to even talk about what happened (NDA)
If they're offering severance, they're often worried about something
Most employers don't pay severance out of pure goodwill they pay it to buy a release of claims. The size and speed of the offer is often a tell. The bigger the package on the way out, the more likely it is that your employer is pricing in legal exposure they don't want to litigate. A proper negotiation surfaces what that exposure actually is and moves the number accordingly.
Where the Leverage Comes From
Negotiating severance isn't magic it's identifying the claims and concerns that give the employer a reason to pay more, then surfacing them in the right way at the right time. Here's where the leverage usually lives:
Discrimination, Harassment, Retaliation, FMLA
If you have a plausible discrimination, harassment, retaliation, or FMLA claim, that's the single biggest lever. The employer is asking you to release those claims for the severance amount. The question is whether the price they've offered actually reflects what those claims would be worth at NERC, EEOC, or in federal court and almost always, the first offer doesn't.
Wages, Commissions, Bonuses, PTO, Equity
Severance is on top of what you're already legally owed but employer-drafted agreements routinely lump everything together, hoping you'll treat earned wages as part of the "severance generosity." We separate them. Accrued PTO, earned but unpaid commissions, declared bonuses, and properly vested equity are not severance. They're yours.
Hospitality Angle: Tipped employees and commissioned sales staff in Las Vegas frequently have unpaid tip-pool, service charge, and commission disputes baked into their final paycheck math. We catch them.
Non-Competes, Non-Solicits, NDAs
Severance offers frequently sneak in (or carry over) non-compete and non-solicit clauses that can wreck your next job search. Nevada has tightened the rules on overly broad non-competes, particularly for lower-wage workers and where compensation isn't proportional to the restriction. We negotiate scope, geography, duration, and carve-outs or push to remove them entirely as part of the consideration.
References, Mutual Non-Disparagement, Confidentiality
What the employer will say about you to a future employer matters as much as the check. We push for written, agreed reference language and crucially, for mutual non-disparagement so the gag isn't one-sided. We also push back on overbroad confidentiality clauses that try to silence you about everything from your salary to what happened to you. (Federal law also limits NDAs on sexual harassment claims those carve-outs need to be in writing.)
COBRA, Outplacement, Tax Structuring, Unemployment
A few months of employer-paid COBRA can be worth several thousand dollars. Outplacement services can shorten your job search. How the payment is structured lump sum versus salary continuation, W-2 versus 1099, allocation between wages and "other consideration" can change the tax bill and the unemployment-benefits picture significantly. These are routinely missed without legal review and negotiation.
How We Negotiate Start to Finish
Send us the agreement. We read every line, defined term, and cross-reference, then get on a strategy call: what it says (plain English), what you're giving up, what's missing, what's worth pushing on, and a realistic read on what we can move. The review is the foundation the negotiation is what we build on top of it. Most reviews turn around in a few business days; faster against a real deadline.
We negotiate directly with the employer or their counsel you don't have to. Professional, not hostile a well-supported counter from a known employment lawyer tends to move numbers and terms without scorched-earth tactics. Engagement options: flat fee, hybrid flat-fee + percentage of increase, or pure contingency if there's a strong underlying claim.
When the negotiated terms are right, walk through final execution: confirming revised language, OWBPA revocation period, payment structure / tax treatment, reference and reputation pieces in writing.
The People We Represent in Severance Negotiations
Severance negotiation is some of the highest-leverage work we do small action, big result. Here's who's been on the other end of these calls:
Executives & Senior Leaders
C-suite, VPs, GMs, and directors leaving public and private Nevada companies. Equity acceleration, change-in-control payments, deferred compensation, board seats, and non-competes are the main fights. Numbers here are big enough that a few well-placed revisions can shift the package by six figures.
Workers in Group Layoffs
RIFs in casinos, hospitals, tech, manufacturing, and corporate offices. The OWBPA disclosure list for group layoffs (titles, ages, who was in and out of the decisional unit) often reveals patterns that meaningfully strengthen individual negotiations.
Casino & Hospitality Managers
Strip property executives, casino floor managers, hospitality directors, food & beverage leadership. Bonus structures, gaming-industry-specific non-competes, and reputation in a tight regional market all matter. The Strip is a small town references and non-disparagement carry extra weight.
Healthcare Professionals
Physicians, nurse managers, hospital administrators leaving health systems and medical groups. Restrictive covenants are aggressive here and worth scrutinizing — duration, geographic scope, and patient/referral-source carve-outs are all routinely negotiable.
Tech & Sales Professionals
Reno tech corridor, downtown Las Vegas startups, enterprise sales reps. Equity vesting acceleration, commission claw-back disputes, and customer non-solicit clauses are the recurring battlegrounds.
"Quiet Termination" & Negotiated Exits
People being walked toward the door — performance plans, sudden reorgs, change of reporting. Sometimes the best move is to convert the soft pressure into a clean negotiated exit on better terms than waiting for the hammer to drop. We help time it and negotiate the package before there's even a written termination.
What to Do the Moment You Get the Agreement
Don't sign it in the room
Even if they're pressuring you. Politely say you appreciate the offer and you need to review it before signing. No one with a real, defensible offer pulls it for someone who asks for a couple of days. The window between handing you the document and you signing is the negotiation window protect it.
Take a copy with you
Make sure you leave with the entire document every page, every exhibit, every referenced policy. If they say "we'll email it later," ask them to print it before you go. Don't sign anything else (resignation letter, NDA, surrender of property forms) without reading it.
Write down what happened in the meeting
Who was there, what they said, what reason was given for the termination, what they said about future references and rehire eligibility. Memory fades fast and these details matter both for the negotiation and as backup if the underlying termination was problematic.
Forward important documents to a personal account
Before you lose access: your most recent performance reviews, bonus and commission plans, equity award agreements, offer letter, employee handbook, and any documentation of the issue that led to the termination. These become the evidence base for the negotiation.
Don't accept first-day "transitional" requests for free
If they're asking you to be helpful in the transition, do consulting work, or stay available for questions those have value, and that value belongs in the negotiation. Don't volunteer it before the deal is done.
Call us and start the negotiation
(702) 381-2875 Same-week turnaround. We'll tell you straight what the agreement is, what's negotiable, and how we'd approach the back-and-forth with your employer.
Questions People Actually Ask Us
Almost never, when done professionally. Employers extend severance to buy peace; rescinding because you got a lawyer defeats the purpose and could itself become evidence of retaliation.
Most are. Realistic gap depends on tenure, underlying claims, and restrictive-covenant/reputational value the employer is buying. We can usually give you a realistic read within a day.
Most engagements get into negotiation within a few business days. Tighter windows we move faster and we can often negotiate an extension with the employer for attorney involvement.
Sometimes the dollar number is in standardized group-layoff packages. But language (non-compete scope, references, mutual non-disparagement, COBRA, payment structure, tax allocation) is almost always negotiable. And even "fixed" dollar amounts can move when an underlying claim surfaces.
Yes. Equity acceleration, RSU vesting, options treatment, change-in-control, deferred comp, 280G central to executive negotiations. We pair with tax counsel when warranted.
Often both can work. Strong claim justifies pushing severance negotiation well above standard package sometimes the right outcome is a negotiated pre-litigation settlement worth more than a contested case.
If 40+ and within the 7-day OWBPA revocation window yes, by written revocation, and we may still be able to renegotiate from a stronger position. After that window, undoing a signed release is hard but not always impossible (fraud, duress, OWBPA technical defects, certain Title VII issues). Call quickly.
In Nevada, lump-sum severance generally doesn't disqualify you, but how it's characterized in the negotiated agreement (severance vs. salary continuation vs. wages) affects timing. We structure with that in mind.
Related Employees Services
Milan Chatterjee
UCLA Law Graduate. Former in-house counsel at Las Vegas Sands Corp. Nevada & California Bar. Founding President, South Asian Bar Assoc. of Las Vegas.
Trusted Employment Lawyers for California and Nevada Workplaces
We offer end-to-end labor law services—from policy drafting to complex litigation and everything in between.
Our expertise includes handling Class Action & PAGA Claims, crafting Remote Work and Telecommuting Policies, and addressing Labor Union and Collective Bargaining Issues.
Our approach combines the flexibility of modern solutions with the expertise needed to address every employment legal challenge efficiently.
Trusted Employment Lawyers for California and Nevada Workplaces
We offer end-to-end labor law services—from policy drafting to complex litigation and everything in between.
Our expertise includes handling Class Action & PAGA Claims, crafting Remote Work and Telecommuting Policies, and addressing Labor Union and Collective Bargaining Issues.
Our approach combines the flexibility of modern solutions with the expertise needed to address every employment legal challenge efficiently.