CHARLOTTE EMPLOYMENT LAW
They gave you 21 days to sign. Give us two of them.
Charlotte employment lawyers for people who were fired, demoted, pushed out after reporting something, or handed a severance packet with a deadline printed on it. Twenty minutes with an attorney at no cost, and a full read of your agreement in two business days, before you sign anything away.
$41.6M
recovered for 1,180 employees since 2009
$0 upfront. No fee unless we recover money for you.
Calls returned the same business day. Saturday morning slots available.
CREDENTIALS YOU CAN VERIFY IN FIVE MINUTES
N.C. State Bar No. 32418
Admitted 2003. Search the name or the number at ncbar.gov.
U.S. District Court
Admitted in the Western and Middle Districts of North Carolina.
National Employment Lawyers Association
Member since 2010, listed in the public NELA directory.
Nine trials to verdict
Employment cases tried since 2009. Every one sits on a public docket.
Martindale-Hubbell
AV Preeminent, peer rated. Profile is public at martindale.com.
The packet on your kitchen table was drafted by their lawyer.
HR handed you a document, a pen, and a friendly tone. The document was written months earlier by counsel who has never met you and is paid to protect the company. Here is what people miss in the first week, in the order it costs them money.
01
The release is wider than the payment
One paragraph, usually on page four, gives up every claim you have, including the age or retaliation claim you have not told anyone about yet. Four weeks of pay is priced for a quiet exit. It is not priced for the age claim, the retaliation claim, and the unpaid overtime you just released in a single sentence.
RELEASE SCOPE, 29 U.S.C. 626(f)
02
The first number is an opening number
Last year clients brought us 91 severance agreements and we renegotiated 68 of them. Across those 68, the average client added 3.4 weeks of pay, and eleven kept employer-paid COBRA through the end of the year.
SEVERANCE RENEGOTIATION, 2025 FILE DATA
03
The clock is real and the days belong to you
An individual separation gives you 21 days to consider and 7 days to revoke after you sign. If you were let go as part of a group, federal law says 45 days, and plenty of packets still hand out 21. Nobody in that meeting will tell you that asking for your full window is normal and rarely refused.
OWBPA: 21 DAYS INDIVIDUAL, 45 DAYS GROUP, 7 TO REVOKE
04
Your evidence disappears the day your laptop locks
Print or photograph your own reviews, pay stubs, PIP, offer letter and the handbook section on termination while you still have access, and keep the copies at home. Do not forward anything out of a company system, and do not take customer lists, personnel files, or anything marked confidential. Taking the wrong document is the fastest way to lose a good claim.
DOCUMENT PRESERVATION, DO NOT EXPORT
SEVENTEEN YEARS, ONE PRACTICE AREA, ONE CITY.
$41.6M
RECOVERED FOR EMPLOYEES SINCE 2009
92%
RESOLVED WITHOUT A PUBLIC FILING
1,180
EMPLOYEES REPRESENTED
2
BUSINESS DAYS TO A SEVERANCE REVIEW
Figures cover matters closed between January 2009 and December 2025. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
92% of these files close without anyone filing a lawsuit.
What actually stops people from calling is a picture in their head: a lawsuit, a docket entry with their name on it, and a hiring manager three years from now who finds it in twenty seconds. That is not how 92% of our matters go. A documented demand letter lands on employer-side counsel, they price the risk, and the file closes with a mutual non-disparagement clause and a confidentiality term you both sign. Why? Because their name in a public filing costs them more than your settlement does.
Nothing becomes public unless you file
A demand and a negotiation leave no court record. There is no docket for a future employer to search, and we do not issue press releases.
Mutual non-disparagement, not just yours
Standard in every agreement we negotiate. Your former manager is bound the same way you are, and reference calls get routed to a neutral confirmation of dates and title.
Filing stays your decision
If the number never gets fair, we will tell you plainly what a lawsuit costs in time and exposure. You decide. We have never filed a case a client did not want filed.
We turn down about a third of the people who call.
Reading this before you dial will tell you which pile you are in, and what we will ask you to bring.
29 U.S.C. 626(f).
Severance review and negotiation
Flat $450, back to you in 2 business days, clause by clause, with a counter-offer script you can send under your own name. Hire us to negotiate and the $450 comes off the fee.
N.C. IS AN AT-WILL STATE, SO THIS TURNS ON THE PUBLIC POLICY EXCEPTION.
Wrongful termination
Fired shortly after you requested leave, reported something, filed a comp claim, or turned 40. We work backwards through the 90 days before the decision and look for the write-up that appeared out of nowhere.
SOX 18 U.S.C. 1514A, FALSE CLAIMS ACT 31 U.S.C. 3730(h), N.C.G.S. CH. 95 ART. 21 (REDA).
Retaliation and whistleblower claims
You raised safety, billing, or wage concerns and the performance reviews turned inside a quarter.
TITLE VII, ADEA, ADA.
Discrimination and harassment
Race, age, disability, pregnancy and sex. Age protection starts at 40, not 55, and most people we talk to do not know that. Federal charges go to the EEOC first and that window closes in 180 days in North Carolina, so call early rather than after you feel ready.
29 U.S.C. 207 AND 255(a).
Unpaid overtime and misclassification
A salary does not make you exempt. If your title said manager but your day was spent doing the same work as your team, up to two years of back pay may be recoverable, three if the misclassification was willful.
N.C. COMMON LAW PLUS THE WRITING REQUIREMENT AT N.C.G.S. 75-4.
Non-compete and cease-and-desist defense
Your former employer sent a letter to your new one and now everybody is nervous. We answer within 72 hours, in writing, and most of these agreements are narrower than the letter pretends.
Four steps, and you do not pay through any of them
01
Twenty minutes on the phone
You talk to an attorney, not an intake screener. You hang up knowing whether there is a claim, the range it is likely worth, and the exact date your deadline expires. No charge and no pitch.
02
We read the paper
Send the offer letter, the handbook section on termination, your last two reviews, and the agreement itself. Two business days later you get the three clauses that matter and what each one is costing you.
03
The demand goes out, on your timing
A letter with dates, names, statutes, and a number. Nothing leaves this office until you approve the draft. Employer-side counsel usually responds inside 14 days.
04
You sign, or we file
If the number is right you sign and the funds clear in 30 to 45 days. If it is not, we discuss filing. Either way you have still not written us a check.
Dana Whitlock spent six years defending these cases from the other side of the table.
Before opening the firm in 2009, Dana was an associate at a management-side defense shop on South Tryon Street, where part of her job was training HR departments on how to build a clean termination file. She knows what a pretextual write-up looks like because she used to review them before they went out. She now runs the same checklist in reverse. Admitted in North Carolina and before the U.S. District Courts for the Western and Middle Districts, she has tried nine employment cases to verdict and settled far more of them quietly, and she is the person who answers when you call.
One practice area since 2003
No real estate closings, no wills, no traffic tickets. Employment law on the employee side is the entire practice.
Two attorneys, not two hundred
Dana and Colin Reyes, admitted 2016, are the whole firm. Your file is not handed to a paralegal after the first call, and the attorney who takes your case is the one who signs the demand.
Ray Brennan retired in 2021
He opened the firm with Dana and carried the wage and hour files until he stepped back. The name stayed on the door. The phone is still answered by a lawyer.
A third of callers get told no
When the honest answer is that the claim will not clear what it costs you in time, you get that answer on the first call, for free.
Dana Whitlock and Colin Reyes. N.C. State Bar No. 32418, admitted 2003. Admitted before the U.S. District Courts for the Western and Middle Districts of North Carolina.
Three files, closed quietly
Details shared with permission. Names shortened at the clients’ request.
“
I was 54 and got a restructuring letter eight days after I asked HR about FMLA for my father. Dana had a demand out in two weeks. We settled for seven months of pay and a neutral reference. She called me back on a Saturday morning, which was the only time I could actually talk without somebody hearing me. The whole thing took 71 days.
Marcus T.
regional sales manager, Matthews NC
“
The package they handed me was four weeks and I nearly signed it in the parking lot. I paid $450 to have it read instead. The final number was sixteen weeks plus COBRA through the end of the year, and the $450 came off the fee.
Priya R.
clinical operations manager, Charlotte
“
I thought calling a lawyer meant a lawsuit and my name showing up in a search. It meant three letters and a check. Nobody at my current job knows any of this happened, which was the only thing I actually cared about.
James O.
logistics supervisor, Concord NC
Typicality note: Marcus’s result is well above our typical severance outcome. Most renegotiations add three to six weeks, not months.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Every matter turns on its own facts.
What this actually costs you
The most common reason people wait too long to call is money they think they will owe. Here is every number, in advance.
CASE REVIEW
$0
Twenty minutes with an attorney. You leave with your deadline date, a plain read on whether you have a claim, and a value range. We do not take a card number and there is no retainer. If you decide not to hire us, you will not hear from this office again.
SEVERANCE AGREEMENT REVIEW
$450 flat
Two business days. Clause-by-clause notes, the three terms costing you the most, and a counter-offer script you can send yourself without ever naming us. If you hire us to negotiate, the $450 is credited against the fee.
FULL REPRESENTATION
33%
of what we recover
Nothing upfront and nothing monthly. If the recovery is zero, you owe zero and the firm absorbs filing and expert costs. The percentage, the costs, and how they are calculated fit on one page and you sign it before any work starts.
Get my free case review
North Carolina rules require a written fee agreement for contingency matters. You will get one before we start.
The questions people ask at 11pm
Will my employer find out I talked to a lawyer?
−
Not from us. The first call is confidential and we contact nobody until you tell us to in writing. In most matters the first thing your employer learns is a letter arriving on a date you chose.
Will this follow me to my next job?
−
Settlements are negotiated on paper, not filed, so there is no docket entry for anyone to search. Every agreement we negotiate carries mutual non-disparagement and a confidentiality term, and reference calls get routed to a neutral confirmation of dates and title. In practice the employer is more worried about their name on a filing than about yours.
How long do I have?
−
Less time than most people assume. Federal discrimination charges expire in 180 days in North Carolina. An individual severance agreement usually allows 21 days to consider and 7 to revoke, and a group layoff should give you 45. Wage claims generally run 2 to 3 years. Call and we will give you your exact date on the first call.
What is my case actually worth?
−
On the first call you get a range built from your salary, your tenure, and how strong the paper trail is. You will also get the honest answer when the number is not worth the year it would take to chase it.
I already signed. Is it over?
−
Not necessarily. Many agreements carry a 7-day revocation window, and some releases are unenforceable as written, including ones that try to stop you from filing a charge with the EEOC. Send it over and we will read it.
Do I have to sue?
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No. Filing is your decision and it is never made for you. Most of our clients never file, and the ones who do usually settle before anybody sits for a deposition.
Do you take cases outside Charlotte?
−
We handle matters across North Carolina and appear in the Western and Middle Districts. For claims in other states we will refer you to somebody we have actually worked with, at no charge.
Find out where you stand before your 21 days run out.
$41.6M RECOVERED FOR 1,180 EMPLOYEES SINCE 2009
Twenty minutes with an attorney, at no cost, with no obligation to hire anybody. Weekday calls are returned the same business day, and there are Saturday morning slots for people who cannot take this call from their desk.
Call (704) 555-0182
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