Our bookkeeper recently informed us that her child is experiencing health problems and needs routine treatments for the foreseeable future. Our busiest season is approaching, and we are concerned that she may need to take a lot of leave to be with her son. In order to help ease her burden and ensure her workload is covered, we would like to reduce her hours to part-time and hire a temporary employee to make up the difference in hours. She and her son would still be eligible for our company’s group health insurance. Is this legal?

Be confident and prepared: ask the right questions
Courtesy of the Massachusetts Bar Association

I read there are new FMLA rules going into effect this year. Can you please explain which of these, if any, apply to employers and when they become effective?

Cape Business consultant Beth O'Neal, Esq., of Masterman, Culbert and Tully LLP discusses performance appraisals.

Reviewing and retaining employee personnel records

Cape Business spoke with with Anastasia Welsh Perrino, president of the Barnstable County Bar Association.

During the last four months, Cape Business has interviewed more than three dozen individual law firms, from Boston-based Nutter, to solo practitioners like Barbara Sullivan, whose Sagamore Beach office faces Cape Cod Bay. Our mission: To discover how the law profession on Cape Cod is changing. And what does it all mean – both to the profession itself and to the thousands of businesses that depend on legal services?

Bruce Bierhans rushes into his Chatham office two minutes ahead of his appointment on a Monday afternoon. He is carrying only his BlackBerry. He beckons his guest into a conference room that is shared by several other attorneys in a condominium office that he partly owns.

William Yates is not only a new face of law on Cape Cod. He also represents the baby boomer invasion – white-collar professionals establishing new businesses and homes here, with no intention of retiring. His story is illuminating for any Cape company striving to understand the rapid changes to our economy and population.

In a tiny, windowless room deep within Nutter’s ever-expanding Hyannis office are several computer servers that play a profound role in the Boston law firm’s unique success on Cape Cod.

Several years ago, the partners at Masterman, Culbert & Tully LLP decided to become more strategic. How could their impressive individual specialties mesh more productively? What companies could be their best clients? How could they better communicate their firm’s value? How could they assure a long-term relationship with a client?

Longtime local attorneys become partners in a Boston law firm – without leaving the Cape.

Joe Berlandi personifies the changing face of Cape Cod’s population, economy and legal profession.

With technology, this lawyer maintains offices on both sides of the canal

Cape Business consultant Beth O'Neal, Esq., of Masterman, Culbert and Tully LLP discusses working through lunch, FMLA leave, and layoff considerations.

Cape Business consultant Beth O'Neal, Esq., of Masterman, Culbert and Tully LLP discusses overtime requirements for seasonal employees and the federal minimum wage increase.

Cape Business consultant Beth O'Neal, Esq., of Masterman, Culbert and Tully LLP discusses sexual harassment policies

Cape Business consultant Beth O'Neal, Esq., of Masterman, Culbert and Tully LLP discusses background checks and compensation for travel time in this column.

Cape Business consultant Beth O'Neal, Esq., of Masterman, Culbert and Tully LLP discusses holiday parties and vacation policies in this column.

Cape Business is collaborating with Beth O’Neal, Esq., a partner in the Boston law firm of Masterman, Culbert & Tully LLP, to provide our readers with a new column, The Law at Work.