Crowe Dunlevy is once again proud to be the presenting sponsor of the 2025 OKHR Conference. We can’t wait to join more than 500 of Oklahoma’s human resource professionals May 5-6, 2025, at the Oklahoma City Convention Center.
Register today and make plans to attend our breakout sessions, swing by our booth (31/32) in the exhibit hall and join our cast of Labor & Employment Practice Group attorneys for an interactive skit that will help HR professionals connect the dots to find meaningful solutions to their workplace issues.
Breakout sessions on Tuesday, May 6, 2025:
Connecting the Dots: Puzzling Workplace Behavior and their HR Solutions. | 8:15 AM – Michael W. Bowling, Katie Campbell, Adam W. Childers, Logan C. Hibbs, and Jaycee Simon
Back by popular demand, the Crowe Dunlevy players present a lively, entertaining, and interactive skit of real-world workplace scenarios. Each vignette will showcase the challenges faced by Human Resources professionals as they navigate the employment law pitfalls of the modern-day workforce. These scenarios will be played out not just for laughs and fun, but also for the chance to dissect each story and learn the legal lessons each one teaches. From the difficulties associated with sudden intermittent FMLA usage to the use of service animals as a form of employee disability accommodation to the key legal differences between employees and independent contractors to navigating the intricacies of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act to the best practices for difficult termination meetings, this skit has it all and will help HR professionals connect the dots and find solutions to thorny workplace issues.
Play Stupid Games, Win Stupid Lawsuits: How to Fire Without the Fallout. | 9:30 AM – Chis Vaught
In this session, we’ll break down the messy world of retaliation and show you how to discipline and terminate employees without it backfiring. We’ll start by demystifying retaliation – what it really is (and isn’t) under the law – and highlight the biggest retaliation triggers that trip up even the most seasoned HR pros. You’ll learn how employees prove retaliation claims, so you can spot the legal landmines before stepping on them. Then, we’ll get into termination done right – how to document, communicate, and execute a firing so it’s legally defensible and drama-free. We’ll also cover HR’s critical role in stopping retaliation before it starts, from coaching managers to handling tricky post-termination situations (because yes, employees can still come back to haunt you after they leave). Finally, because not every problem employee needs to be shown the door, we’ll explore alternative discipline strategies that can keep you out of legal trouble while still getting results. Whether you’ve been in HR for years, or you’re just getting your feet wet, this session will give you practical, no-nonsense strategies to fire and discipline without inviting lawsuits – or awkward run-ins at the grocery store.
How to Connect Minds and Think Like the Department of Labor: The Payroll Practices and Policies you Need in 2025 to Stay in Compliance. | 10:45 AM – Madalene A.B. Witterholt
In this presentation audience members will get an insider’s view of how to think like a Department of Labor (DOL) investigator, and how to connect that knowledge to building payroll practices and policies that help ensure compliance with the myriad of laws and rules that govern workplace wage and hour practices. The presentation will include an introduction to the DOL’s Field Operations Handbook, best practices for timecard usage, and the ideas on how to create work time agreements. The presentation will also push into even deeper and more complicated topics such as when to treat benefits as part of overtime payment calculations (or not), how to address employee break time, and how to properly allocate and address discretionary bonus payments. To top it all off, the audience will be treated to an interactive game in which these concepts are put into action in scenarios that will test the audience on what they have learned, and show them how it all translates into real-life actions that can be taken to protect employers if and when the DOL comes knocking.
