Employment & HR Attorney
Hiring is where compliance risk scales, and California is the most demanding employment state in the country. Delina helps growing businesses build the agreements, classifications, and policies that keep the team compliant.
Get Started →Growth means a team, and a team means exposure.
The moment a business starts hiring, it takes on a new category of risk: worker classification, wage-and-hour rules, leave requirements, IP ownership, and the documentation that determines who wins when an employment dispute comes up. In California, those rules are unusually strict, and the exposure compounds with every hire made without the right paperwork.
Delina builds the employment infrastructure a growing company needs, the agreements, the classifications, the handbook, and the policies, so the team scales without quietly accumulating liability. Where the business also needs entity or tax work as it grows, the employment work is coordinated with the rest of the structure.
The employment foundation for a scaling team.
Employment Agreements & Offer Letters
At-will offer letters, executive employment agreements, and the confidential-information and invention-assignment terms that keep what your team builds owned by the company, drafted to California’s carve-outs.
Contractor Classification (AB5)
Misclassifying a worker is one of the most expensive mistakes a growing business makes. Delina runs the AB5 worker-classification analysis and structures contractor relationships that hold up, or converts them to employment where the law requires.
Employee Handbooks & Policies
A California-compliant handbook covering leave, meal-and-rest periods, anti-harassment, remote-work, and the policies that limit exposure as the team grows past the first few hires.
Restrictive Covenants & IP
California limits non-competes sharply. Delina drafts the non-solicitation, confidentiality, and IP-assignment terms that are actually enforceable here, calibrated to the controlling non-compete framework.
Wage & Hour Compliance
Exempt-versus-nonexempt classification, overtime, and the wage-and-hour rules that generate the most California employer liability, reviewed before they become a claim.
Terminations & Separation
Separation agreements, releases, and the documentation that makes a termination clean, structured to reduce the risk of a wrongful-termination or retaliation claim.
What most people want to know.
Do I need written employment agreements for my team?
For most roles in California, a clear offer letter plus a confidential-information and invention-assignment agreement is the baseline, and executive or equity-holding roles usually warrant a fuller employment agreement. The invention-assignment piece matters most: without it, the company may not own what an employee or contractor creates.
Is my worker a contractor or an employee under AB5?
California applies the ABC test under AB5, which presumes a worker is an employee unless the hiring business can satisfy all three prongs. Many businesses that treat workers as contractors would not pass. The analysis is fact-specific, and getting it wrong creates back-tax, penalty, and wage-claim exposure that surfaces at the worst time.
Do I need an employee handbook in California?
Once you have employees, a compliant handbook is one of the highest-leverage protections you can put in place. California’s leave, meal-and-rest, and anti-harassment rules are among the most demanding in the country, and the handbook is where you document the policies that keep you compliant and limit exposure.
Further reading on business contracts.
How does a MSA work?
Master service agreement basics, explained without the fluff. Learn how an MSA works, what it must include, and when a template isn't enough.
How do I protect myself as a 1099 employee?
How serious is signing an NDA?
How to Write an Independent Contractor Agreement That Actually Holds Up
Can You Make an NDA Agreement Yourself?
Is an MSA the same as an NDA?
What are the 7 requirements of a valid contract?
Building out your team?
Tell Delina about your hires, your contractors, and where you’re growing. The intake scopes the agreements, classifications, and policies your team needs.
Get Started →