Nurses, nurse practitioners, physicians, therapists, technicians, aides, and the compliance, quality, and administrative staff who keep hospitals and long-term-care facilities running. The firm represents Ohio healthcare employees facing retaliation after a patient-safety report, termination during or after medical leave, denied accommodations, performance improvement plans, and contract and non-compete disputes.
Healthcare is the largest private employer in Northeast Ohio, and healthcare employees are the largest single group that contacts this firm. The problems they bring have a recognizable shape. A report about patient safety, staffing, or billing is followed by discipline. A medical leave ends in a termination letter. A return-to-work restriction is treated as a resignation. A performance improvement plan appears the quarter after a complaint. A nurse practitioner's non-compete stands between her and a better offer across town.
The firm represents employees at every level of a health system: bedside nurses and nurse managers, advanced practice providers, physicians in employed positions, respiratory and physical therapists, technologists, medical assistants, STNAs and aides, and the compliance, quality, risk, revenue cycle, and administrative professionals whose jobs depend on raising problems. It also represents employees of nursing homes, assisted living, home health, hospice, and behavioral health providers, where the statutory protections are different and in some respects stronger.
Every client works directly with Sean Sobel. Litigation matters are generally handled on contingency. Advisory work while you are still employed, including PIP coaching, accommodation requests, and contract review, is handled on a flat fee quoted in writing before any work begins.
Healthcare employees tend to call late. The culture rewards absorbing problems, the schedules leave no time, and many assume that a union, a compliance hotline, or a professional association will handle it. By the time the call comes, the separation agreement has a deadline on it or the Board has already been notified. These are the situations that arrive most often, and each is better handled early.
A nurse reports a staffing ratio, a medication error pattern, or a colleague's conduct through the chain of command. Within weeks there is a write-up for something unrelated, then a termination for "performance." Whether the report was protected depends on the statute, and under Ohio's whistleblower law on whether it was made in writing and followed by a reasonable time to correct. The timeline between the report and the discipline is the evidence.
An employee takes FMLA leave for surgery or a serious condition. At 12 weeks, HR sends a letter: the position has been filled, or the employee cannot return with restrictions, or the leave was exhausted and employment is terminated. The FMLA obligation ended, but the ADA and Ohio law obligation to consider additional leave or a modified return did not, and the letter rarely reflects that conversation.
A compliance director, quality manager, or risk professional raises a billing, documentation, or reporting concern. The next quarter brings a performance improvement plan with goals that were never discussed before. These are the cases where a flat-fee advisory engagement during the PIP, rather than litigation after it, changes the outcome.
An aide, nurse, or administrator at a nursing home or assisted-living facility reports suspected abuse or neglect to the facility or to the Department of Health. Ohio R.C. 3721.24 specifically prohibits retaliation against long-term-care employees for those reports, and the protection is broader than the general whistleblower statute.
A nurse practitioner or physician has an offer from a competing system and a non-compete with a 25-mile radius in the current agreement. Ohio enforces reasonable non-competes and narrows the rest, and health-system covenants are litigated often enough that the outcomes are reasonably predictable. The review belongs before notice is given, not after the cease-and-desist letter arrives.
A nurse is terminated for a documentation or practice issue and learns the employer has reported it, or intends to, to the Ohio Board of Nursing. The employment claim and the licensing matter now run in parallel, and what is said in one affects the other. Representation needs to account for both from the first conversation.
Healthcare employees have the same federal and Ohio protections as every other employee: Title VII, the ADA, the ADEA, the FMLA, and Ohio R.C. Chapter 4112 for discrimination, harassment, retaliation, leave, and accommodation. Several additional protections apply because of what healthcare employees are required to report.
Ohio's whistleblower statute, R.C. 4113.52, protects an employee who reports a violation of law that the employer has authority to correct and that is a criminal offense likely to cause imminent risk of physical harm or a hazard to public health or safety. The protection has a procedure: the report must be made orally to a supervisor and then in writing, and the employer must be given a reasonable time to correct the problem before the employee goes outside the organization. Reports made without following the procedure often lose the statutory protection, which is why how a safety concern was raised matters as much as what it was.
Long-term-care employees have a separate and broader protection. R.C. 3721.24 prohibits a nursing home or residential care facility from retaliating against an employee who reports suspected abuse, neglect, or misappropriation of a resident's property, or who participates in an investigation. The procedural requirements of the general whistleblower statute do not apply.
Federal law protects billing and safety reports. The False Claims Act's anti-retaliation provision, 31 U.S.C. 3730(h), protects employees who investigate, report, or refuse to participate in Medicare or Medicaid fraud, including upcoding, unbundling, and medically unnecessary services, and it provides for reinstatement, double back pay, and attorney fees. EMTALA protects employees who report improper transfers or refusals to treat in emergency departments. OSHA's Section 11(c) protects reports of workplace hazards, including exposure and staffing-related safety issues.
Licensing runs in parallel. Ohio employers of nurses have reporting obligations to the Board of Nursing for certain conduct and certain terminations, and other licensed professionals face similar exposure with their boards. A termination that would be a routine employment dispute for most workers can become a licensing matter for a nurse, and the two proceedings affect each other. The firm coordinates the employment representation with licensing counsel where a Board matter is open or likely.
Arbitration agreements are common and not fatal. Most large Ohio health systems require employees to sign arbitration agreements at hire. The agreement changes the forum, not the claim, and does not prevent an EEOC or Ohio Civil Rights Commission charge. It should be reviewed at the first consultation because it shapes strategy.
Healthcare employers administer more medical leave than any other industry and mishandle it with surprising regularity. The patterns the firm sees most are terminations on the day FMLA leave is exhausted without any discussion of additional leave as an accommodation, refusals to allow a return with restrictions on the ground that the role requires full duty, attendance points assessed for protected absences, and leave requests that are met with a sudden performance concern.
The law draws a clear line. The FMLA protects the job for 12 weeks and requires restoration to the same or an equivalent position. When FMLA ends, the ADA and Ohio law require the employer to engage in an interactive process about whether additional leave, a modified schedule, a temporary reassignment, or an equipment change would allow the employee to return. A health system with thousands of positions has a difficult time showing that none of them could accommodate a lifting restriction or a modified schedule for a defined period. The termination during medical leave and accommodation denial posts cover these rules in detail.
Engagement structures vary by matter type. Contingent fees apply in most discrimination and retaliation cases. Flat fees apply to advisory work, document review, and contract review, and are quoted in writing before any work begins. Every matter is different, and descriptions of typical arrangements do not guarantee any particular result.
Not lawfully, if the report was protected. Which law protects it depends on what was reported and to whom: Ohio R.C. 4113.52 for internal reports made in writing, R.C. 3721.24 for long-term-care employees who report abuse or neglect, the False Claims Act for Medicare or Medicaid billing fraud, EMTALA for emergency-department transfer violations, and OSHA for workplace safety. The procedure matters, especially under the Ohio statute, so the first question is always how and when the report was made.
Ohio law requires employers of nurses to report certain conduct and certain terminations to the Board, and employers sometimes report more than the law requires. If a termination or a resignation in lieu of termination involves an allegation about your practice, the licensing exposure is often the larger problem, and it should be handled alongside the employment claim rather than after it.
Often not. FMLA job protection ends at 12 weeks, but if your condition is a disability the ADA and Ohio law require the employer to consider additional leave or a modified return as an accommodation before terminating. An employer that ends employment on the day FMLA expires without that conversation has usually skipped a required step.
Not automatically. A return-to-work restriction such as a lifting limit or a schedule change triggers the employer's duty to consider accommodation. "We need you at full duty" is not a legal standard. For a large health system, a temporary reassignment or a modified assignment is frequently a reasonable accommodation.
Usually yes, but in arbitration rather than court, and with some claims carved out. Most large health systems require arbitration agreements. They do not prevent you from filing a charge with the EEOC or the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, and they do not eliminate the claim. They change the forum. The agreement should be reviewed early because it affects strategy.
Yes, on a flat fee quoted before any work begins. Compensation model, productivity and call terms, tail coverage, non-compete radius and buyout, and termination provisions. Starting fees are listed on the document review page.
No obligation, no cost to talk. The firm represents Ohio public employees throughout the state in constitutional and statutory employment claims.
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