Human Resources Support
Overview
In addition to successfully representing Nevada employers in Employment & Labor Law cases, the attorneys at Hutchison & Steffen provide a range of additional services to support a company's human resources department to prevent litigation. We work closely with HR professionals to protect the rights and reputations of their businesses.
Our team provides individualized guidance, training, and informative seminars that equip human resources professionals to make decisions that add value to the employers and employees they serve. We stay informed and well versed in the dynamic and ever-changing laws and regulations imposed on employers to provide sound legal advice to human resources professionals charged with implementing changes in law and policy.
To discuss a handbook review, a workplace investigation, or ongoing HR counsel with a human resources attorney at the Firm, call 702.385.2500 in Las Vegas or 775.853.8746 in Reno, or contact Hutchison & Steffen online.
Understanding The Practice
What Is Human Resources Legal Support?
Human resources legal support is ongoing counsel to the people who run a workplace day to day. A human resources attorney reviews the handbook before it is issued, advises on the termination before it happens, and takes the call about a question that needs a fast answer rather than a new file. Employment litigation is the separate engagement that begins once a claim exists, and claims, charges, and lawsuits are handled by our Employment & Labor Law attorneys.
Most of the value here shows up as claims that never get filed and policies that survive scrutiny when someone finally reads them closely.
Hutchison & Steffen is a full-service, AV-rated Nevada law firm with more than 60 attorneys and three decades of practice in the State. Its attorneys support HR departments in Las Vegas, Henderson, Summerlin, North Las Vegas, Reno, Sparks, Carson City, and statewide, and this work is handled by attorneys including Joseph R. Ganley and Todd W. Prall.
Several Nevada obligations sit inside the HR function rather than the litigation one. NRS 613.075 requires an employer to allow an employee a reasonable opportunity to inspect the records used to judge their qualifications and to document discipline, to furnish copies, and to keep no secret employment record, and it reaches former employees for 60 days after termination. The statute sets no deadline for producing records, which is a reason to have a written process rather than improvise one under pressure.
Recordkeeping runs on more than one schedule. NRS 608.115 requires wage records to be kept for two years, while NAC 612.020 requires unemployment insurance records for four. A retention policy built on the wage rule alone falls two years short of the longer obligation.
Cannabis is where Nevada surprises employers, and it cuts both ways. NRS 613.333 protects lawful off-duty use of a product, but in Ceballos v. NP Palace, LLC, 138 Nev. Adv. Op. 58 (2022), the Nevada Supreme Court held that recreational marijuana is not lawful use in this State because it remains prohibited federally, so the statute does not reach it, and NRS 678D.510 expressly permits an employer to prohibit or restrict recreational use. Medical cannabis runs the other way. Under NRS 678C.850 an employer must attempt a reasonable accommodation for a valid registry cardholder, though not where the accommodation would threaten harm to persons or property, impose undue hardship, or prevent the employee from fulfilling any and all job responsibilities, and no employer must permit use in the workplace. The same screening result carries opposite obligations depending on whether the worker holds a card.
How We Support HR Departments
HR Legal Services for Nevada Employers
Employee Handbooks & Policy Language
Nevada requires no handbook, and the one an employer chooses to issue becomes evidence in most disputes that follow. We review handbooks and standalone policies before they are issued and on a regular cycle afterward, with particular attention to language promising progressive discipline or continued employment, which can be argued to create contract rights that override at-will status.
Personnel Records, Retention & Privacy
NRS 613.075 sets what an employer must produce, what it may withhold, including confidential investigative files, and how its two separate 60-day provisions operate. We build the request-response process and set retention schedules against both the two-year wage rule and the four-year unemployment insurance rule. Related preservation questions are covered in the Firm's writing on reducing risk before a dispute begins.
Workplace Investigations
No Nevada statute requires a private employer to investigate an internal complaint. The duty is defensive. A prompt, reasonable investigation supports the Faragher and Ellerth affirmative defense, which is unavailable where the harassment culminated in a tangible employment action, and it limits negligent retention exposure. We conduct investigations, advise HR investigators, and structure findings so they survive later review.
Hiring, Screening & Onboarding
NRS 613.132 bars refusing to hire an applicant because a pre-employment screening showed marijuana, with carve-outs for firefighters, emergency medical technicians, positions where federal or state law requires driver testing, and roles the employer determines could adversely affect the safety of others, and it does not apply where it conflicts with a collective bargaining agreement, an employment contract, federal law, or a federally funded position. Where an employer screens within the first 30 days of employment, the worker may pay for a second test the employer must consider. We advise on screening policy, offer letters, and new hire reporting under NRS Chapter 606.
Leave, Accommodation & Required Notices
Nevada's Pregnant Workers' Fairness Act applies to employers with 15 or more employees and carries both an accommodation duty and a written notice obligation under NRS 613.4377, owed at hire, within 10 days after an employee notifies her supervisor of a pregnancy, and by conspicuous posting. The 2025 session added Civil Air Patrol leave, and Nevada OSHA's heat illness rule requires a job hazard analysis, and a written program where that analysis finds heat exposure, for employers with more than 10 employees. Exposure after a leave ends is addressed in the Firm's writing on failure to rehire.
Day-to-Day HR Counsel & Manager Guidance
The Firm provides individualized guidance to HR professionals on discipline, documentation, classification questions, and difficult conversations, along with the training and seminars described above. Questions that touch agency rulemaking are coordinated with our Administrative & Regulatory Law attorneys, and departing-employee matters involving confidential information with our Business Law & Commercial Litigation attorneys.
Drawing the Line
When HR Can Decide Alone, and When to Call Counsel
Most HR decisions do not need a lawyer, and treating every question as a legal matter is expensive and slow. The table below sets out where the line usually falls for a Nevada employer. It is a starting point for judgment, not a substitute for advice on a specific situation.
| Scenario | HR Can Typically Handle | Escalate to Counsel When |
|---|---|---|
| Routine Policy Update | Circulating and acknowledging an update that reflects an existing practice | The change touches pay, leave, discipline, or anything an employee could read as a promise |
| Personnel File Request | Scheduling inspection and furnishing copies under an established written process | The requester is a former employee, counsel is already involved, or the file contains investigative material |
| Performance Termination | Ending employment where documentation is consistent and no protected activity is in play | The employee recently complained, requested leave or accommodation, or filed any claim |
| Internal Harassment Complaint | Intake, immediate interim measures, and routine fact-gathering | The accused is a manager or executive, the allegation involves assault, or the complainant has retained counsel |
| Accommodation Request | Running the interactive process and granting a straightforward accommodation | The request is denied, the process stalls, or medical cannabis or a pregnancy-related condition is involved |
| Positive Drug Screen | Applying a written policy to a current employee under an established standard | The result is from a pre-employment screen showing marijuana, or the worker holds a medical cannabis card |
| Reduction in Force | A Modeling headcount scenarios and cost impact | A reduction is contemplated, before selection criteria are finalized or any communication is drafted |
Building the Relationship
When to Bring Counsel Into the HR Function
Counsel earns its place at three moments: when a policy is written, when a decision carries statutory consequences, and when a complaint arrives. Employers who wait for the third moment are buying the same advice at its highest price.
The practical case is documentation. Nevada requires an employer to let employees inspect the records used to evaluate and discipline them, and that file is what a charge, an agency, or a court will read. Records created contemporaneously by managers who were trained on what to write are a different asset from records assembled after a dispute begins.
This page is educational and is not legal advice. Nevada employment regulation changes by legislative session and, increasingly, by agency rulemaking between sessions. The Firm's attorneys work alongside HR departments rather than around them, so that the people making these decisions daily have somewhere to check the ones that matter.
Common Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Do We Need an Attorney if We Already Have an HR Department?
A competent HR department handles the large majority of what comes across its desk, and counsel that inserts itself into routine decisions wastes everyone's time. The value is narrower and higher: the decisions where an error is expensive and hard to undo, and the documents that will be read later by someone looking for a problem. Handbook and policy work, sensitive investigations, and individual decisions carrying statutory consequences are the places outside counsel usually earns its cost.
What Must a Nevada Employer Produce When an Employee Requests a Personnel File?
Under NRS 613.075 an employer must give a reasonable opportunity during usual business hours to inspect records used to determine the employee's qualifications and to document discipline, and must furnish copies. Confidential reports from previous employers, investigative files, and records of arrest or conviction may be withheld. Two separate 60-day rules apply and are often confused: a former employee may inspect for 60 days after termination, and no copies are owed to anyone employed for 60 days or less. Nevada sets no deadline for the employer to respond, which is a reason to work from a written process.
Is an Employee Handbook Required in Nevada?
No Nevada statute requires one. The reason to have a well-drafted handbook is evidentiary rather than mandatory: it establishes that policies existed, were communicated, and were applied consistently, which is the foundation of most employer defenses. A poorly drafted handbook does the opposite, because language promising progressive discipline or continued employment can be argued to create contract rights that override at-will status.
Can a Nevada Employer Act on an Employee's Off-Duty Marijuana Use?
Generally yes, and this is widely misunderstood. NRS 613.333 protects lawful off-duty use of a product, but in Ceballos v. NP Palace, LLC, 138 Nev. Adv. Op. 58 (2022), the Nevada Supreme Court held that recreational marijuana is not lawful use in this State because it remains prohibited federally, and NRS 678D.510 expressly permits employers to prohibit or restrict it. Two limits apply. NRS 613.132 bars refusing to hire over a pre-employment marijuana screen, subject to its carve-outs, and gives an employee screened within the first 30 days the right to pay for a second test the employer must consider. NRS 678C.850 requires an attempt at reasonable accommodation for a valid medical cannabis cardholder, unless doing so would threaten harm, impose undue hardship, or prevent the employee from performing the job.
Does Nevada Require Sexual Harassment Training for Private Employers?
No. Unlike several other states, Nevada imposes no harassment prevention training mandate on private employers. NAC 284.496 requires it for the state classified service within 30 days of appointment, with refresher training at least every two years, and separate rules require construction workers to obtain OSHA-10 completion cards, and supervisors OSHA-30, within 15 days of hire under NRS 618.983, with parallel requirements in convention services work. Training is still worth doing, because a documented program supports the employer's affirmative defense when a complaint is later litigated.
The information on this page is educational and is not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship with Hutchison & Steffen. For guidance on a specific matter, contact the Firm at 702.385.2500 in Las Vegas or 775.853.8746 in Reno.