HRL 520: Employment Law, Risk, and Corporate Responsibility

The hardest decisions in HR happen at the intersection of legal compliance, organizational risk, corporate responsibility, and business pressure, and the leaders who make them well understand each pressure deeply enough to know when each should win. This course examines the federal employment law framework governing the workplace, including Title VII, the ADA, the ADEA, the FMLA, the FLSA, and the NLRA, with attention to state-level variation and the ethical responsibilities of HR leaders during investigations, terminations, accommodations, and organizational change. Students also examine HR risk management as a discipline, including how organizations identify and mitigate workforce-related legal, operational, and reputational risk, and how corporate social responsibility commitments shape HR practice in areas including community engagement, sustainability reporting, and workforce equity. Students develop the leadership judgment required when the right answer is not obvious and the stakes are high, and complete the course with a Legal, Risk, and Responsibility Analysis of a workforce challenge in their chosen organization. This analysis becomes one of three foundation deliverables they integrate into their Strategic HR Plan in HRL 530.