Tina Harkness, Director, Northern Regional Office

You’re a practitioner at Employers Council. Tell us something about your organization.

Employers Council is an association providing professional services to member businesses, including legal counsel and representation as well as human resources expertise such as leadership development and employee and supervisor training. We also compile and publish survey data on employee compensation and benefits to help our members attract and retain employees with competitive total rewards packages.

Employers Council was first organized in 1939 by 100 Denver employers who needed help in managing relations with employees organizing the first unions in the workplace. In 80 years, we’ve come a long way. We now serve 4,000 members throughout the western United States, including private companies, government entities and special districts, and nonprofit organizations. In addition to our Denver headquarters, we have added offices in Colorado Springs and Loveland, Colorado; Scottsdale, Arizona; and Salt Lake City, Utah.

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“The resource I use the most is the Daily Labor Report. The DLR keeps me current with case law developments, regulations, and statutory changes. I frequently write articles for our newsletters and blogs based on recent developments that I have read about in the DLR.”

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What’s your role at Employers Council?

I am the director of Employers Council’s Northern Regional Office in Loveland, Colorado. My office serves approximately 400 of our members in northern Colorado, Wyoming, and western Nebraska. In addition to my duties as director, I am also an employment law attorney. I advise members daily on their employment law questions and concerns. I work with three other employment law attorneys in my office and approximately 40 other employment law attorneys and three paralegals across our organization.

As part of our practice, we represent employers in administrative matters before federal and state agencies such as unemployment hearings, charges of discrimination, wage claims, health and safety citations, and certain employment audits.

How did you become familiar with Bloomberg Law?

I have used your resources throughout my 23 years of practicing law — first using the paper treatises and then moving to online. It was a seamless transition to Bloomberg Law®, where I am able to access the resources that I have always found to be reliable, comprehensive, and easy to use. I especially appreciate how Bloomberg Law Books always cite to primary sources. Sometimes other resources do not have these citations and I have to spend extra time tracking them down.

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“I use the Chart Builder tool a lot. It saves me a tremendous amount of time when I can pull a multistate chart on the topic of interest to a member rather than researching the laws in multiple states myself or asking one of our paralegals to do it.”

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What Bloomberg Law content do you rely on?

The resource I use the most is the Daily Labor Report®. The DLR keeps me current with case law developments, regulations, and statutory changes. Our members count on us to keep them up to date with employment laws and case law that are changing constantly. I frequently write articles for our newsletters and blogs based on recent developments that I have read about in the DLR. I am also frequently asked to give legal and legislative update presentations and I use Bloomberg Law resources such as the Fair Employment Practices Manual, Wages and Hours Manual, and labor and employment court opinions. I am also a fan of Bloomberg Law’s Labor & Employment treatise collection and rely on Covenants Not to Compete: A State-by-State Survey, Employment Discrimination Law, and Workplace Harassment Law.

Do you use Bloomberg Law practice tools?

I use the Chart Builder tool a lot. We have many members who operate in multiple states. It saves me a tremendous amount of time when I can pull a multistate chart on the topic of interest to a member rather than researching the laws in multiple states myself or asking one of our paralegals to do it. I recently pulled state charts regarding payment on termination and drug and alcohol testing for multistate employers. What took minutes to do likely would have taken days without this tool.

How do our products compare with the competition?

I have always found Bloomberg Law’s resources to be reliable, comprehensive, and easy to use. At one point I was involved in an internal task force charged with comparing your resources with those of BLR and CCH for purchase by our organization. In our review, we found that Bloomberg Law produced the highest-quality content of the resources we reviewed.

Would you recommend Bloomberg Law?

Yes, I do recommend Bloomberg Law to other practitioners and I advocate for our organization to continue to use Bloomberg Law resources.

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“I am also a fan of Bloomberg Law’s Labor & Employment treatise collection and rely on Covenants Not to Compete: A State-by-State Survey, Employment Discrimination Law, and Workplace Harassment Law.”

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