# Employment Cold-Start Interview > Use when an employment practice group is adopting AgentCounsel and needs to configure its practice profile by answering a structured interview covering jurisdictions, client context, escalation thresholds, output preferences, source documents, standard positions, review requirements, and prohibited assumptions. - Skill: `zgbrenner/employment-cold-start-interview` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add zgbrenner/employment-cold-start-interview` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/zgbrenner/employment-cold-start-interview/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: zgbrenner (https://skillmd.com/u/zgbrenner) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/zgbrenner/employment-cold-start-interview --- # Employment Cold-Start Interview ## Purpose Conduct a structured, staged interview with an employment practice group — led by a supervising attorney or authorized designee — to gather the information required to populate `practice-profiles/employment.md`. The skill walks through all eight profile fields in sequence, records every answer, and assembles a filled draft of the profile for the practice group's review and approval. It produces draft legal work product for attorney review — not legal advice and not a final configuration. ## Use When - A team is adopting AgentCounsel and needs to configure `practice-profiles/employment.md` for the first time. - An employment practice group is being onboarded to the library and no current profile exists. - The library is being stood up for the first time and the employment area is included in scope. - A practice group wishes to revisit or rebuild its profile from scratch rather than make incremental updates. ## Required Inputs - A knowledgeable person from the employment practice group — a supervising attorney or an authorized designee — who can answer questions about the group's jurisdiction, positions, escalation rules, and review requirements. - Any existing playbooks, templates, source-of-truth documents, or standard-form documents the group already uses, so they can be referenced or cited in the profile. ## Do Not Use When - The group is actively working a live employment matter. This skill configures the library; it does not support an open matter. - A `practice-profiles/employment.md` already exists and is current. In that case this is a refresh, not a cold start — though the skill may still be used to rebuild the profile deliberately. - No authorized person is available to answer. Do not complete the interview with guessed or inferred answers; record all gaps as `[CONFIRM: ...]` placeholders. - The purpose is to handle a specific employment matter (use the appropriate matter-level skill for that task). ## Legal Safety Rules - Produce draft legal work product for attorney review. This is not legal advice. - Never guess or infer an answer to any interview question. If the interviewee cannot answer a question, record `[CONFIRM: answer required from practice group]` and move on. - The filled profile is a draft. It must be reviewed and explicitly approved by the supervising attorney or practice group before it governs any AgentCounsel work product. - Do not invent standard positions, clause preferences, escalation thresholds, or review rules. Record only what the interviewee provides. - Do not include client-specific facts, client names, matter identifiers, or privileged details in the profile. The profile is a reusable group-level configuration, not a matter record. - Do not state or imply that any threshold, position, or rule in the profile satisfies a legal requirement under any jurisdiction. Jurisdiction-specific legal obligations are for the attorney to verify. - Flag every item the interviewee defers or leaves open with a visible `[CONFIRM: ...]` placeholder so the reviewer can see exactly what is unresolved. ## Workflow **Stage 1 — Jurisdictions** Ask the interviewee: - In which countries, states, or provinces does the group advise on employment matters most frequently? - Does the group handle matters before federal administrative agencies, state labor boards, or other tribunals — and if so, which? - Are there jurisdictions where the group operates under special constraints, local-counsel requirements, or sector-specific employment regimes? - Are remote-work arrangements creating multi-jurisdictional employment relationships the group must account for, and which jurisdictions are most affected? - Are there jurisdictions the group treats as out of scope entirely, requiring escalation or outside counsel? Record answers. Mark any unanswered item `[CONFIRM: jurisdiction not yet specified]`. **Stage 2 — Client and Team Context** Ask the interviewee: - Does the group represent primarily employers, employees, HR / people-operations functions, or a mix? Confirm the default representation posture. - What types of employment matters does the group handle most frequently — terminations, classifications, policy work, separation agreements, investigations, agency responses, or others? - How is the team structured — employment partners, associates, HR-law specialists, paralegals, non-attorney professionals whose work must be supervised? - Are there business units, client categories, or counterparty categories (executives, regulated employees, unionized workforces) that require special handling or additional sign-off? - How does the group coordinate with external HR advisors, benefits counsel, or specialist immigration / executive-compensation counsel? Record answers. Mark any unanswered item `[CONFIRM: client/team context not yet specified]`. **Stage 3 — Escalation Thresholds** Ask the interviewee: - What classification scenarios — independent contractor vs. employee, exempt vs. non-exempt, statutory employee, dual-status worker — automatically require attorney review? - Which protected-characteristic or protected-activity scenarios require mandatory escalation, regardless of matter size? - Is there a headcount or payroll threshold for WARN-Act-type analysis, and a named contact for that escalation? - Which restrictive-covenant questions are treated as requiring outside counsel or specialist review? - What is the escalation path when an agency charge, complaint, or formal inquiry is filed against a client? - Who is the designated escalation contact for escalated employment matters, and what is the expected turnaround? Record answers. Mark any unanswered item `[CONFIRM: escalation threshold not yet specified]`. **Stage 4 — Preferred Output Style** Ask the interviewee: - Should employment work product default to HR-facing summaries in plain language, attorney-facing legal memos, or both layered? - What format does the group use for separation-agreement and severance-agreement review — issue table, redline, or narrative memo? - Are there house style rules for risk ratings, action items, or open questions in employment work product? - Does the group produce employee-handbook sections or policy updates, and if so, in what format? - Are there particular deliverable types — investigation memos, classification analyses, WARN-style projections — for which the group has mandatory format requirements? Record answers. Mark any unanswered item `[CONFIRM: output style preference not yet specified]`. **Stage 5 — Source-of-Truth Documents** Ask the interviewee: - What is the group's authoritative source of truth for the current employee handbook, offer-letter templates, and separation-agreement templates? Where are they stored? - Is there an authoritative classification-review checklist for independent-contractor and exempt-status engagements? - What document governs the group's internal HR-investigation protocol? - Does the group maintain a wage-and-hour compliance checklist, and is it tied to specific jurisdictions? - Is there a non-compete / restrictive-covenant playbook, and is any of it under revision or pending update? Record answers and document names. Mark any unanswered item `[CONFIRM: source document not yet identified]`. **Stage 6 — Standard Positions and Playbooks** Ask the interviewee: - Is at-will employment the default in every jurisdiction where the group works, or are there exceptions? - What is the group's default position on worker classification when a new engagement type arises — and what triggers a classification escalation? - What is the group's default position on arbitration agreements in offer letters and handbooks? - What review and revocation periods does the group treat as standard in separation agreements, and how are these handled across jurisdictions? - What is the group's default posture on non-competes — narrow and time-limited, broader, or never-without-attorney-sign-off — and how does that vary by jurisdiction? - What is the group's default investigation-documentation standard? Record answers. Mark any unanswered item `[CONFIRM: standard position not yet specified]`. **Stage 7 — Attorney Review Requirements** Ask the interviewee: - At what stage of an employment matter does attorney review of work product become mandatory — intake, before any external communication, before any termination decision, before any agency response, or at other defined stages? - Are there work-product types for which attorney review is always required regardless of matter size — for example, separation agreements, agency responses, or any matter touching a protected characteristic? - What is the designated reviewer's role — handling attorney, supervising attorney, practice group lead, general counsel? - What is the expected turnaround for standard employment review, and how are urgent reviews (imminent termination, agency deadline) handled? - Is there a formal sign-off step — required signature, approval stamp, or logged confirmation — before a separation agreement is sent or a policy is distributed? Record answers. Mark any unanswered item `[CONFIRM: review requirement not yet specified]`. **Stage 8 — Prohibited Assumptions** Ask the interviewee: - Are there facts, postures, or legal conclusions that agents must never assume without explicit confirmation — for example, that employment is at-will, that a worker is properly classified, that a release covers all claims, or that a handbook is current? - Are there protected-activity / retaliation-risk scenarios where an agent must stop and escalate rather than reason through independently? - Are there matter types or workforce populations (executives, unionized employees, regulated employees) where agents must never proceed beyond intake without direct attorney involvement? - Are there prior incidents, agency findings, or lessons learned that should be encoded as explicit prohibitions for agents working on employment matters? Record answers. Mark any unanswered item `[CONFIRM: prohibited assumption not yet specified]`. **Stage 9 — Assemble the Draft Profile** Compile all answers into a filled draft of `practice-profiles/employment.md`, populating each of the eight profile sections. For every item that was not answered, insert a visible `[CONFIRM: ...]` placeholder with enough context for the reviewer to understand what needs to be supplied. Append a list of all open placeholders so the reviewing attorney can see at a glance what remains unresolved. ## Output Format Deliver: 1. **Filled draft of `practice-profiles/employment.md`** — all eight sections populated with answers from the interview. Every unanswered item is a visible `[CONFIRM: ...]` placeholder. 2. **Open-items list** — an explicit enumeration of every placeholder inserted, with the stage and question it corresponds to, so the reviewing attorney can resolve them efficiently. Label the entire output: **Draft legal work product for attorney review. Not legal advice. This profile draft must be reviewed and approved by the supervising attorney or practice group before it is relied upon.** ## Attorney Verification Checklist - [ ] All eight profile sections have been reviewed by a supervising attorney or authorized practice-group representative. - [ ] At-will posture and any jurisdiction-specific exceptions are accurately recorded `[verify jurisdiction]`. - [ ] Worker-classification defaults are consistent with the group's current escalation posture and reflect any pending regulatory changes `[Verify current law]`. - [ ] Non-compete and restrictive-covenant positions reflect the current enforceability landscape across in-scope jurisdictions `[verify jurisdiction]`. - [ ] Separation-agreement review-period and revocation-period defaults are consistent with applicable statutory requirements `[verify jurisdiction]` and all related deadlines are marked `[deadline verification required]`. - [ ] Investigation-documentation standard and retaliation-risk assessment posture reflect the group's current considered practice, not a provisional one. - [ ] No client-specific facts, matter identifiers, or privileged details appear in the profile. - [ ] All `[CONFIRM: ...]` placeholders have been resolved or explicitly accepted as pending. - [ ] The approved profile has been saved to `practice-profiles/employment.md` and its effective date recorded. - [ ] A process for periodic profile review and update has been identified.