I’ll first acknowledge the obvious: UConn’s national championships in both men’s and women’s basketball is a weak excuse for a post on employment law topics.

And yet, that hasn’t stopped me before. (See 2009, 2011, etc.)

For Kevin Ollie, the victory provides a nice financial bonus to him.  How do I know this? Because Ollie had an employment law contract.

In fact, back in December 2012, his contract was extended in a letter agreement (which you can find here).  A more formal contract followed.

Geno Auriemma’s contract (and let’s face it, he’s just Geno in Connecticut) is far more lucrative and is also available online.

When I show people these contracts, I’ve often heard people express surprise. “They look….exactly like other employment law contracts.”

Exactly.

There are, after all, only so many ways that you can say certain things and an employment law contract has certain elements that are consistent from document to document.

Want other examples? There are plenty of sites that have actual contracts pulled from various SEC filings available for free.  I’ve long referred people to the Onecle site, which has some examples here.  

Looking at other employment law contracts is great to give you and your company ideas on how a contract (for some high level executives) can be structured.  You won’t want to copy them — each of these contracts should be tailored to the particular employee and particular industry that you’re in — but a review of them will show you that contracts are rocket science.

And remember what Coach Ollie has preached: No escalators. No short cuts. If you want to do your employment law contracts the right way, take the stairs.