How to Avoid the Top 10 Mistakes Employers Make

Sisters-in-law Michelle Kommer and Martha Velasco Suarez (real life sisters) are labor and employment attorneys who practice law from two different vantage points, inside and outside counsel, in two different parts of the country. They join together to present this session on the most common mistakes made by employers AND how to avoid them. Kommer and Velasco Suarez base their presentation on “real life” issues, with practical solutions. If you are a business owner, office manager, or HR professional, this session is for you!

This free virtual session is sponsored by Bowman County Development Corporation in partnership with North Dakota Small Business Development Centers. Join us in Mainspace for this FREE livestream session.

Kommer is the former ND Labor Commissioner and current owner of HighRoad Partners, an HR and Benefits firm, and Velasco Suarez is a former litigator with experience assisting clients with DOL wage & hour audits (and more), and current owner of WVS Law Firm in Houston, TX.

About the presenters Michelle Kommer is the founder and owner of HighRoad Partners, LLC.  HighRoad Partners is a full-service health insurance agency specializing in group employer and individual benefit policies, including Medicare supplemental policies. The organization also provides “in-sourced” human resource solutions to businesses, to fill a gap that often exists for small business that are on the run, growing and scaling their own operation. HighRoad Partners is proud to partner with small companies to achieve success, offering a breadth of HR competence and experience, along with the HR technology of a large company, at a reasonable price.  In the four years preceding the launch of her business, Michelle responded to an invitation from North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum to leave a successful career in the private sector for an exciting opportunity to join, learn, lead, and be a change maker as a public servant.  Upon his taking office, the Governor appointed Michelle to serve the citizens of North Dakota in his cabinet as Commissioner of Labor.  In 2019, Governor Burgum invited Michelle to take on the challenge of serving as the state’s Commissioner of Commerce. In that role, she was responsible for leading efforts to diversify the economy, recruit visitors and new residents, anticipate and address workforce demands, and help equip North Dakota communities for today’s changing environment, while assisting their efforts in preparing for tomorrow’s opportunities.  Prior to Michelle's appointment as Commerce Commissioner, she served as Executive Director of Job Service North Dakota, in addition to her duties as Labor Commissioner, making her the first person to lead two cabinet agencies at the same time.   The child of educators and a life-long learner, Michelle received her undergraduate degree from Mayville State University, her master’s degree from the University of Mary and her law degree from the University of North Dakota School of Law. She is currently working on a degree in “Parenting Three Girls", which she finds much more challenging than all previous degrees combined.

Martha W. Velasco Suarez has over eighteen years of labor and employment, human resources, compliance, and transactional experience. Martha has conducted countless internal and EEO-related investigations both in the United States and abroad, and has provided engaging training to employers on a myriad of labor and employment and HR issues. While her primary focus is investigations and training, Martha’s extensive litigation and counseling background enables her to provide employers with “ground level” compliance and HR support and common sense solutions to problems.  Prior to founding Worner Velasco Suarez, PC, Martha worked as an attorney in the Houston offices of Baker Botts, LLP and Jackson Lewis LLP, amongst others, where she represented employers in a wide variety of labor and employment litigation matters, including claims under the FLSA, Title VII, and other federal and state employment statutes and provided counseling, investigatory, and compliance-based services. Additionally, she served as corporate counsel for a Midwest-based engineering firm and as pro bono counsel to various non-profit organizations and individuals in need.   A North Dakota native, Martha earned her Bachelor’s Degree summa cum laude from Mayville State University in 1997, and her Law Degree magna cum laude from Baylor University School of Law in 2000, where she graduated in the top 2% of her class and served as Managing Editor of the School’s Law Review.

Presented by The Chamber Fargo, Moorhead, West Fargo