Attorney Zubi Achieves Precedent-Setting Wage Decision

A limited liability company (LLC) is not a corporation for the purposes of the Massachusetts Wage Act, concluded a Superior Court judge in a precedent-setting employment law decision. Attorney Marwan S. Zubi of Nicolai Law Group, P.C. successfully represented the defendants.

Nicolai Law Group’s clients, two alleged managers of the LLC, had been sued by a former employee for back wages owed, who claimed they were individually liable under the Wage Act. The language of the statute, however, applies to presidents and treasurers, and officers or agents who have management responsibilities, of corporations. “The act is silent on managers of LLCs,” Zubi said. “The Supreme Judicial Court has said where a statue is unambiguous, you have to apply it the way it’s written, and this statute couldn’t be any clearer: it only applies to corporations.”

This decision, Cook v. Patient EDU, LLC, et al., is likely to be cited by employers in many future cases concerning wage issues. Any change in the statute’s language will have to be made by the state legislature.

The attorneys of Nicolai Law Group, P.C. represent businesses and their owners in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Hampshire and Washington, D.C. Their philosophy emphasizes preventive law to maximize business results for their customers through the appropriate use of professional talent. Nicolai Law Group prides itself on prompt and responsive customer service that gets the job done.