At a recent event hosted by Tonkon Torp, Corbett Gordon spoke to a group of young adults from New Avenues for Youth about their legal rights and responsibilities in the world of work. Her presentation was part of the PAVE (Promoting Avenues to Employment) Job Readiness Training program provided by New Avenues for homeless and at-risk youth.
Corbett’s remarks covered legal and illegal questions an employer may ask on a job application or in an interview, the importance of reading employee handbooks and procedures manuals, behavior on the job, discipline and termination issues, and employees’ rights to be free of illegal discrimination and harassment.
During the training, members of Tonkon Torp’s Diversity Task Force discussed their own career paths to the various jobs they now hold within the firm, describing scholarship opportunities and how to market oneself internally for advancement once hired.
A member of the firm’s Labor & Employment Practice Group, Corbett is one of the Pacific Northwest’s most respected labor and employment lawyers. With more than three decades of experience representing private and public sector employers in traditional labor matters, she has also defended employment cases before juries in state and federal courts in Oregon and Washington and successfully prevailed in client appeals in state and federal courts as well as before the U.S. Supreme Court. As Co-Director of the Portland Human Resource Management Association’s Workforce Readiness Initiative, Corbett has worked on designing effective training programs for second chance applicants recently released from incarceration as well as for youth seeking work.
New Avenues for Youth provides outcome-based programs and services designed to empower youth to exit street life and lead healthy, independent lives.