HR Law Consultants
Employment Law Advice
Human Resources Consulting
Workplace Training & Investigations
JaneKow@HRLawConsultants.com
750 Van Ness Avenue – Suite 1204
San Francisco, CA 94102
Telephone (415) 567-0367
Facsimile (415) 441-0366
BIOGRAPHY FOR JANE KOW
Jane Kow received her Bachelor of Science at Cornell University in 1984 and her Juris
Doctor at New York University School of Law in 1993. Before starting her own employment law
practice, Ms. Kow practiced employment law and litigation at leading California and national law
firms, and served as the sole employment lawyer and Senior Counsel at a large Silicon Valley based
company with 75 locations worldwide. She has advised and represented companies of all sizes and
across industries in all phases of employment disputes and litigation. Notably, she was an early
contributor to the California Practice Guide on Employment Litigation, published by the Rutter Group,
widely used by judges and lawyers throughout California.
Jane Kow is an employment lawyer who specializes in providing employers with advice,
consulting, and training on all aspects of employee relations. She focuses on helping employers
develop and implement sound personnel policies and practices to effectively reduce the risk of
employment litigation. She provides customized training and guidance to companies and human
resources professionals on a variety of topics, including sexual harassment prevention, effective
documentation and performance management practices for managers, reasonable accommodations
for employees with disabilities, compliance with the myriad of leave of absence laws, and wage and
hour audits to determine which workers are properly classified as exempt v. non-exempt and
independent contractors v. employees. She also provides guidance to employers on how to conduct
effective internal investigations into employee complaints of harassment, discrimination and
workplace misconduct.
Jane Kow has been retained as a management practices expert in disability discrimination
cases to provide opinions on employers’ obligations to engage in an “interactive dialogue” with
employees with disabilities in order to determine effective reasonable workplace accommodations,
as well as employer best practices, policies and procedures to prevent disability discrimination in the
workplace. She has provided training for managers and human resources departments at county
agencies, public mental health agencies, non-profit organizations and private corporations on an
easy to follow, step-by-step approach to interviewing, managing and providing reasonable workplace
accommodations for employees with a range of mental and physical disabilities.
Jane Kow has taught "Employment Law" in the Human Resources Program at the University
of California at Berkeley and "Legal Issues of Supervision" in the Human Resources and Business
and Management Programs at San Jose State University. She is also a frequent trainer and
speaker on workplace disability laws at conferences and seminars sponsored by various human
resources, disability, risk management, government, educational, small business, non-profit,
women’s professional organizations, state courts and bar associations, including the State Bar of
California Annual Conference, the California Judicial Council/Administrative Office of the Courts
ADA/Access Coordinators’ Annual Conference, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commissions’
(EEOC) Annual TAPS Conference for Employers, Disability Management Employer Coalition
(DMEC), CA Association of Equal Rights Professionals (CAERP), CA Association of Social
Rehabilitation Agencies (CASRA), CA Consumer Employment Summit, CA Institute for Mental
Health (CIMH), CA Department of Mental Health and Department of Rehabilitation, Certified
Employee Benefits Specialists( CEBS), HR Champions, HR Star Conference, National Human
Resources Association (NHRA), Northern California Human Resources Association (NCHRA), and
Silicon Valley Women in Human Resources.