Once, when Hunter Lott, director of PleaseSueMe.com, was on a plane, a fellow passenger asked him what he did for a living. "The short answer," he said, "is I keep companies and managers out of court.""

"Ohhh," the passenger said knowingly, "you're an attorney."

Lott: "No, I'm in human resources." The passenger, sneering, said "Ugh. That's worse."

In Lott's Monday morning session at SHRM's annual conference, he offered "gems" of compliance and policy tips to help pros keep their reputation (totally undeserved, IMO) as being worse than attorneys, but staying out of court all the same. 

Quoting an employment law attorney, Lott told attendees, that "happy people don't sue ... but there aren't a lot of happy people right now."

Thus, HR/benefit pros have to be even more vigilant in reviewing and revamping their employment policies and procedures to avoid costly lawsuits. Lott outlined two areas that need your attention: compliance and policy.

In terms of compliance, Lott's gems of advice include reviewing:  

* GINA (Genetic Information Nondescrimination Act). The law that prevents employers from discriminating against workers based on health predisposition, Lott suggests avoiding indepth conversations with employees about their family histories. "Otherwise, when it's time for promotions, he may think that if he hadn't shared his family's history of cancer might be the reason he was passed over."

* ADAAA (Americans with Disabilities Act -- Amendment Act). Review all rejected accommodations over the last several years, Lott said, and take necessary action to meet the law's new "reasonable accommodation up to undue hardship."

* Lilly Ledbetter Equal Pay Act. "If there's only one compliance issue you pay attention to, please make it wage and hour," Lott pleaded. He recommends doing a wage audit by gender and position, and make sure you can justify gaps by something other than gender.

* EFCA (Employee Free Choice Act). No, EFCA isn't yet federal law, but there's nothing wrong with being prepared, Lott said. His advice: Remove language from employee handbooks along the lines of, "We don't discuss salary," which opens the door to labor relations and equal pay issues, and strengthen non-solicitation policies.

* Healthy Families Act, a bill that if approved would provide national paid leave for employees in the event of the birth/adoption of a child, caring for own illness or for a sick family member. Lott advises pros to consider a PTO program to eliminate leave confusion. Although the measure seems to have been tabled by Congress for the time being, "if it goes to the floor, lawmakers will have a hard time voting against it. Would you want to vote against women, kids, caring for the elderly?" Lott predicted.

Regarding compliance, Lott advised pros to follow the "60 Minutes" rule: Ask yourself if you would want to go on "60 Minutes" and defend your policies. Sound advice there, I'd say. I get the sense that this post is getting too long. Click here for more tips from Lott on compliance. 

Stay tuned to BenefitNews.com, the Daily Diversion and Twitter for more updates and observations from SHRM '09.