An employment contract lawyer in Richmond Hill reviews, explains and negotiates employment agreements before you sign them and determines how those terms affect your rights if your job changes or ends.

An employment contract can affect much more than salary and vacation. It can limit severance, control bonuses and commissions, create a probation period, permit certain workplace changes and restrict what you can do after leaving.

Ontario’s Employment Standards Act (ESA) creates minimum employment rights that can’t be contracted out of. But a properly drafted agreement can still reduce important common-law rights you would otherwise have, particularly when your employment ends.

Don’t sign first and ask what the contract means later. The employment lawyers at Samfiru Tumarkin LLP can review a new job offer, a replacement agreement from your current employer or a contract your employer is relying on after termination.

⚠️ Don’t assume an employment contract is harmless because your salary and title look right. Termination, bonus, layoff and post-employment clauses can have consequences worth far more than the terms employees usually focus on first.

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When Should You Call an Employment Contract Lawyer in Richmond Hill?

Speak with an employment contract lawyer before signing an agreement that can materially affect your compensation, severance, job security or future career options.

A contract review is especially valuable when:

  • You have received a new job offer
  • Your current employer wants you to sign a replacement contract
  • You are receiving a promotion or substantial raise together with a new agreement
  • The contract contains a termination clause limiting severance
  • Bonuses, commissions, equity or stock options form an important part of your compensation
  • You are accepting a management or executive position
  • The employer wants flexibility to change your duties, hours, reporting structure or work location
  • You are being asked to accept probation
  • The agreement contains a non-solicitation or non-compete clause
  • You have already been terminated and the employer says the contract limits your severance

For the underlying Ontario rules, read our guide to employment contracts in Ontario.

💡 The best time to discover a problem in an employment contract is while you can still negotiate it. After you sign, the issue often becomes whether the employer can enforce the term you already accepted.

What Does a Richmond Hill Employment Contract Lawyer Review?

An employment contract lawyer identifies the provisions that create real financial or career consequences and explains what they mean before you agree to them.

At Samfiru Tumarkin LLP, a contract review can address:

  • Salary and compensation: Base salary, raises, commissions, bonuses, allowances, incentive plans and equity
  • Termination clauses: What you receive when employment ends and whether the employer is trying to limit common-law severance
  • Probation: Whether probation actually applies and what the contract says about termination during that period
  • Job duties and status: How much flexibility the employer has to alter your title, responsibilities or reporting structure
  • Work location: Whether the employer can change an office, remote or hybrid arrangement
  • Hours: Whether the contract gives the employer greater flexibility over your schedule
  • Temporary layoffs: Whether the agreement attempts to create a contractual right to temporarily lay you off
  • Bonuses and commissions: When compensation is earned and what happens when employment ends
  • Post-employment restrictions: Non-solicitation, non-compete, confidentiality and related obligations
  • Resignation: How much notice you are expected to provide if you leave

The objective isn’t to treat every sentence as a problem. It is to identify the terms that actually change your legal or financial position.

Should a Lawyer Review Your Job Offer Before You Sign?

Yes, particularly when the agreement limits severance, contains restrictive terms or governs substantial variable compensation.

Most employees focus first on salary, title, vacation and benefits. Those terms matter. But a termination clause near the end of the contract can ultimately have a greater financial impact than a modest difference in starting salary.

Can an employment lawyer negotiate your contract?

Yes. An employment lawyer can identify the terms worth negotiating and help you propose practical changes before you accept the offer.

Negotiations can address:

  • Guaranteed severance
  • Salary
  • Signing bonuses
  • Commission and bonus structures
  • Equity or stock options
  • Vacation
  • Remote or hybrid work
  • Work location
  • Probation
  • Post-employment restrictions

Not every term needs to become a negotiation. A useful contract review tells you which risks justify pushing back and which provisions aren’t worth jeopardizing a good offer over.

What about remote or hybrid work?

If where you work matters to you, make sure the contract actually protects that arrangement.

A verbal statement that you can work remotely three days per week can provide far less certainty than clear written language. Review whether the agreement gives the employer discretion to require full-time office attendance, move your work location or change the arrangement later.

That can be particularly important when you live in Richmond Hill but accept a position connected to an office elsewhere in the GTA. Learn more about remote work in Ontario.

What If Your Current Employer Asks You to Sign a New Contract?

Don’t sign a replacement employment contract until you understand what rights it changes and what you are receiving in return.

An employee who already has a binding employment relationship can have significant rights that aren’t written on a piece of paper. A replacement contract can attempt to remove or restrict those rights.

Ontario appellate law recognizes that when an employer introduces materially different contractual terms after an employment agreement already exists, the new agreement can require fresh consideration—something of legal value provided to the employee in exchange for accepting the new terms. Simply promising to continue doing what the employer was already required to do isn’t necessarily enough.

What counts as fresh consideration?

Fresh consideration must provide something new of value rather than merely continuing the existing employment relationship on the same terms.

Whether a raise, bonus, promotion or another benefit provides sufficient consideration depends on the actual agreement and circumstances. That is one reason both the old contract and proposed new contract should be reviewed together.

⚠️ A promotion or raise can come with a contract that sharply reduces future severance. Don’t look only at what the employer is adding today. Check what the new agreement takes away if your employment ends years from now.

What if you refuse to sign?

Refusing to sign a proposed contract does not mean that you have resigned.

The employer then has to decide how it wants to proceed. It can continue the existing employment relationship, make another proposal or decide to end employment in accordance with the law.

Don’t resign because you disagree with a proposed contract. Have the existing agreement, the new agreement and any instructions or deadlines from your employer reviewed first.

How Can a Termination Clause Affect Your Severance?

An enforceable termination clause can substantially reduce the compensation you receive when your employer ends your employment.

Without an enforceable contractual limit, many non-unionized Ontario employees have common-law reasonable-notice rights. Those rights can provide substantially more compensation than Ontario’s minimum employment standards.

An employment contract can validly limit those greater rights if its termination provisions are enforceable and preserve the employee’s statutory minimum entitlements. Ontario’s ESA does not permit an employment agreement to contract out of its minimum protections.

Read our current guide to enforceable termination clauses in Ontario.

💡 2026 update: Don’t rely on old advice saying that “at any time” automatically invalidates an Ontario termination clause. The Ontario Court of Appeal has rejected that position. The clause must be read as a whole to determine whether it actually contracts out of the ESA or validly preserves the employee’s minimum statutory rights.

That clarification comes from the Ontario Court of Appeal’s August 2026 decision in Baker v. Van Dolder’s Home Team Inc., which held that “at any time” and similar language must be read in the context of the complete agreement and applicable statutory restrictions.

What if you’ve already been fired?

Have the employment agreement reviewed again before accepting the employer’s severance calculation.

The fact that you signed a contract does not prove that every provision is enforceable. If the termination clause validly limits your rights, it can control what you receive. If it doesn’t, common-law reasonable notice can apply instead.

Depending on factors such as age, position, length of service and the availability of comparable employment, severance can reach 24 months’ pay in appropriate cases.

Read our guide to severance pay in Ontario.

⚠️ Don’t sign a termination release because your employer says your contract limits you to ESA minimums. Have the contract and severance package reviewed first. Once you sign a release, you usually can’t go back and demand additional compensation.

What Other Employment Contract Terms Should You Review?

Review any term that can affect your job security, compensation or ability to earn a living after leaving the employer.

Non-compete clauses

Ontario prohibits employers from entering into most new non-compete agreements with employees, subject to statutory exceptions. The exceptions include certain executives and qualifying agreements connected to the sale of a business.

If a proposed contract tries to prevent you from working for a competitor after you leave, have the wording reviewed rather than assuming it is enforceable—or assuming it can simply be ignored. Understand more about non-compete clauses in Ontario.

Non-solicitation clauses

Non-solicitation provisions can restrict how you approach clients, customers or coworkers after leaving.

Ontario’s statutory non-compete prohibition does not itself prohibit non-solicitation agreements. Their enforceability is a separate question that depends on the wording and surrounding circumstances.

Read more about non-solicitation clauses in Ontario.

Probation clauses

Don’t assume the word “probation” means your employer can terminate you for any reason and pay you nothing.

The written agreement and applicable statutory rights still matter. If your offer includes probation, review exactly how long it lasts and what the contract says about termination during that period.

See our guide to the probation period in Ontario.

Bonuses, commissions and equity

Variable compensation deserves careful review when it forms an important part of your total earnings.

Check when a bonus or commission becomes earned, what happens if employment ends before a payment date, and how stock options, restricted shares or other equity are treated after termination.

Why Choose Samfiru Tumarkin LLP for an Employment Contract Review in Richmond Hill?

Samfiru Tumarkin LLP reviews employment contracts from the employee’s perspective: what you are receiving, what rights you are giving up and what the agreement means if the relationship eventually ends.

Our employment lawyers can help employees in Richmond Hill:

  • Understand employment agreements in plain English
  • Identify the provisions that create meaningful financial risk
  • Review termination clauses under current Ontario law
  • Negotiate important terms before accepting a job
  • Assess replacement contracts introduced during existing employment
  • Determine whether fresh consideration is required for new contractual restrictions
  • Review compensation, bonus and commission provisions
  • Assess non-solicitation and other post-employment restrictions
  • Determine whether an employer can rely on the contract after termination

Samfiru Tumarkin LLP already serves employees living or working throughout Richmond Hill, including areas such as Oak Ridges, Lake Wilcox, Elgin Mills, Richvale, East Beaver Creek and Jefferson.

Employees elsewhere in the province can also visit our Ontario employment contract lawyer page.

What should you send for a contract review?

Send the complete agreement and any separate documents that form part of your employment terms or compensation.

Useful documents include:

  • The employment agreement or job offer
  • Any earlier contracts with the same employer
  • Bonus or commission plans
  • Stock-option or equity documents
  • Promotion or compensation letters
  • Confidentiality or restrictive-covenant agreements
  • Emails explaining why a replacement agreement must be signed
  • Your termination letter and severance package if your employment has ended
⚠️ Unionized? Your employment terms are primarily governed by your collective agreement. Workplace disputes must be addressed through your union and the grievance process. Samfiru Tumarkin LLP’s employment law team can’t assist with unionized workplace disputes.

An employment contract can affect your income, job security, future career options and the compensation you receive when your employment ends. Reviewing the agreement before you sign gives you the best opportunity to understand and negotiate those consequences.

The Richmond Hill employment lawyers at Samfiru Tumarkin LLP help non-unionized employees in Richmond Hill review and negotiate job offers, assess replacement contracts introduced during employment and determine whether employers can rely on contractual restrictions after termination.

Before you sign a job offer, accept a replacement contract or agree that an employment agreement limits your severance, contact Samfiru Tumarkin LLP and have the contract reviewed.

Review Your Employment Contract Before You Sign

Samfiru Tumarkin LLP can identify terms that affect your severance, compensation and future career before you commit to the agreement.

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