Tennessee is a “right to work” state, which means it’s a “right to get fired for no good reason” state. Your employer can fire you for stupid reasons. You just can’t get fired (or demoted, or suspended, or transferred, etc.) for “illegal” reasons. There are only 3 kinds of illegal reasons . . .

1. Breach of contract. Your boss can’t fire you in violation of your contract. Unless you are a member of a union or a professional (like a doctor or lawyer), you probably don’t have a contract. Usually, an Employee Handbook is not a contract. Even if you have a contract, chances are your boss wrote it, and wrote it to benefit the company, not you.

2. Discrimination. Your boss can’t fire you because you are of a different race, gender, national origin, ethnicity, religion, or because you are old or disabled. The hard part is showing that they fired you because of these reasons, because most bosses will lie and come up with some other reason. We have to be able to prove that they are lying, and that the real reason is discrimination on one of these bases.

3. Whistleblowing. Your boss can’t fire you because you wouldn’t shut up and do something illegal or because you complained about a “substantial violation of the law” or a “specific threat to public safety.” Again, we have to show they fired you because of the complaint, and not some other reason.

We love these cases - some employers get arrogant, and we love to hold them accountable when they’ve been unfair. But the cases are tough. You need to invest in the consultation before giving any lawyer the retainer these cases take, to make sure it’s worth the investment.