Reviewing a Severance Agreement

Reviewing a Severance Agreement: The Release, Your Rights, and the Checklist

Every severance agreement is a trade: money and benefits in exchange for your legal claims. This page covers how to evaluate that trade — what the release takes, what it legally cannot take, and the questions to answer before you sign. For where severance rights come from in the first place, see our Severance Agreements overview.

What the Release Takes

The release is the heart of the document. A typical one waives discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wage, and contract claims arising from your employment — known and unknown, through the date you sign. Three consequences follow. First, the value of your severance should track the value of what you’re releasing: an employee with a documented discrimination or retaliation claim is selling something far more valuable than one with no claim at all. Second, a release signed on day one, before anyone has evaluated your claims, is priced by the employer alone. Third, because the release covers claims through signing — not future ones — anything the employer does after you sign is outside it.

Rights a Severance Agreement Cannot Take Away

No matter what the document says, some rights survive any release, and an agreement that pretends otherwise is overreaching:
  • You cannot waive the right to file a charge with the EEOC or to participate in an agency investigation. A release can waive your right to recover money in a lawsuit, but not your right to report.
  • Wage claims under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act generally cannot be released in a private agreement without court or Department of Labor supervision.
  • You cannot sign away unemployment insurance or workers’ compensation rights.
  • Awards available to whistleblowers under programs like the SEC’s cannot be waived — see our Dodd-Frank whistleblower page.
  • Under the federal Speak Out Act, pre-dispute nondisclosure and non-disparagement clauses cannot be enforced against speaking about sexual assault or sexual harassment disputes — see our Non-Disclosure and Confidentiality Provisions page.
  • If you are 40 or older, the OWBPA’s timing and disclosure rules apply to any age-claim waiver — they have their own page.

Federal labor law has also, in recent years, limited how broadly severance agreements can gag rank-and-file employees through confidentiality and non-disparagement clauses — though those protections generally do not extend to supervisors and executives, and the labor board’s approach has been shifting. The practical point stands either way: the breadth of a confidentiality or non-disparagement clause is negotiable, and it deserves as much attention as the dollar figure.

What to Look for in a Severance Agreement

Before signing, be able to answer each of these:

  • What exactly am I releasing — and do I have claims worth more than the payment?
  • Am I getting anything beyond what I’m already owed? (Final wages and accrued leave are yours regardless.)
  • How and when is the money paid — lump sum or salary continuation — and how does that interact with unemployment benefits and taxes?
  • Is confidentiality mutual, and is non-disparagement mutual? What will the company tell prospective employers who call?
  • Does it impose any new restrictive covenant — or can I use this negotiation to narrow an old one?
  • If equity, bonuses, or covenants are in play: run the executive checklist too — that is where most of the money hides.

Can You Negotiate? Usually, Yes

First offers are rarely final, particularly where potential claims exist. Deadlines are often extendable on request; asking for time to have counsel review an agreement is normal and expected — and for employees 40 and over, partly guaranteed by statute. What you should not do is sign on the day the agreement is handed to you. A release is very difficult to undo; the leverage you hold before signing largely disappears after.

Frequently Asked Questions

No. A release can waive your right to recover money in your own lawsuit, but it cannot waive your right to file a charge with the EEOC, participate in an agency investigation, or collect a whistleblower award under programs like the SEC’s. An agreement that pretends otherwise is overreaching — and that overreach is itself useful to know about before negotiating.

Usually softer than it looks. Deadlines are often extendable on request, and asking for time for counsel to review is normal and expected — employers read it as seriousness, not hostility. If you are 40 or older, the law itself guarantees you 21 days (45 in a group layoff) to consider any age-claim waiver, plus 7 days to revoke after signing.
Yes — for two reasons. People routinely undervalue their own claims: a termination that followed a complaint, a medical leave, or an accommodation request may be worth far more than the offer. And even with no claims, the non-financial terms — mutual non-disparagement, the reference script, new restrictive covenants, payment structure — are negotiable and follow you long after the check clears.

Bottom Line

The release is the product, and you are the seller — so price it like one. Know what claims you hold, know which rights no document can take, and use the consideration period for its actual purpose. The leverage you have before signing largely disappears after, and a release is very difficult to undo.

Have a Severance Agreement to Review?

Before you sign away your legal rights, understand what your agreement covers and whether the terms are fair. Wilkenfeld Law Office helps employees in DC and Maryland evaluate severance agreements and their options.
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Or call 301.245.3035 · Intake@WilkenfeldLO.com

This article provides general information and is not legal advice. Contacting us does not create an attorney-client relationship.
Reviewed by Ari Wilkenfeld, Esq. (DC Bar No. 461063; MD Bar No. 9806240300). Ari has over 27 years of experience litigating in federal and state courts, and before the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), and various arbitration panels. Ari has been recognized by Esquire Magazine as “a famously determined Civil Rights lawyer” and by the New York Post as “a high powered DC Lawyer.” Last updated: November 1, 2026.
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