Severance and Release Agreement Review
When a client receives a separation agreement, or your company is about to issue one, and you need a quoted issues list before the consideration period runs.
A severance agreement usually arrives with a short clock and a lot packed into a few pages: a general release, confidentiality and non-disparagement terms, sometimes a new non-compete, and payment conditions that can quietly undo the deal. For employees 40 and older, the release of age claims also has to satisfy the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act, and a missing element can affect whether the waiver holds. Whichever side you represent, the review has to be fast and precise.
This prompt gives Claude the facts that drive the analysis (age, group or individual separation, your side, the client's goals) and the agreement in delimited tags. It returns an issues table with each clause quoted, a present-missing-unclear checklist for each OWBPA element, and a negotiation list ranked by importance with proposed language. State-law enforceability questions are left as bracketed research items rather than stated as rules.
Claude does not know your jurisdiction's current limits on confidentiality, non-disparagement or restrictive covenants, and it cannot confirm the dates the agreement was delivered. You remain responsible for verifying every statute, calculating the deadlines, checking state law and deciding what to advise. Treat the output as a structured first pass for attorney review, not as legal advice.
The Prompt
I represent the [EMPLOYEE / EMPLOYER] in reviewing the separation agreement below. Context: employee age [AGE], position [TITLE], individual separation or group termination / exit incentive program [INDIVIDUAL / GROUP], governing state [JURISDICTION], and my client's goals [GOALS, e.g., more severance, narrower covenants, neutral reference]. <document> [PASTE SEPARATION AGREEMENT, INCLUDING EXHIBITS AND ANY GROUP-TERMINATION DISCLOSURE] </document> <document> [OPTIONAL: PASTE OFFER LETTER, EQUITY PLAN TERMS OR EXISTING RESTRICTIVE COVENANT AGREEMENT] </document> Review the agreement and cover: 1. Release scope: who is released, which claims, carve-outs (vested benefits, unemployment, workers' compensation, indemnification, claims that cannot be waived by law), and whether it reaches claims arising after signing. 2. OWBPA waiver elements (29 U.S.C. § 626(f)) if the employee is 40 or older: plain-language drafting, specific reference to ADEA rights or claims, no waiver of rights or claims arising after signing, consideration beyond what is already owed, written advice to consult an attorney, the consideration period, the revocation period and, for a group program, the required disclosures. Mark each element Present, Missing or Unclear. 3. Confidentiality, non-disparagement and cooperation clauses, including any carve-out for communicating with government agencies. 4. Restrictive covenants, new or reaffirmed. 5. Payment terms: amount, timing, conditions, clawbacks, benefits continuation and stated tax treatment. 6. Terms a [EMPLOYEE / EMPLOYER] would normally expect that are missing. Output: (a) an issues table: Clause | Quoted text | Issue | Severity (High/Medium/Low, or Cannot assess if a referenced document is missing); (b) the OWBPA checklist; (c) a prioritized negotiation list with proposed replacement language. Quote the agreement for every point. Where enforceability turns on state law, write "[JURISDICTION] question" instead of stating a rule. Flag anything ambiguous or missing from what I pasted. Do not cite cases. This is a draft for my review.
Example Output
An issues table with quoted clauses and severity ratings, an element-by-element OWBPA checklist, and a prioritized negotiation list with proposed language.
Illustrative example — names, figures, and facts are fictional.
SEVERANCE AGREEMENT REVIEW (DRAFT FOR ATTORNEY REVIEW)
Agreement: Separation Agreement and General Release, Harlow Analytics, Inc.
Client: Employee, R. Okafor (age 52) | Individual separation | Governing state: [JURISDICTION]
A. ISSUES TABLE
1. Section 4, Release | "any and all claims, known or unknown, arising at any time" | "At any time" may reach claims arising after signing; ask to limit to claims through the signing date. | High
2. Section 7, Non-disparagement | "Employee shall not make any statement that reflects negatively on the Company" | One-way and broad; no carve-out for agency communications. [JURISDICTION] question on enforceability. | High
3. Section 3(b), Payment | "payable in installments over twelve months, subject to continued compliance with Section 9" | Payments can stop on an alleged covenant breach; no notice or cure. | Medium
4. Section 9, Non-compete | "reaffirms the Restrictive Covenant Agreement dated March 2, 2021" | Prior agreement was not provided. | Cannot assess
B. OWBPA CHECKLIST
Plain language: Present
Specific reference to ADEA: Present ("including the Age Discrimination in Employment Act")
No waiver of claims arising after signing: Missing (Section 4, "arising at any time")
Consideration beyond what is already owed: Unclear (Section 3(a) refers to "accrued PTO" as part of the payment)
Written advice to consult an attorney: Missing
Consideration period: Present ("twenty-one (21) days")
Revocation period: Present ("seven (7) days")
Group disclosures: Not applicable if individual separation; confirm.
C. NEGOTIATION LIST
1. Add written advice to consult counsel (Section 12) and limit the release to claims arising through the signing date (Section 4).
2. Separate accrued PTO from severance consideration.
3. Make non-disparagement mutual, limited to named executives, with an agency carve-out.
4. Add 10-day notice and cure before any payment stops.
Gaps: prior restrictive covenant agreement; equity plan terms.Tips
- •State the employee's age and whether the separation is part of a group program. The OWBPA analysis changes with both facts.
- •Paste the group-termination disclosure (decisional unit, job titles and ages) if one was provided; without it Claude can only flag that it is missing.
- •Calendar the consideration and revocation periods yourself from the actual delivery date. Do not rely on dates Claude infers.
- •Treat state-law limits on non-disparagement, confidentiality and non-competes as [JURISDICTION] research questions and confirm them in verified sources.
- •The output is a draft for attorney review. Verify any statute Claude mentions against the current text before advising the client.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does this prompt work for employer-side drafting as well as employee-side review?
Yes. Set the side placeholder to employer and Claude reviews the same elements from the issuer's perspective: whether the release will hold, whether every OWBPA element is present, and whether confidentiality or non-disparagement terms create enforcement risk. Employer-side teams often run it on the template before it goes out, which catches a missing attorney-consultation sentence or a stale agency carve-out early.
Can Claude tell me whether a non-disparagement clause is enforceable in my state?
Not reliably. Enforceability depends on current state statutes, federal labor-law guidance and recent decisions that may postdate Claude's training. The prompt deliberately turns those points into [JURISDICTION] questions. Research them in a verified source and confirm the current state of the law before advising your client.
What if the agreement is part of a reduction in force?
Mark the separation as a group program in the prompt and paste the disclosure the employer provided. Claude will check that the disclosure exists and compare it against the elements you need, such as the decisional unit, eligibility factors and the job titles and ages of those selected and not selected. Confirm the applicable consideration period yourself.
Is it safe to paste a client's severance agreement into Claude?
Check your confidentiality obligations first. Under ABA Model Rule 1.6 and Formal Opinion 512 you need to understand how the tool handles data. Use a plan with appropriate data protections, remove identifiers that are not needed for the analysis, and follow your firm's or company's AI policy.
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