Marc Mandelman, head of Proskauer Rose‘s group advising companies on layoffs, got a call on Tuesday from a manufacturing company that wants to lay off a large number of employees in about a week and needs to know if they can do so without violating any federal laws.

On the other end of the spectrum, Mandelman also is advising a New York company planning to lay off at least 25 people sometime in February — that’s plenty of time to make sure they don’t discriminate against any class of employees or run afoul of federal notification laws.