Most defensible terminations rest on a documentary record created long before anyone considered litigation. Most indefensible ones rest on documents created in the week before.
Contemporaneous and specific. Dates, conduct, impact, and what was communicated. Ratings without narrative are of limited value; narrative describing the person rather than the conduct is worse.
Consistency between documents. An employee rated as meeting expectations in January and terminated for performance in March, with nothing in between, is the archetypal pretext case. If performance deteriorated, the record should show when and how.
Progressive discipline applied consistently, with any departure explained in writing at the time. Departures are not unlawful; unexplained ones are evidence.
Improvement plans with specific, measurable objectives, a realistic period, defined support, and scheduled check-ins that actually occur. A plan used as a formality before a decision already made is transparent in discovery.
Manager training. The most common documentation failures are avoiding difficult conversations, recording only positives, and writing evaluations inflated to avoid conflict.
Before terminating. Review the file, the comparators, any recent protected activity, leave requests or complaints, and the stated reason. If the reason cannot be supported by documents that existed a month ago, pause.