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Was wondering if anyone has any insight into exit options available for labor and employment litigation. Also, how hard would it be to lateral to peer firms? Thanks for the help!

anyone?

Labor and employment litigation is pretty vague. Are you doing labor law? Employment? Class actions? ERISA? Biglaw? Boutique? Plaintiff's side?

I am far, far from an expert - but i've heard they have more widely available inhouse exit opportunities relative to other litigation fields due to the frequency with which these issues come up in a corporate setting. In general, corporate inhouse counsel are ~1/3 former litigators and ~2/3 former corporate attorneys, despite litigation positions at large law firms being far more common than corporate positions.

There are definitely positions in smaller firms and the government (EEO(C?) or whatever) in the field as well

Last summer I worked with a labor & employment group at a large firm. The impression I got was that most people who left either went in-house or to a smaller l&e boutique. One thing that might be worth noting, though, is that a lot of in-house l&e positions (at least in my area) require 5-8 years of experience rather than 3-5.

Anonymous User wrote:Labor and employment litigation is pretty vague. Are you doing labor law? Employment? Class actions? ERISA? Biglaw? Boutique? Plaintiff's side?

I'm a second year at a mid-size lit boutique. The employment group here is fairly small and its mostly defense work. I'm just not so sure about my future here and would like to know my options later so I can plan accordingly. Thanks for all the responses. Anyone know if its hard to lateral to a peer firm?

3L here (so not much experience)

I majored in labor & employment law in undergrad (weird right?) and have looked into options in this field. It is fairly wide. You have the entire HR field open (there are more than a few JDs in HR) as well as unions/union busting (Labor law), benefits advisory work, personnel policy advisory work etc. so there's more than just litigation, from what I can tell

Anonymous User wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Labor and employment litigation is pretty vague. Are you doing labor law? Employment? Class actions? ERISA? Biglaw? Boutique? Plaintiff's side?

I'm a second year at a mid-size lit boutique. The employment group here is fairly small and its mostly defense work. I'm just not so sure about my future here and would like to know my options later so I can plan accordingly. Thanks for all the responses. Anyone know if its hard to lateral to a peer firm?

Okay. In that case, depending on the reputation of where you are, I think you'd have pretty decent options. 3-5 years is a popular time for firms that don't really take 1st years to want laterals, and as a defense-side you'll have more firm options, more in-house options within an HR department. I've heard that FLSA and retaliation are growth areas, as is Obamacare. If you wrote an article on an emerging issue in one of those areas, especially something like the impact of Obamacare on employers, you'd have an even more marketable niche.

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Anonymous User wrote:3L here (so not much experience)

I majored in labor & employment law in undergrad (weird right?) and have looked into options in this field. It is fairly wide. You have the entire HR field open (there are more than a few JDs in HR) as well as unions/union busting (Labor law), benefits advisory work, personnel policy advisory work etc. so there's more than just litigation, from what I can tell

Do you (or anyone) have an idea of how plaintiff's employment firms/unions/union firms look at people leaving large firms? Thanks for any insight.

My impression is that plaintiffs' side firms/union firms are not fans of those coming from large firms, because large firms (usually) represent employers, and that's a divide you can't cross. I've especially heard that where unions are involved, you don't cross sides (well, actually, I've heard this about the plaintiffs' side bar, too). I suppose you might be able to make an argument that you've "seen the light" and want to turn your employer-side experience against the employers. But especially with unions, if you've litigated against unions, my understanding is they won't want anything to do with you.

(The above is assuming you were doing L/E at the big firm. If you were only doing stuff completely unrelated to L/E, I don't know how they'd react.)

A. Nony Mouse wrote:My impression is that plaintiffs' side firms/union firms are not fans of those coming from large firms, because large firms (usually) represent employers, and that's a divide you can't cross. I've especially heard that where unions are involved, you don't cross sides (well, actually, I've heard this about the plaintiffs' side bar, too). I suppose you might be able to make an argument that you've "seen the light" and want to turn your employer-side experience against the employers. But especially with unions, if you've litigated against unions, my understanding is they won't want anything to do with you.

(The above is assuming you were doing L/E at the big firm. If you were only doing stuff completely unrelated to L/E, I don't know how they'd react.)

This was more the situation I was imagining. Thank you for the info though.

Anonymous User wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Labor and employment litigation is pretty vague. Are you doing labor law? Employment? Class actions? ERISA? Biglaw? Boutique? Plaintiff's side?

I'm a second year at a mid-size lit boutique. The employment group here is fairly small and its mostly defense work. I'm just not so sure about my future here and would like to know my options later so I can plan accordingly. Thanks for all the responses. Anyone know if its hard to lateral to a peer firm?

Okay. In that case, depending on the reputation of where you are, I think you'd have pretty decent options. 3-5 years is a popular time for firms that don't really take 1st years to want laterals, and as a defense-side you'll have more firm options, more in-house options within an HR department. I've heard that FLSA and retaliation are growth areas, as is Obamacare. If you wrote an article on an emerging issue in one of those areas, especially something like the impact of Obamacare on employers, you'd have an even more marketable niche.

Thanks for this!

Anonymous User wrote:

A. Nony Mouse wrote:My impression is that plaintiffs' side firms/union firms are not fans of those coming from large firms, because large firms (usually) represent employers, and that's a divide you can't cross. I've especially heard that where unions are involved, you don't cross sides (well, actually, I've heard this about the plaintiffs' side bar, too). I suppose you might be able to make an argument that you've "seen the light" and want to turn your employer-side experience against the employers. But especially with unions, if you've litigated against unions, my understanding is they won't want anything to do with you.

(The above is assuming you were doing L/E at the big firm. If you were only doing stuff completely unrelated to L/E, I don't know how they'd react.)

This was more the situation I was imagining. Thank you for the info though.

Sorry not to be more help!

Anonymous User wrote:

A. Nony Mouse wrote: (The above is assuming you were doing L/E at the big firm. If you were only doing stuff completely unrelated to L/E, I don't know how they'd react.)

This was more the situation I was imagining. Thank you for the info though.

If you're doing Lit and want to move to Employment, that's probably fine. Depending on the plaintiff's side firm, doing some civil rights type pro bono work will really help them not think that you're the enemy, and won't conflict with your current firm's clients.

I can't imagine anything you'd be doing at a firm that would both prepare you to move union side and also not disqualify any union from wanting to hire you. Labor law is just a totally different animal and your biglaw experience won't be that relevant.