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Employment and Labor law is often a popular practice area in several big law firms across the country. Just curious, does it usually fall under litigation, or transaction. Any Emp and Labor Associates can chime in, thanks!

OP has been warned not to post in Legal Employment as a 0L

It falls under both.

Thanks! so is it a perfect 50-50 or does it lean one way more than the other.

It does not fall under both. At its heart, and especially at the more junior levels, it is a litigation-based practice. Junior folks don't have the substantive knowledge yet to do counseling, so most of a junior's time in L&E will be spent with litigation matters. As you gain more knowledge of the law, you do more counseling of employers to help ensure that issues never arise in the first place, if at all possible.

There is very little that is transactional about L&E. The fact that not all the work is litigation does not mean that the rest is transactional. There is almost nothing transactional about the counseling aspects to L&E. Don't think of those as two mutually exclusive groups that make up the entirely of big firm practice. That is too crude a way of looking at things.

Anonymous User wrote:It does not fall under both. At its heart, and especially at the more junior levels, it is a litigation-based practice. Junior folks don't have the substantive knowledge yet to do counseling, so most of a junior's time in L&E will be spent with litigation matters. As you gain more knowledge of the law, you do more counseling of employers to help ensure that issues never arise in the first place, if at all possible.

There is very little that is transactional about L&E. The fact that not all the work is litigation does not mean that the rest is transactional. There is nothing transactional about the counseling aspects to L&E. Don't think of those as two mutually exclusive groups that make up the entirely of big firm practice. That is too crude a way of looking at things.

There was no reason for this to be anonymous.

And you seem to be forgetting labor contracts and negotiations.

Anonymous User wrote:It does not fall under both. At its heart, and especially at the more junior levels, it is a litigation-based practice. Junior folks don't have the substantive knowledge yet to do counseling, so most of a junior's time in L&E will be spent with litigation matters. As you gain more knowledge of the law, you do more counseling of employers to help ensure that issues never arise in the first place, if at all possible.

There is very little that is transactional about L&E. The fact that not all the work is litigation does not mean that the rest is transactional. There is almost nothing transactional about the counseling aspects to L&E. Don't think of those as two mutually exclusive groups that make up the entirely of big firm practice. That is too crude a way of looking at things.

Hey! Thank you so much, it was very helpful, and also curious, as an associate in E&L, will you ever go to court, alteast a little bit?

Anonymous User wrote:It does not fall under both. At its heart, and especially at the more junior levels, it is a litigation-based practice. Junior folks don't have the substantive knowledge yet to do counseling, so most of a junior's time in L&E will be spent with litigation matters. As you gain more knowledge of the law, you do more counseling of employers to help ensure that issues never arise in the first place, if at all possible.

There is very little that is transactional about L&E. The fact that not all the work is litigation does not mean that the rest is transactional. There is almost nothing transactional about the counseling aspects to L&E. Don't think of those as two mutually exclusive groups that make up the entirely of big firm practice. That is too crude a way of looking at things.

This is incorrect. While it's true that a good portion of L&E leans toward litigation, there is a lot of transactional work as well. Employment agreements, non-competes, labor contracts and negotiation (as was pointed out earlier)...quite a lot of transactional work.

The balance is skewed towards litigation, though. Probably 75/25 or so.

kalvano wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:It does not fall under both. At its heart, and especially at the more junior levels, it is a litigation-based practice. Junior folks don't have the substantive knowledge yet to do counseling, so most of a junior's time in L&E will be spent with litigation matters. As you gain more knowledge of the law, you do more counseling of employers to help ensure that issues never arise in the first place, if at all possible.

There is very little that is transactional about L&E. The fact that not all the work is litigation does not mean that the rest is transactional. There is almost nothing transactional about the counseling aspects to L&E. Don't think of those as two mutually exclusive groups that make up the entirely of big firm practice. That is too crude a way of looking at things.

This is incorrect. While it's true that a good portion of L&E leans toward litigation, there is a lot of transactional work as well. Employment agreements, non-competes, labor contracts and negotiation (as was pointed out earlier)...quite a lot of transactional work.

The balance is skewed towards litigation, though. Probably 75/25 or so.

When I summered last year (at a firm that does a lot of this stuff), I noticed that there was also a shit ton of advisory work done. Companies would constantly call just to ask opinions on certain issues. I wrote up a few research reports for these advisory issues.

Anonymous User wrote:It does not fall under both. At its heart, and especially at the more junior levels, it is a litigation-based practice. Junior folks don't have the substantive knowledge yet to do counseling, so most of a junior's time in L&E will be spent with litigation matters. As you gain more knowledge of the law, you do more counseling of employers to help ensure that issues never arise in the first place, if at all possible.

There is very little that is transactional about L&E. The fact that not all the work is litigation does not mean that the rest is transactional. There is almost nothing transactional about the counseling aspects to L&E. Don't think of those as two mutually exclusive groups that make up the entirely of big firm practice. That is too crude a way of looking at things.

This guy needs to be outed for their stupidity. It certainly does fall under both. Wow. ERISA can be very transactional. Also you are dealing with non-competes. I mean, I could go on, but I'm still shocked that you tried to come out me with your complete absurdity.

So, does an associate in E&L ever go to court, alteast a little bit?

Sgt Brody. wrote:So, does an associate in E&L ever go to court, alteast a little bit?

Yes.

goldeneye wrote:

Sgt Brody. wrote:So, does an associate in E&L ever go to court, alteast a little bit?

Yes.

thanks!, and how often will the associate go to court, depends on the firm right?

Sgt Brody. wrote:

goldeneye wrote:

Sgt Brody. wrote:So, does an associate in E&L ever go to court, alteast a little bit?

Yes.

thanks!, and how often will the associate go to court, depends on the firm right?

On average associates go to court 56.5 days a year. This thread has a lot of good info for you: http://top-law-schools.com/forums/viewt ... 3&t=189981

From what I can tell, it's about 75% litigation/25% advisory.

A lot of the litigation, esp for associates, is through Position Statements for EEOC charges and Unfair Labor Practice ("ULP") charges. In my office, there is very little transactional work. The employee benefits guys seem to do more transactional work than anyone else. We do a lot of labor arbitrations and wage and hour class actions. Folks in my office hardly ever go to court. A partner once told me "we're litigators, not trial attorneys."

But as others have said, counselling is a big part of it. I draft a lot of memos on narrow issues to help clients assess risk. fwiw, I really love the practice.