L&E work-life balance relative to other practice areas (Biglaw or boutique) Forum

[Anonymous User]

I know work life balance is non existent in any biglaw. But relatively speaking, how does L&E as a practice group compare to others? Would love to hear from anyone who’s worked for a notable Biglaw practice (Proskauer, Morgan Lewis, etc.) or an L&E specific boutique

[Anonymous User]

At Morgan Lewis, they seem about as busy as litigation groups.

[TheGreatestGunner]

Pretty much exactly the same. One difference is that L&E can be more steady and less spiky than other practices, as it is often possible to staff a higher number of narrow scope matters (i.e. individual sexual harassment claims, OSHA, etc.). When you have a portfolio of these kinds of matters, there is usually always something to do somewhere, rather than nothing to do for awhile and then suddenly way too much. However, there are also practices that focus on larger scale organized labor or class-wide matters, so in that case, it is just like any other litigation practice.

One thing that is helpful in that line of work is to either have a dark sense of humor or a strong ability to "empathize, but distance".

[kaiser]

For context, I was a biglaw L&E associate for close to 7 years. I'd say the overall workload was comparable to general litigation. But it wasn't apples-to-apples because my work was often far more substantive than what my litigation colleagues were working on. In L&E, there is generally far less discovery (unless you are working at a mega-firm that only really does wage & hour litigation). My firm did many large litigations, but because we were still a bit more regional and not at the price point as the mega firms, we were able to take on a number of smaller cases. And those were great for the L&E associates to cut their teeth on.

So I was constantly busy. But instead of just doing doc review day after day, it was drafting briefs, attending mediations, prepping for oral arguments, drafting depo outlines, etc. Yes, sometimes it was doc review, or busy work like 50-state surveys on evolving areas of L&E. But I was generally slammed because I worked on so many smaller matters at once. But as someone mentioned, its somewhat predictable because you know when the major deadlines are coming, and what times will be super busy. And once you have a few years under your belt, client counseling becomes a very important part of L&E practice. If your firm is good about exposing you to clients, and making you their point of contact, that can end up being a big chunk of your day. The issue with that is the lack of predictability, but at least it balances out with the more predictable litigation work.

[Anonymous User]

For context, I was a biglaw L&E associate for close to 7 years. I'd say the overall workload was comparable to general litigation. But it wasn't apples-to-apples because my work was often far more substantive than what my litigation colleagues were working on. In L&E, there is generally far less discovery (unless you are working at a mega-firm that only really does wage & hour litigation). My firm did many large litigations, but because we were still a bit more regional and not at the price point as the mega firms, we were able to take on a number of smaller cases. And those were great for the L&E associates to cut their teeth on.

So I was constantly busy. But instead of just doing doc review day after day, it was drafting briefs, attending mediations, prepping for oral arguments, drafting depo outlines, etc. Yes, sometimes it was doc review, or busy work like 50-state surveys on evolving areas of L&E. But I was generally slammed because I worked on so many smaller matters at once. But as someone mentioned, its somewhat predictable because you know when the major deadlines are coming, and what times will be super busy. And once you have a few years under your belt, client counseling becomes a very important part of L&E practice. If your firm is good about exposing you to clients, and making you their point of contact, that can end up being a big chunk of your day. The issue with that is the lack of predictability, but at least it balances out with the more predictable litigation work.

I didn't spend as long in the L&E trenches as you, but even as a biglaw part-L&E associate for ~4 years, seconded on all of this. The experience I got in L&E was head and shoulders above what I would've gotten as a general lit associate at my firm, and included court appearances and first-chairing depos from about year 2 on. It was instrumental in getting me my next job.

It eventually started to grate and I couldn't imagine myself doing individual discrimination/retaliation/harassment cases for the rest of my career, or even client counseling. You see two or three of those cases and you feel like you've basically seen them all, much less once you've seen thirty of them (often by the same handful of attorneys, most of whom suck; it's a volume business and they're trying to settle before spending real money on the case, not to bring it to trial or arbitration -- so while you get great experience pre-trial, at least at my firm we almost never went to trial in L&E matters). But as a way to start a legal career in biglaw, I can't recommend L&E more highly.

Also agreed with the general sentiment that it's roughly the same hours but typically more predictable. And by roughly the same, that's still a ton. My hours were typically in the 2200-2400 range, which was above average at my firm. But I never had a month above 250 doing L&E. That wasn't true of my time in general lit.

[almostperfectt]

L&E = Labor and Employment for anyone else who had to google this lol

[Anonymous User]

OP here. Would Proskauer (specifically their NYC office) be mostly mega wage and hour work or does it have the same variety as maybe a slightly smaller L&E practice?

[Anonymous User]

I do L&E at a Boutique (Littler, Jackson Lewis, Ogletree) and the work is never ending. Especially now. Post covid, things have just gotten more busy. We have more of an EPLI practice which I realize people don't like, but honestly its not that brutal. Maybe billing takes a few extra seconds, but I haven't dealt with that many appeals (which are truly so annoying). And on EPLI cases, you often get to work with smaller clients with whom you have a lot of interaction with. You run a lot of the show at boutiques because the partners are just slammed. The people are great to work with at my firm, and I do appreciate that I feel I am getting a lof of experience. The hours are less, 1850, but the pay is also less. Like a midlevel would still make less than a first year at biglaw, in most cases.