/9918578/Banner

/9918578/Banner_2

/9918578/Mid

section

articleId

product

orgType

parrefer

accountID

Consulting

Banking

Accounting

Fintech

Internships

Rankings

Internship Rankings

Intern Resource Center

Explore Internships

Vault Law Home

Practice Area Resource Centers

Regional Resource Centers

Summer Program Resource Center

Vault Law Culture & Inclusion Survey

Vault Law

Guides

Events

Financial Services

Technology

Grad School

Work Relationships

Productivity

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Social Impact

Remote Work

Negotiating

Changing Jobs

Workplace Issues

Blog

Resume Samples

Cover Letter Samples

Interview Tips & Questions

A Day in the Life

International

Career Readiness

Explore Professions

Research Industries

Search Companies

Career Advice

Employers

Schools

This article is excerpted from the &lt;b&gt;Vault Guide to Careers in Labor and Employment Law&lt;/b&gt;. &lt;br&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://images.vault.com/box_4F6F96_6.gif&quot; /&gt; Read more excerpts or purchase the guide &lt;br&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://images.vault.com/box_4F6F96_6.gif&quot; /&gt; Discuss law careers at the Law Career Message Board &lt;br&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://images.vault.com/box_4F6F96_6.gif&quot; /&gt; Find the perfect opportunity for you on the Vault Law Job Board &lt;p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;p&gt;Law firms that represent the interests of management/employers (otherwise known as defense side) come in all shapes and sizes. At the larger end of the spectrum are the giant national and international law firms with labor and employment departments packed with hundreds of attorneys. Firms that are well known for their employment practices include Paul, Hastings, Janofsky &amp;amp; Walker; Morgan, Lewis &amp;amp; Bockius; and Proskauer Rose, to name just a few. In the middle of the spectrum are national or regional law firms specializing in employment matters, such as Littler Mendelson or Fisher &amp;amp; Phillips. At the smaller end of the spectrum are &quot;boutique&quot; employment firms with a handful of attorneys that specialize in employment defense matters. Examples of these firms include Swerdlow Florence Sanchez Swerdlow and Wimmer in Los Angeles; Benetar Bernstein Schair &amp;amp; Stein in New York; and Kauff McClain &amp;amp; McGuire, with offices in New York and San Francisco. These firms may also work on the management side of traditional labor matters. &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Employment boutiques&lt;/b&gt; &lt;p&gt;Lean staffing and early responsibility &lt;p&gt;At smaller firms or employment boutiques, the emphasis is on litigation, most of which is likely to involve single- or multi-plaintiff lawsuits rather than large class actions. The lower billing rates at smaller firms attract such single-plaintiff work because there is often less at stake in these cases. While some small firms do handle class actions, those complex cases tend to be the exception rather than the rule. New associates at these firms are also likely to encounter smaller matters such as worker&#39;s compensation or unemployment benefit disputes. This aspect of small firm practice may be a blessing for new associates because single-plaintiff cases and smaller matters are leanly staffed and usually provide ample opportunities for substantive litigation work, like taking depositions and drafting significant motions. &lt;p&gt;While much of the substantive work is comparable, the pay scale and other amenities associated with some large firms are not likely to be found at these smaller employment boutiques. The salaries for new hires at small firms generally fall in the $50,000 to $85,000 range depending on the geographic market. On the other hand, the billable hour requirements are normally not as demanding as those at large firms. While attorneys at small firms may enjoy early litigation experience, a litigation-centered practice will probably not provide the same opportunities to work on transactional or corporate-related matters offered by a larger, departmentalized firm. A junior associate at a small firm should also be prepared to undertake more administrative duties (such as filing, mailing and editing documents) than his or her peers at larger firms, which tend to be staffed with more assistants and paralegals. &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Large law firms&lt;/b&gt; &lt;p&gt;Variations in the employment department model &lt;p&gt;There is no uniform structure for employment departments at large firms. Employment lawyers at some large firms may spend up to 80 percent of their time on litigation-related matters, while attorneys elsewhere might handle more corporate and transactional work and leave the actual employment litigation to the firm&#39;s general litigation department. According to one employment associate at a big firm, &quot;Sometimes large firms&#39; rate structures are such that employment litigation (which may be small dollars) goes elsewhere, making it far more likely that employment lawyers will work on corporate deals.&quot; The attorney adds that, &quot;As rates go up, the amount of employment litigation at large firms decreases. Notably, this is a corollary to the idea that younger associates generally get more hands-on experience in an employment practice than in other areas (the cases must be staffed leanly because the amount in controversy is usually modest.)&quot; At the same time, other large-firm associates report that litigation and litigation-related counseling continues to make up the bulk of their practice. &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Big-name clients and big cases&lt;/b&gt; &lt;p&gt;At large law firms, new attorneys find sophisticated work and a high-profile and stable client base. One advantage to working with a base of regular clients is the opportunity to develop long-term relationships of trust and confidence. Morgan Lewis associate Sarah Bouchard finds the ongoing relations with firm clients one of the &quot;most rewarding&quot; aspects of her practice. Junior associates at large employment firms are also likely to encounter a mix of single-plaintiff actions and large class actions. As the billing rates at most large firms skyrocket to compensate for the increases in associate salaries, these firms are increasingly shifting their litigation focus to class actions that generate a substantial number of billable hours. Smaller, more tightly-staffed cases may be harder to come by at a large firm; this difficulty, according to an employment lawyer at a top firm, is a constant issue for associates. &lt;p&gt;In spite of this economic reality, many large firms realize that small single-plaintiff actions are essential for training top-flight homegrown associates, so they try to ensure that a number of smaller cases are available for new lawyers. Regardless of where you decide to practice, you should make sure that you will be able to work on some single- or multi-plaintiff suits early in your career because they provide the greatest opportunity to handle important aspects of a case. &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;With higher salaries, higher expectations&lt;/b&gt; &lt;p&gt;On the compensation side, large firms are at the pinnacle of the legal pay scale. Salary wars between firms during the dot-com boom have resulted in first-year salaries ranging from $95,000 to $135,000 depending on the geographic market. Before the dot-com bubble burst, year-end bonuses at these firms reached anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000 and beyond. More recently, however, most large firms have begun to delicately suggest that big bonuses are a thing of the past. Large firms also frequently provide a smorgasbord of other benefits that can include health club memberships, discounted theater and sports tickets, fancy attorney dining rooms - even biweekly massages! &lt;p&gt;These perks and benefits do come at a price; new associates at large firms are expected to work very hard and be extremely efficient. According to an employment litigator at a respected national firm, young lawyers coming into a large firm should be prepared to work extremely hard and demonstrate their value to the firm within their first year because &quot;At $125,000 a year what you bring to the equation is youth, energy and a healthy fear of failure.&quot; Minimum billable hour requirements at most large firms climb well above 2,000 hours. Moreover, the average number of hours billed by junior associates is likely to be a few hundred hours more than that minimum. These numbers may not mean much to you in law school time, but the 200-hour difference between 1,900 and 2,100 billable hours can mean the difference between enjoying weekends at the beach or spending them in the office. Several contacts at large firms suggest that the &quot;ever-increasing focus&quot; on billable hours, more than the actual number of hours required, is the most frustrating aspect of their practice. When considering various employment options you should analyze all of these factors before making any final decisions. &lt;p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;p&gt;This article is excerpted from the &lt;b&gt;Vault Guide to Careers in Labor and Employment Law&lt;/b&gt;. &lt;br&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://images.vault.com/box_4F6F96_6.gif&quot; /&gt; Read more excerpts or purchase the guide &lt;br&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://images.vault.com/box_4F6F96_6.gif&quot; /&gt; Discuss law careers at the Law Career Message Board &lt;br&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://images.vault.com/box_4F6F96_6.gif&quot; /&gt; Find the perfect opportunity for you on the Vault Law Job Board &lt;/p&gt;

Vault Law Editors

Article

Day in the Life: Insights from Attorneys in General Corporate Practice

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day from Vault Law

Learning and Development for Junior Associates

The Summer Experience at Weil’s Boston Office

The Library