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AMA: Employment lawyers

Jaggers

By Jaggers
in Labour and Employment

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QueensDenning

QueensDenning

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  • Articling Student
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Would you recommend taking admin law during 3L (as someone interested in the L&E department of the large firm where I'll be articling)? 

Seems a little dry, but I don't want to pass on the class if it would help me in practice. 

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BuckDancer

BuckDancer

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59 minutes ago, QueensDenning said:

Would you recommend taking admin law during 3L (as someone interested in the L&E department of the large firm where I'll be articling)? 

Seems a little dry, but I don't want to pass on the class if it would help me in practice. 

100%, as a junior labour and employment lawyer I wish I could take admin law all over again lol. 

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Chief Keef

Chief Keef

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Any advice for a 2022 call working in general litigation who is interested in transitioning into management-side L&E sometime in the new year? Do the management-side L&E firms like Hicks Morley/Filion Wakely/Matthews Dinsdale often hire people who only have litigation experience?

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Bob Jones

Bob Jones

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On 11/14/2022 at 8:30 PM, Chief Keef said:

Any advice for a 2022 call working in general litigation who is interested in transitioning into management-side L&E sometime in the new year? Do the management-side L&E firms like Hicks Morley/Filion Wakely/Matthews Dinsdale often hire people who only have litigation experience?

It's harder to make that transition to one of the bigger shops you just referenced. Try and get as much Management-side L&E work as you can, that will really help your application. Keep your eyes open for openings and try cold-emailing these firms once you've hit the 1 year mark, but be prepared for what can feel like a discouraging process. Possible, but difficult this early on. Helps if you have really good grades though, as a lot of applications at bigger firms will require your grades for the first 5-10 years of practice. 

On 8/31/2022 at 12:16 PM, BuckDancer said:

100%, as a junior labour and employment lawyer I wish I could take admin law all over again lol. 

To add to this, the appellate level work you will inevitably get involved with will have you drafting factums/making submissions, a portion of which deal with the various standards of review to justify seeking leave to appeal to the ONCA (as an example). In addition, you will likely be getting involved with regulatory issues and potential appeals regarding those decisions, or appeals/JRs relating to grievance arbitrations, so Admin Law will kick in at some point. Having a decent background in Admin Law will be helpful. 

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Jaggers

Jaggers

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21 minutes ago, Bob Jones said:

To add to this, the appellate level work you will inevitably get involved with will have you drafting factums/making submissions, a portion of which deal with the various standards of review to justify seeking leave to appeal to the ONCA (as an example). In addition, you will likely be getting involved with regulatory issues and potential appeals regarding those decisions, or appeals/JRs relating to grievance arbitrations, so Admin Law will kick in at some point. Having a decent background in Admin Law will be helpful. 

I did a lot of this when I was at the firm. Admin law is essential to get into any sort of more complex employment law work.

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QueensDenning

QueensDenning

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Do employer-side employment lawyers ever switch to employee side? I can see why it doesn't happen on the labour side, but is it common for employment lawyers? 

I've also heard employee-side lawyers can make more money because of contingency fee arrangements. Is this common? Do employee-side lawyers make more (in general) than employer-side lawyers?

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ZukoJD

ZukoJD

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2 hours ago, QueensDenning said:

Do employer-side employment lawyers ever switch to employee side? I can see why it doesn't happen on the labour side, but is it common for employment lawyers? 

I've also heard employee-side lawyers can make more money because of contingency fee arrangements. Is this common? Do employee-side lawyers make more (in general) than employer-side lawyers?

My employment law prof (long time practitioner) told me contingency fee arrangements were rare for employee-side L&E. So if they can make more, I don’t see that being the reason why. 

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Zarathustra

Zarathustra

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My practice is almost exclusively employee-side L&E work and I have seen people transition from the management side/inhouse to the employee side. The vast majority of my files are contingency based. You can definitely make more if you are efficient.  

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Jaggers

Jaggers

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I've seen people move from one side to the other somewhat regularly. It's not the most common thing to do, but it happens.

A lot of files now are contingency-based. Your prof's information may be old, or they may be old and still practice in the old way. So while it may be true of their practice, I don't think it's the rule anymore at all.

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QueensDenning

QueensDenning

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Posted (edited)
20 hours ago, ZukoJD said:

My employment law prof (long time practitioner) told me contingency fee arrangements were rare for employee-side L&E. So if they can make more, I don’t see that being the reason why. 

I interviewed with some of the bigger employee-side firms and when I told them my politics lean management side, they're whole pitch became how much more money you can make on employee side because of the contingency fees. 

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ZukoJD

ZukoJD

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8 hours ago, QueensDenning said:

I interviewed with some of the bigger employee-side firms and when I told them my politics lean management side, they're whole pitch became how much more money you can make on employee side because of the contingency fees. 

Weird. Not sure why the discrepancy. 

Edited by ZukoJD
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PalomaBlanca

PalomaBlanca

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10 hours ago, QueensDenning said:

I interviewed with some of the bigger employee-side firms and when I told them my politics lean management side, they're whole pitch became how much more money you can make on employee side because of the contingency fees. 

Even if true, you are signing up for a wrongful dismissal litigation practice exclusively. Not sure how fun that is.

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