Know thy Self, Know thy Enemy: Articles From the Plaintiff Lawyers’ Perspective
Much of what is presented in this blog is written from either management’s perspective or the defense counsel. Not surprising, given who George is, and also in light of the fact that, as far as I can tell, attorneys for management seem to do more of the writing.
But, of course, we know that there are some very large, formidable plaintiffs’ law firms as well. Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, as an example, is a law firm that was actively involved in the Ambercrombie Fitch employment discrimination case, as well as other cases, such as a FedEx case involving race discrimination in promotions and pay.
If you go to Lieff’s website, there are also interersting postings on
various topics of particular interest to plaintiffs’ lawyers, on such things as class action suits,
trends in employment discrimination, and the recent overtime provision changes.
Best you know what your enemy is up to!!! Wait, who is the enemy now, George?????
Michael is certainly correct about my perspective, insofar as my experience is all with representation of employers, and I see the primary audience for this Blawg as businesses and their HR professionals and attorneys.
However, I see a secondary goal of this Blawg as simply putting useful news and information out into cyberspace.
I assume from our stats that Google and other search engines bring plenty of traffic from employees seeking to learn about employment law and HR issues. Criticism and dialogue from an employee perspective is occasionally received and always welcome (as long as it is civil).
Employers and employees have common interests in a safe, productive, and nondiscriminatory workplace.
Of course we will always be at odds to varying degrees over bottom-line-affecting items — primarily wages and benefits.
I personally prefer not to view employees or unions as the “enemy” and do not find the classic adversarial model of labor relations particularly helpful to employees, especially in the longer run.
Are plaintiffs’ employment lawyers the “enemy”? Not to the extent their litigiousness merely reflects ethical and professional representation of litigious clients whose legal rights the attorneys reasonably believe have been violated.
They are, however, the “enemy” to the extent they take nonmeritorious cases and leverage the cost of litigation and risk of a jury verdict to force employers to settle, often receiving more than the value of their work in a contingent fee.