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Representing the Underdog
If you have a passion for civil rights and like to root for the underdog, you might find working on the plaintiffs' side of the employment bar a good fit. While plaintiffs aren't always the underdog, many plaintiffs' lawyers report that they at least feel like the underdog most of the time. Plaintiffs' side attorneys encounter many unique, challenging and potentially rewarding aspects of litigation practice not experienced by their peers on the management side. The substantive nature of the work, however, is virtually identical.

Plaintiffs' lawyers represent the parties that initiate the kinds of employment litigation discussed in the last chapter, from sexual harassment to age discrimination to wage and hour litigation. Plaintiff-side practice is almost exclusively focused on litigation. The kind of counseling plaintiffs' attorneys provide entails consulting with potential clients to evaluate the merits of a case. Again, if your civil procedure class seemed like a trip to the dentist's office, employment litigation may not be the field for you. On the other hand, if the thought of standing up in front of jury and telling your client's story excites you, there may be no better place to practice than on the plaintiffs' side of the employment bar.

Focus on Smaller Cases
Unlike the different sizes you find on the management/defense side, plaintiffs' firms tend to come in one size only - small. Most plaintiffs' firms are small litigation firms with a handful of attorneys who represent plaintiffs in a variety of cases. While some plaintiffs' firms specialize in employment litigation, others combine their employment practice with civil rights cases, personal injury work or other kinds of litigation. Examples of plaintiffs' firms well known for employment litigation include Rudy, Exelrod & Zieff in San Francisco and Hadsell & Stormer in Los Angeles. Because of their smaller size, plaintiffs' firms tend to have localized practices concentrated in one metropolitan area or, at most, an entire state. The mainstay of these firms are single- and multi-plaintiff actions. Larger class actions, which involve significant financial risk for plaintiffs' counsel, are usually brought by firms with expertise in class actions or by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The EEOC is a major force in the world of employment law and acts essentially as the federal government's plaintiffs' firm for employment matters. (The EEOC will be discussed in more detail below.)

Sink or Swim Training
At private plaintiffs' firms, the focus on smaller cases allows new lawyers to work on significant matters early in their careers. Brian Soriano, an employment litigator at Goldstein, Gellman, Melbostad, Gibson & Harris LLP, suggests that as a junior attorney at a plaintiffs' firm you will probably get substantial responsibility on a case—even before you think you're ready. This "sink or swim" method of training is common at plaintiffs' firms which need associates to be competent litigators early on because they just don't have time to slowly train new attorneys and bring them up through the ranks. Not only do junior plaintiffs' attorneys frequently enjoy more responsibility than their counterparts at large management firms, but they also are likely to have greater client contact.

Holding the Client's Hand
Plaintiffs' lawyers work closely with clients who may feel victimized and at times be very emotional. The close relationships that often develop between employment discrimination plaintiffs and their attorneys can require a certain amount of "client management" or "hand-holding" (as some lawyers like to call it), and at such times plaintiffs' lawyers may assume a role closer to counselor than litigator. Plaintiffs' attorneys also have to deal with clients' mood swings that range from disenchantment with the litigation to holding onto an unreasonable settlement position because they are so emotionally entangled in the case. These aspects of the attorney-client relationship come at a much earlier stage to attorneys on the plaintiffs' side than to defense-side lawyers. Associates at plaintiffs' firms often have significant interaction with clients in their first few years of practice, while partners are usually the main contact with clients on the management side and actual interaction with corporate clients may not trickle far down the ranks. Many lawyers find the early responsibility, close client contact and opportunity to litigate a ton of cases attractive aspects of plaintiff-side practice.

More Food for Thought
On the other hand, the plaintiffs' side of the bar offers fewer opportunities for young attorneys to obtain practical training from attentive senior litigators. Plaintiffs' side litigators tend to be independent types who aren't in the business of building a law firm full of well-trained associates. Even when you find an opportunity on the plaintiffs' side it will not be nearly as lucrative in the beginning as starting out on the management side. Entry-level associate positions on the plaintiffs' side are usually in the $55,000 to $75,000 range, while starting salaries on the management side may be twice that amount. In addition, more senior plaintiffs' attorneys have to deal with all of the risks associated with contingent fee arrangements that are the foundation of plaintiffs' side work. Contingency-based fees can, of course, prove very lucrative, but they involve a degree of financial risk that management-side lawyers don't usually have to deal with.

The EEOC
As the agency responsible for enforcing federal employment discrimination laws, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission might be considered the biggest plaintiffs' firm of them all. EEOC lawyers tend to serve two functions. First, they serve as in-house counsel for the investigative arm of the agency. In this capacity EEOC lawyers might take complaints or investigate claims. Second, EEOC attorneys serve as trial lawyers in federal court, prosecuting the employment cases that could not be settled by the parties voluntarily through the EEOC's conciliation process. The cases actually tried by the EEOC tend be higher profile cases and provide EEOC lawyers with the opportunity to litigate opposite some of the best private practice employment litigators in the country. Such unique litigation experiences are among the reasons that positions at the EEOC are in short supply. Another reason is that the EEOC's ability to hire lawyers is directly tied to its general budget, which must be approved by Congress.

The starting salary at the EEOC is around $42,000 (GS-11 level) but, according to the agency's web site, a new lawyer's salary can reach nearly $83,000 (GS-15 level) in about four years. Because the General Schedule pay rates are adjusted geographically, the actual salaries in some regions may be higher.