What's It like to Be an employment lawyer in the United States?

Statutory and federal laws in regard to employment

Some employment lawyers work to help make sure employees are guaranteed protections as given to them by the Constitution of the United States, or by the federal and state statutes that affect the jobs those employees work in. Employment discrimination is one area employment lawyers deal with when they specialize in the ramifications of statutory and federal laws' enforcement.

Unions and collective bargaining rights

Although unions are not the force they once were in the workplace, unions and the collective bargaining rights they hold are still an important part of workers rights' protection, for some. Originally, unions came in to play as a means to protect employees by giving them leverage so that they could demand better pay, benefits, and working conditions. employment lawyers who work specifically for unions generally work for one side or the other. They may work for companies that employ union workers, to make sure the companies' rights are protected, or they may work for the union workers themselves, to make sure that unionized employees are protected. With this type of work, the focus is on the contracts union workers and companies draw up to in effect ''spell out'' what union workers rights are.

Contract and tort law

Perhaps unfortunately, in many states, people are now employed via a situation called ''employment at will,'' meaning that an employer doesn't even have to have a specific reason to fire you, and can simply do so at will. However, even nonunion jobs are becoming increasingly contract-based, whereby a document spells out just exactly what a contracted worker will do for the company, and what that company will do for the contracted worker in return. Once it's determined that this type of contract will be used, both the contracted worker and the company need lawyers to negotiate and draw up contracts that will be amenable to both sides.

If that contract is breached by either side, employment lawyers for either side represent the company and the employee as applicable, in what's called a breach of contract claim or a tort claim.

Getting a job as an employment lawyer

For someone to get a job as an employment lawyer, he or she generally attends a four year college and gets a pre-law degree, then goes on to law school; during law school, he or she may decide to specialize in different types of the law; one of these is employment law.