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.jpg) By Larry Bodine, Esq., a business development advisor based in Glen Ellyn, IL, and Tucson, AZ. With the Apollo Business Development Program, he has helped law firms nationwide get new clients and generate millions of dollars of new revenue. He can be reached at 630.942.0977 and www.larrybodine.com. Follow Larry Bodine at http://twitter.com/LarryBodine
Corporations created 226,117 potential clients in December 2008, by laying them off from their jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. From the start of the recession in December 2007 through December 2008, the total number of people who were laid off is a staggering 2,394,434.
Each of these people is a potential client with a workplace discrimination claim against their employer, as described in the January 31, 2009 article "Layoffs Herald a Heyday for Employee Lawsuits" in the New York Times. Now is the time for law firms to start marketing their employment law capabilities.
Claims can include:
- Violation of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, known as the Warn Act, requiring 60 days’ notice before laying off workers. WARN Act claims have been filed against Lehman Brothers, the failed investment bank, Eos, a bankrupt airline, and law firms that recently folded, Thelen and Heller Ehrman.
- Discrimination against veterans, older workers, disabled employees and "Mommy RIFs" that hit working mothers.
- Class action lawsuits, such as those brought against employers like Ethan Allen, Dell and Lockheed Martin, according to the Times.
Lawrence Z. Lorber, an employment lawyer at Proskauer Rose in Washington, DC, said, “When there is no job, there is no safety valve,” he said, “so people who have issues and then lose their jobs or have some adverse employment action taken, are now much more willing to file their suits.” The firm's website promotes that "Proskauer's nearly 175 labor and employment lawyers are capable of addressing the most complex and challenging labor and employment law issues faced by employers."
 Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll is promoting that its lawyers bring more than 50 years of experience in representing victims of discrimination. “This is the first time we’ve had major reductions in force with the full panoply of employment protections we have now,” said Joseph M. Sellers, head of the employment practice at the law firm. “We are embarking on a new phase in employment litigation.” The firm has 53 lawyers in Washington, DC, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and London.
"We have a Warn Act practice group that we started from scratch a year and a half ago, and they're busy, busy, busy," Wayne N. Outten of Outten & Golden told the Times. "We have filed somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 Warn Act cases, two-third of those in the last four months. The firm has 26 lawyers based in New York and Stamford, CT.
The firm's home page proclaims, "From representing senior executives in contract negotiations, to protecting individuals' civil rights in the workplace, to combating worker exploitation and systemic discrimination in class action and impact litigation, Outten & Golden LLP is a recognized leader in the field of employment law." The firm also publishes an employer-focused blog at http://www.outtengolden.com/blog/
"Employee related claims are growing on a national level," lawyer Scott H. Marcus states on the firm website. "Some of this increase in employee lawsuits can be attributed to the recent economic downturn, and with a sagging economy, we can expect employee lawsuits to rise even further."
Employment claims grow nationwide
 "The frightening part for businesses is that employees win 71% of all employee related claims. Alleged violations of state and federal law can land you in court, and these violations apply to even the smallest of businesses. Any time these employment cases see the inside of a courtroom, the odds are instantly stacked against the employer," Marcus states.
The firm markets its Encyclopedia of Employee Handbooks. "To battle these odds, a company must protect themselves from potential employee lawsuits. A company simply needs to adopt clear, written policies set forth in an employee manual," the firm site states.
Worker rights are expanding. President Obama signed into law the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act on January 29, 2009, a law named for an Alabama woman who at the end of a 19-year career as a supervisor in a tire factory complained that she had been paid less than men. The legislation overturns a Supreme Court ruling against her and it expands workers’ rights to sue in this kind of case, relaxing the statute of limitations.
Now 70, Ms. Ledbetter discovered when she was nearing retirement that her male colleagues were earning much more than she was. A jury found her employer, the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company plant in Gadsden, Ala., guilty of pay discrimination. Obama said the new legislation was designed to “send a clear message that making our economy work means making sure it works for everybody.”
Presumably, this includes employment lawyers. |
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