Employment Defense Associate

Distinct | North America; California; Remote; USD 225,000 - 275,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote work

Job summary

Distinct | North America is seeking an Employment Defense Associate for our fully remote Los Angeles team. You will handle wage-and-hour and PAGA matters in state and federal court, defending California employers.

You’ll run your own files, draft motions, and advise clients on policy issues before disputes escalate. California Bar admission and roughly two years’ defense experience are required. Salary ranges from $225,000 to $275,000 with competitive benefits.

Qualifications

• Two years of defending California employers in wage-and-hour, PAGA and related disputes.
• Ability to handle matters in state and federal court and provide strategic guidance to clients.

Responsibilities

• Run own files and draft motions.
• Advise clients on meal-break policies and compliance to prevent disputes.
• Handle wage-and-hour, PAGA, discrimination, harassment and wrongful termination matters.

Skills

Employment defense

California Bar

Education

California Bar Admission

Job description

Employment Defense Associate | Fully Remote, Los Angeles | $225,000 to $275,000

Two years into employment defense is about the right time to be taking your own depositions, and on this Los Angeles team you would be.

It's employer side, it's fully remote and it pays $225,000 to $275,000. You'd want at least two years defending California employers, and the California Bar.

Most of the caseload is wage and hour and PAGA, in state and federal court, plus the single plaintiff discrimination, harassment and wrongful termination files every employer collects sooner or later. The clients make and sell things. Food and drink, factories, farms, hotels, shops, clothing brands. So your witnesses are shift supervisors and plant managers, and your documents are time punch reports and a handbook nobody's opened since their first week.

There's advice work as well and people undersell that bit. Telling a client how to fix a meal break policy before a PAGA letter turns up is a lot more satisfying than defending the old one after it has, and you'd be trusted to have that conversation with the client yourself.

You'd run your own files and write your own motions. The firm likes to think of itself as a partnership with not much of a ladder, so if you put your hand up for something you tend to get it. Decent benefits, and the work comes to you at home.