Employment Defense Associate

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

Job summary

Distinct invites an Employment Defense Associate to join our Los Angeles team in a fully remote role. With 2+ years defending California employers, you would handle wage-and-hour and PAGA matters in state and federal court, while benefiting from a responsive partnership culture and flexible home-based work.

You'll run your own files, draft motions, and advise clients on strategy, including how to address meal and break policies before a PAGA letter arrives.

Qualifications

• Minimum 2 years defending California employers in employment defense.
• Active California Bar license required.
• Strong written and oral advocacy with deposition experience.

Responsibilities

• Run your own files and draft motions.
• Take and defend depositions as needed.
• Advise clients on wage-and-hour and PAGA strategies.
• Litigate wage-and-hour, PAGA, discrimination, and wrongful termination matters in state and federal court.

Skills

Employment defense

Deposition skills

Motion writing

Education

California Bar membership

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.