Employment Trial Partner

Distinct | North America; California; Hybrid; USD 250,000 - 285,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus programs

401(k)

Paid parental leave

Job summary

Distinct | North America in Orange County is seeking an Employment Trial Partner to lead major employment defense cases from filing to verdict.

You will manage big employment files, craft early theories, select juries, and coordinate witnesses across concurrent trials. The role offers remote or hybrid work with significant client and trial travel as needed.

Qualifications

• Ten years or more of litigation experience including employment jury trials led.
• California Bar admission required; appellate experience helpful.

Responsibilities

• Handle large employment files from filing to verdict with junior support.
• Develop early trial theory and build case strategy accordingly.
• Select juries, open, and present witnesses in court across concurrent trials.

Skills

Litigation experience

Employment defense

Trial leadership

Job description

Employment Trial Partner | Remote or Hybrid, Orange County | $250,000 to $285,000 base

Plenty of employment partners haven't picked a jury on their own case in three years, and most of them would rather you didn't bring it up at dinner.

Most employment defense settles, and plenty of firms build the whole practice around that. This Orange County group wants a partner for the ones that don't. You'd take the big employment files from the day they arrive to a verdict, work out the theory early and build everything off it, pick the jury, open, and put the client's witnesses up yourself. There'd be several cases going at once with juniors on all of them, and you'd be the person they learn trial work from.

It pays $250,000 to $285,000 base, with bonus programs on top, a 401(k) contribution and paid parental leave. Work is remote or hybrid, whichever suits you, and you'd travel when a trial or a client needs you there.

The group is established and growing and has a bit of an entrepreneurial streak about how it does that. People don't tend to leave. So the associate you spend two years training is still around to second chair your next trial, and the partner down the hall still picks up when a witness starts wobbling the night before they go on.

You'd want ten years or more of litigation including employment jury trials you led, and the California Bar. Appellate experience would help.