What should I look for in hiring a lawyer for discrimination at work?
When you're looking to hire an attorney who specializes in workplace discrimination, you want to make sure they have three main things. Number one, that that's what they do exclusively.
You don't want an attorney who's specializing in employment law and five different other areas of law. Employment law itself is very unique and it's very specialized and it's very nuanced. And so you want to make sure that your attorney knows the area of law in and out.
Number two, you want to make sure your attorney has experience. It's not enough that they focus on employment law if they've only been doing it for a short amount of time. Check their track record. Make sure they have experience. Make sure that they know what they've been doing and they've been doing it for a while.
Number three is you want to make sure that your attorney has results, proven results. They've been able to take cases to trial. They were able to sue big employers and get good results for their clients. When you have those three things, you know you found a good attorney.
Ask how they handle the process, not just the outcome
A lawyer who genuinely handles discrimination cases should be able to walk you through how the administrative complaint process works with the California Civil Rights Department or the EEOC, and explain it without hesitating. If that explanation comes out vague or rehearsed, that's worth noticing.
California's State Bar also certifies board-certified specialists in labor and employment law. It's not a requirement — plenty of excellent employee-side attorneys skip the designation entirely — but it's one more data point when you're comparing two lawyers who otherwise look similar on paper.
Ask about fees before you sign anything
A straightforward answer about how they get paid is a good sign. Most employee-side employment attorneys work on contingency — no fee unless they recover for you — and a firm confident in a case will usually put those terms in writing before you commit to anything.
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