What to Expect During the Initial Consultation with an
Employment Attorney

If you are experiencing discrimination, retaliation, or any other legal issue in the workplace, one of the first things you should always do is reach out to an employment attorney in your area.  You want someone who can provide you with legal advice and explain your options should you choose to pursue legal action against your current or former employer.  So, what should you expect when you set up a consultation to meet with an employment discrimination lawyer?  While many attorneys provide a free initial consultation (typically lasting between 30 minutes and 1 hour), you want to confirm in advance if there are any fees associated with this first meeting.  The initial consultation is primarily an opportunity for you to share your story and explain what you believe to be a violation of the law.  The employment attorney’s role in this meeting will be to (a) listen to the story, (b) ask questions, and (c) let you know if you have any potential legal claims to pursue. 

What do I bring to my initial consultation?

Keep in mind that you are not going to have time during an initial consultation to touch on every single detail related to your potential claim(s).  However, you should be comfortable going over the timeline of events that you believe are most related to your potential legal claim(s).  If you have any documentation to support your claim, you likely want to bring that information with you.  Because you (and the attorney) will not have time to go over every single detail and piece of potential evidence in this initial meeting, you should focus on identifying the documents that are most relevant to your claim.  The evidence you bring could include text messages, emails, memos, or audio/video recordings. 

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

You must always be open and honest with the attorney.  If you only provide the positive aspects of your claim, the negative facts will almost certainly come out down the road.  For an attorney to be able to most effectively represent you, he/she must know all of the facts; the good, the bad, and the ugly.  When you refrain from giving the full picture, you are only doing yourself a disservice and making the attorney’s job more difficult. 

Choosing the Employment Attorney who is Right for You

Following the initial consultation, the attorney should let you know whether you have a potential legal claim to pursue, and, if so, whether the attorney is willing and able to represent you.  If the attorney believes you have a claim and is willing to represent you, the attorney will also let you know what the fees will be to represent you in the matter.  Attorney’s fees can fall into several different categories: an hourly fee basis (usually requires an up-front retainer fee), flat fee (you pay the attorney a flat retainer fee up-front to represent you in the matter), partial contingency fee basis (you pay an up-front retainer fee plus the attorney has a contingency fee in any monetary recovery), or a contingency fee basis (the attorney only gets paid if he/she obtains a monetary settlement/recovery on your behalf).  Ultimately, in selecting the employment lawyer who is right for you, you should be comfortable with both the attorney and the fees that you are agreeing to.