I’ve been practicing in traditional labor for about two years now (although about a decade of labor relations experience) but I’m trying to break into employee benefits law. Unfortunately I’m not being given much experience in benefits as I’m pretty typecast as a labor atty. Any advice on how I can go about getting employee benefit experience? My long term goal is to have benefits be my main area of practice.

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Could always get a tax llm. I think John Marshall Law School has an llm in benefits. Some of the employment law shops (Littler, etc.) have attorneys that do both.

The market is slow right now so it may take awhile to find something, but it can be done

I’m in Employee Benefits now. When the work demand was intense, my BL firm hired one attorney who’d been a Big 4 Tax lawyer for a few years as a second-year associate (below this person’s years out of school, but still more than they had been earning). This person admitted they would need some handholding in the beginning but stressed their interest and that they expected to catch on to the tax-related aspects of the job quickly

Maybe you can similarly try to break into a new Benefits-specific position by leveraging aspects of your current job? I’m sure your experience would have useful overlaps to sell on interviews

Are you at a firm with a strong benefit/ERISA practice? If yes, hit up those partners and let development know

I agree with this - usually firms are pretty good about balancing your development needs and they might be able to get you on some cases. What exactly happens when you ask for breaking into employee benefits?

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