Looking for career advice. I have two competing offers in the L&E space, which is my ideal area of practice.

Firm 1: plaintiff side discrimination lit
Firm 2: plaintiff side wage and hour

I've read online that wage and hour is lucrative but pretty repetitive. I like the culture at that firm better but my ultimate goal is to go in-house in like 10 years. Thoughts?

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I worked for a plaintiff-side discrimination firm (one partner, two associates) when I first graduated law school. When I saw the partner I worked for several years after leaving, he told me he no longer does much discrimination work - that wage and hour laws are much more plaintiff-friendly and the practice is more lucrative. This is in NY.

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Thank you! That's the sense that I'm getting from the comp I've been offered.

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It's gonna be hard to go in-house if your only experience is plaintiff side.

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I have some defense side experience too.

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Discrimination is more repetitive in my experience, and I prefer the wage and hour work I do (which is mostly class actions and involves novel or important issues more regularly). Especially if you like the culture at the wage and hour job better, I’d take that

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Go with wage and hour. In-house counsel needs to deal with wage and hour issues all the time. It’s also better work. Either the evidence shows people were paid correctly or they weren’t. I’ve done plaintiff and management side discrimination and I’ve never seen a good case. One worth settling or higher value sure but no slam dunks. I’d only consider taking a plaintiff side discrimination case now if the employee had text/emails with something super egregious. Like a racial slur from a supervisor closely followed by a termination. I’m just over it.

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Plaintiff side wage and hour for sure. It’s more niche and a lot of firms in the defense side and in-house will be looking for that specialty.

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What year are you? I think it’s better to have employment discrimination experience. Those claims always have a wage and hour component, so you get the benefit of learning both. I don’t know any in house counsel who only have wage and hour experience, so I would recommend looking at some job ads for in house to see if that exists. It very well can, but there just may be less opportunities.

4th year. I've got some HR experience before becoming a lawyer and some defense-side employment experience largely focused on discrimination. I'm in government, so technically in-house now. Just not getting any bites when I apply for in-house roles. Everyone seems to want firm experience.

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