NELC ACADEMY FELLOWS

When you are a Rock Star Associate, you get to work on the best cases with the best clients. Partners and clients want you on their matters and let everyone know it. And Rock Stars earn the grace to turn down work they don’t want and stretch for new opportunities. Why? Because Rock Stars excel at client service, save time, make life easier for those around them, and just somehow seem better than their peers. And the same skills enable Rock Star Associates to excel at business development and have a leg-up on in-house positions. We will show you how.

Learn how to effectively litigate and defend an employment case from responding to a complaint and, up to and including, drafting motions for summary judgment and pretrial and trial tasks. Experienced employment defense attorneys will discuss and provide checklists on the following topics: the importance of fact-gathering, learning the elements of each claim and what proof is required to prove each element, effective discovery strategies, considerations for taking party and non-party depositions, drafting motions for summary judgment and various pretrial tasks. This session will provide junior attorneys with building blocks to help them create a system and framework for effectively defending employment cases.

Learn advanced techniques for taking depositions extracting information from difficult witnesses, in three primary areas: (1) how to properly prepare for depositions; (2) how to frame questions for maximum effectiveness and control the deposition; and (3) how to handle common deposition challenges such as lack of recollection, objections, speeches, and the lying witness. A leading employment defense trial lawyer will describe these tools, followed by a demonstration of a mock Q&A conducted by an Academy alumna who has mastered the technique.

Corporations rely heavily on outside counsel to advise, oversee and/or conduct internal investigations into employee complaints or wrongdoing—such investigations often serve as the company’s first-line of defense against lawsuits. Lawyers face numerous issues when conducting internal investigations and must plan and prepare for potential risks, acting quickly to respond and resolve issues that arise throughout the investigative process. Learn best practices for conducting internal investigations and innovative techniques for addressing and avoiding investigation landmines such as: mistimed or delayed investigations; confidentiality and privilege Issues; mismanagement of documentation; handling uncooperative witnesses; managing stakeholders; and preparation of final reports and recommendations.

Being a good attorney is table stakes for success in the legal field. Merely doing good work is rewarded with more work. The key to maximizing your promotability, options, and opportunities for success is maximizing your value. To do this, you must understand the business of the firm. This session will start with a simple (or not so simple) question: How does your firm make money? We will explore the implications of specializing in different types of employment work (including class action, single-plaintiff, EPLI, investigations, and traditional labor); how firm economics differ in full-service vs. boutique and national vs. regional firms; ways to maximize your success by marketing yourself internally and externally; and necessary considerations for setting your career trajectory.