Littler Mendelson
2049 Century Park East
#500
Los Angeles,CA 90067
310-553-0308(phone)
http://www.littler.com/
OUR FIRM
Littler Mendelson is the largest U.S.-based law firm exclusively devoted to representing management in every aspect of labor and employment law. Since the firm was started in 1942 by Robert Littler, who chose to represent management clients in what were mostly disputes involving unions, Littler has adhered to and expanded its continuous representation of corporate America, and the global reach those companies have realized, in all areas of employment and labor law.
Focus
Littler’s single focus on employment and labor law has created a cartel of attorneys whose knowledge of and experience in these areas of law is unsurpassed. With lawyers who practice in more than 36 areas of law, there is no employment issue a company has faced that hasn’t been addressed by one of Littler’s attorneys. When a company faces a workplace issue, Littler Mendelson is in a position to respond.
Client Service
Littler attorneys are dedicated to incomparable client service. Littler has a Knowledge Management group whose attorneys harness the collective knowledge of the firm and provide that knowledge to clients through tools, products and services that are available 24 hours per day, seven days a week. This allows Littler to provide up-to-the-minute information on changes in the employment law arena and give clients the information and tools they need to respond to those changes. Littler clients can subscribe to services like Littler GPS, the Guide for Policies by State, the Littler Monitor that tracks state and federal employment-related legislation and other significant regulatory developments, or utilize the Audit Quarterback, Audit QB, which allows attorneys and clients to conduct large scale employment audits in areas such as wage and hour issues, human resources assessments, fair employment practices, affirmative action and diversity issues, and I-9 compliance, among many other challenges that impact the workplace.
Littler attorneys have deep subject matter expertise in employment law matters that companies have faced for decades, as well as emerging issues that are only now beginning to surface. The rules of discovery in litigation have expanded to include electronic means of communication, including email, voice mail, text messages and instant messaging. Littler is one of few firms which has an eDiscovery practice to help clients navigate the rules which govern the preservation and admission of this evidence at trial. Employment and labor law is dynamic. Littler is constantly evolving and growing to meet and respond to the changes that impact the workplace.
Pro Bono
Littler Mendelson has always valued the community-minded and pro bono efforts of its lawyers and staff. As the firm has grown, so have the needs of those who require legal assistance, but can’t afford it. Littler’s intent with its pro bono program is to provide much needed assistance to those in the greatest need.
We encourage each of our attorneys to perform at least 25 hours of pro bono work each year, and welcome contributions of more. To support our commitment to pro bono work, the firm provides attorneys with fifty percent billable hours credit for the first 100 pro bono hours worked. So, for example, an attorney who works 100 hours on pro bono matters would receive 50 hours of billable credit. This allows the Firm to contribute from its bottom line to pro bono efforts, while at the same time, allows the attorney to make an equal contribution of his or her time.
One popular area for pro bono work is providing legal services regarding a full panoply of employment issues for non-profit community organizations, such as organizations involved in providing services or assistance to the poor, minorities, youth or the elderly. Littler attorneys provide pro bono services in a variety of other areas as well, depending on the interests of individual attorneys.
Littler attorneys volunteer their time to a wide variety of non-profit organizations and bar associations. Some of these groups include:
- Design That Matters whose mission is to create products that improve the services of social enterprises in developing countries
- Bet Tzedek Legal Services, one of the nation’s premier legal services organizations since 1974 which provides free assistance to more than 10,000 people of every racial and religious background in the Los Angeles area
- The Alliance for Children’s Rights provides free legal services and advocacy to protect the rights of impoverished and abused children and youth so that they have safe, stable homes, health care and the education they need to thrive
- The Woodland’s Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to enriching the lives of children and young adults with disabilities and chronic illnesses
- Neighborhood Legal Services whose mission is to meet the civil legal needs of the poor and vulnerable in communities through effective legal representation and education
- Rachel Coalition, a division of Jewish Family Services of MetroWest that uniquely combines the resources and commitment of affiliated groups, social services and its nine partners of northern New Jersey organizations to assist domestic violence victims and their families with a wide array of services
- Partners for Women and Justice that empowers low-income and abused women to build safe and secure futures for themselves and their children by providing equal access to justice
- Life Skills, a non-profit organization that serves individuals with mental disabilities
- Additionally, many of our attorneys sit on the boards of bar association pro bono committees.
The many hours of service Littler attorneys have provided to various charitable and legal organizations have not gone unappreciated. They have been acknowledged and thanked with a number of awards:
- Pro Bono Service Attorney Award from the New York State Bar
- New York Women’s State Bar Association Pro Bono Service Award
- The Nathaniel Award presented by the Daily Record in New York
- United Way/J.C. Penney Golden Rule Award
- Award of Merit from the Bar Association of San Francisco
- Goldenberg Wall of Honor Award presented by the Life Skills Foundation
- Community Leadership Award for Diversity from the South Asian Bar Association of San Diego
- Overall Outstanding Service Award from Legal Aid of Arkansas
- Thomas L. Sager Award for the Midwest Region from the Minority Corporate Counsel Association
- Trailblazer Award from the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association
- Three Littler attorneys have won the Wiley W. Manuel Award for Pro Bono Legal Services from the State Bar of California
Knowledge Management
With the demands on today’s law firms to work more efficiently and cost effectively, Knowledge Management (KM) at Littler represents the firm’s effort to connect our attorneys and clients to the collective knowledge and insights of our more than 800 attorneys, and to provide our attorneys with the tools, services, products and support necessary to consistently deliver the highest quality client services across practice areas and geography. KM leverages our collective experience in handling the most complicated, as well as the most common, employment and labor issues, enhances access to our vast library of outstanding work product and employs creative technologies to distribute legal information and deliver legal services to our clients.
Littler’s KM Department is made up of experienced employment attorneys, dedicated technologists, legal researchers and content administrators, dedicated to enhancing client access to the firm's considerable knowledge, expertise and resources. Through KM’s research support services, technologies and applications, we have developed innovative ways of delivering legal services to our clients.
Littler CaseSmart™
Littler’s latest innovation in delivering legal services to our clients is Littler CaseSmart, a case management solution that combines a Littler-developed proprietary technology platform, with rigorous quality assurance measures that control how we structure and deploy our client service team to cost effectively achieve optimal results. Currently deployed to handle administrative agency charges, the Littler CaseSmart approach is based on our detailed analysis of the “life-cycle” of a charge and how responsibilities for processing charges are distributed. From that analysis, we identified efficiencies gained from business process re-engineering, and developed a methodology that optimizes Littler’s vast experience and employment law knowledge with Littler’s nationwide scope.
The Littler CaseSmart approach integrates a sophisticated technology platform with a creative combination of traditional and innovative legal representation resources, enhancing the Firm’s level of efficiency, while providing clients with a real-time view of key data and critical metrics regarding the administrative charges being handled. In particular, Littler CaseSmart allows clients’ in-house counsel and management to review data and statistical reports based on a variety of metrics through a custom client dashboard, including reports related to individual types of charges, any grouping of charges (e.g. by Division, Region, District or Facility), or all charges filed against a client as of a certain date. Together, clients and Littler can use these reports to analyze data and trends and develop proactive solutions to assess and manage employment related risk.
Another key component of our ability to deliver the Littler CaseSmart service efficiently, while meeting our client’s expectations for quality work at a predictable fixed-fee, is the development of a cadre of attorneys dedicated to performing this specific type of work. Our FlexTime Attorney position benefits both our clients and a growing number of our attorneys who are interested in an alternative career path. The FlexTime Attorney position has been designed for attorneys wishing to exercise greater control over their work-life balance, while still performing valuable and interesting work for clients.
In the near future, Littler will deploy the Littler CaseSmart approach to additional legal services including single-plaintiff litigation, class and collective actions and arbitrations. Littler CaseSmart is the winner of the International Legal Technology Association’s Distinguished Peer Award as the 2011 Project of the Year.
Smart Search
SmartSearch allows Littler’s attorneys and staff to locate work product, internal subject matter expertise, and client and matter information in a single, easy-to-use system. Combining Google-like simplicity with advanced filtering capabilities, SmartSearch was designed to help our attorneys find relevant precedents, identify the firm’s know-how and review client and matter profiles quickly and easily – all with the goal of providing efficient and quality service to our clients.
Litigation Resource Center
The online Litigation Resource Center was designed by the KM Department to provide timely and easily accessible resources for attorneys working on single-plaintiff employment, benefits, and wage and hour litigation. By dividing up the litigation process into eight phases, from initial case investigation to post-trial, the site provides an easily navigable road map for attorneys to follow to better serve the needs of our clients in litigation matters. The Center is designed to be an all-inclusive portal for litigators, paralegals, and litigation secretaries to permit them to find sample documents and resources quickly and efficiently. This tool provides our attorneys with the tools necessary to provide exceptional and effective client representation.
Keeping Clients Informed
In today’s ever-changing legal landscape, clients need to know about new laws, regulations and court decisions that could affect their day-to-day operations and long-term strategic objectives. In addition to our award winning publications, Littler’s KM Department provides subscription services and extranets to keep our clients up to date on emerging issues in labor and employment law and can provide 24/7 access to client matter information via extranets.
Littler GPS and Monitor – State Surveys and Legislative/Regulatory Tracking
Clients can subscribe to Littler GPS, a 52-jurisdiction online database that provides access to state (including D.C.) and federal laws and regulations on wage and hour, EEO, privacy, employee benefits and other employment related topics on a 24/7 basis. The Littler Monitor is another online subscription that provides quarterly analysis of state and federal employment-related legislation and other significant regulatory developments enacted in the previous quarter, with monthly summaries of the most recent new labor and employment laws.
Extranets
Littler can provide clients with password protected extranets that are hosted on a secure server to facilitate a client’s ability to monitor the progress of ongoing projects. Using a secure password, clients can: (1) track case calendars, deadlines and action items – including alerts and pushing calendar items into Outlook calendars, if desired; (2) retrieve status reports and updates; (3) access contact lists and information about their client team members; (4) access an online library of existing legal research, documents and content developed specifically for or provided by the client; (5) review newsletters, legal bulletins, opinions and other publications written by Littler’s attorneys; and (6) access Littler’s online subscription services.
Online Publications
The most effective way the KM Department communicates with clients about ground-breaking changes in labor and employment laws is through the Littler Blogs and our ASAP and Insight newsletters. These online and print publications cover the latest developments and trends in labor and employment law. To provide the fullest and best coverage of issues, Littler ASAPs cover developments across all regions of the U.S. (Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Southwest, Pacific Northwest and West). In addition to geographic depth, the Littler ASAPs and Insight newsletters also cover issues specific to various industries and areas of practice.
The Littler Blogs are always available online. These highly focused updates are particular to the following subjects: Employment Law Update, Labor Relations Counsel, the Digital Workplace, Health Care Employment Counsel, Workplace Privacy Counsel, Wage and Hour Counsel, Global Employment Law, and Global Immigration Counsel. Clients can subscribe to these via RSS/XML feeds.
Littler Publications
Littler’s KM group oversees the writing and editing of numerous books, including:
- National Employer® Books, an annual 3,000-page compendium of employment and labor law with 11 state and regional supplements covering the laws of 31 states
- Littler Mendelson on Employment Law and Class Actions, a comprehensive treatise that covers all aspects of employment law class actions
- Littler Mendelson Guide to International Employment and Labor Law is a country-by-country analysis of employment and labor laws in 31 countries and the EU
For a complete list of Littler Publications, click here.
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