WAGE AND HOUR LAWSUITS ARE GOOD FOR ETHICAL BUSINESSES

In my business, I help employees get paid what they were due by filing lawsuits against bad employers. Cases range in value from a few thousand to a few million dollars.

That being said, I am NOT an enemy to all businesses. Just to the bad ones.

When I file a lawsuit against a company for not paying overtime or minimum wages, a side effect on business is a leveling of the playing field for law abiding companies that pay legally acceptable wages.

By making bad employers responsible for underpaying their employees, I help the good employers do better. How? Well, if a weak company survives only by cheating its employees out of their wages, then my lawsuit will either make it go out of business, or make it less of a competitive threat when it has to pay up for past failures and pay legal wages in the future.

More often though, my efforts result in a positive change. It may be impossible for an employer to pay lawful wages and still sell products or services at the prices it was charging before it got caught cheating. Labor is usually a primary or secondary expense to a company. If the bad company’s labor costs were artificially low as a result of unlawful pay practices, then the new requirement of lawfully paid overtime and benefits will require a company to make a better product more cheaply, or to charge a price more in line with that charged by law abiding competitors.

My lawsuits provide another benefit to ethical companies: I cause the disclosure of the bad actors in the industry. If a company mistreats and underpays its employees, one can be almost certain that the cheater is chiseling or cheating its suppliers and customers. Potential customers take note too.

Nobody learns anything from silent, poisonous success. It is only when the ill effects of wage theft are revealed does an industry or custom change in a meaningful way, usually for the better.

By making sure employees are properly paid, I make bad businesses change or close, and I make good businesses look better. If you know anyone who is being unpaid or underpaid, either minimum wage or overtime, then let them know they can contact me. If they take action, then the business world gets better for every business.

Getting Work as a Lawyer

A recently admitted lawyer in Ohio had gone on the Bar Association's Solo and Small Firm list serv and posted a request for tips on how to get work.  This was my response, for what it's worth:

 

"Dear Amy:

 

While marketing your services as a lawyer is a process hampered by ethical land mines and a tradition of waiting to be called, there are some easy, inexpensive ways to get work.  First though, decide what broad kind of work you can do.  You can't take on work that you aren't able to do or aren't reasonably able to get prepared to do.

If you want criminal work, get on the court's appointment list.  It's low paid but filled with opportunities for experience and exposure.

For civil work, the biggest bang for your buck may be the local bar association's lawyer referral service.  Dayton's is 175 a year plus 10% of fees earned.  It is so worth the cost. Hundreds of times over.

Go to bar association events.  Go to the national ABA section events if you can afford it.  If you go, and you introduce yourself and make connections, then you quickly become a nationally known attorney.  Have a quick response to "what do you do?"  Be friendly with other lawyers.  Refer work to them.  Volunteer in a group or groups that do something you like. Speak up and take some leadership.  It isn't always quick, but exposure + competence = work.  Always be grateful for referrals. Call or send thank you cards to your referral sources. Refer back and speak well of them.

Write a blog, get a website that links to your blog, and then use a twitter account and a linkedin profile to mention your blog or website.  Write often and be real.  Read blogs by James Altucher.  Read his book "Choose Yourself".  It's five bucks on Amazon and it may change your life.  

Do good work, bill fairly, and deliver more than you promise.  Always, always do what you say you will.  Don't lie or cheat.  Lawyers and judges will know, and it will kill your career.  Don't chase low profit work or clients.  Analyze your practice areas for the highest profit for the least amount of time and effort, and then do that work most of the time.  Develop an expertise. Love it. For me that is FLSA litigation. For you it will likely be something different.

Charge a fee for consultations too. Make yourself valuable from the very first meeting.  If a potential client balks at 50-100-150 for your initial time, then you don't need them.  Exceptions of course, but charge as a rule.  

Finally, go to Dave Lorenzo's website and follow him on Twitter @TheDaveLorenzo, He is undoubtedly the best legal marketing mind.  Read all that he writes and do just part of it. You will get work and clients.

I do these things.  I believe in them and I have been successfully self employed, with luck and gratitude, since 2001.  

Good luck Amy.  Contact me if you'd like any more info. Although I think that is all that I have."