The EEOC fielded more than 88,000 discrimination charges in 2024 and this number is actually 9% higher than what they saw last year. Every one of these cases represents a person who has to decide if legal action is worth pursuing or not.
Most employment attorneys work on contingency and take about 33 – 40% of whatever settlement that you get. So they pick and choose which cases they actually want to take on. At the same time, you have these strict deadlines that you have to meet (usually 180 to 300 days to file your charge) and you still have to go to work every day at the same place where this discrimination is happening.
Employment law is its own world and the attorney that you choose needs to live in that world every day. A lawyer who spends most of their time on workers’ comp or personal injury cases is playing by a very different set of guidelines than an attorney who knows employment laws inside and out or who also just wrapped up an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accommodation case last week. The wrong choice can mean that a case falls apart because you missed a filing deadline or didn’t preserve the right evidence at the right time.
The next step is to find an attorney who actually has the right expertise for your exact situation and it can be harder than it sounds.
Let’s go over how to find the right attorney to protect your rights.
Signs You Need a Discrimination Attorney
Most workplace discrimination doesn’t have a smoking gun. Nobody’s going to send you an email that says they’re not promoting you because of your race or gender. The actual discrimination is much more subtle and can make it especially hard to know if what happened to you really counts as discrimination in the legal sense.
Patterns especially are the most valuable type of evidence here. Your performance reviews could have been great for years and then they suddenly tank right after you request disability accommodations. Or you watch as your colleagues with half your experience get promoted as you’re passed over again and again even though you have far more qualifications. These patterns usually tell you everything you need to know without anyone having to say a word.
Discrimination is almost never obvious and the legal system knows this. Courts actually have a particular framework for these cases called the McDonnell Douglas standard. What that means in practice is pretty simple. Nobody needs to have a smoking gun recording of their boss openly admitting to discrimination. You just need to show that the company’s story about what happened doesn’t make sense. A company might claim promotions are based on experience and tenure. But the newest hires somehow advance faster than employees who have been around for years. When the facts don’t match the explanation, courts know something else could be going on.
Timing alone can tell you almost everything about what really went down. An employee files a sexual harassment complaint and, two weeks later, that same person gets laid off for budget reasons. The company may have legitimate financial problems. But any attorney worth their salt is going to look at that sequence of events pretty closely. Retaliation is illegal and sometimes the timeline speaks for itself.
The deadline for discrimination cases is short. Federal law only gives you 180 to 300 days to file an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) complaint and those months disappear fast when you’re still trying to make sense of everything that happened. You need time to process the situation and decide what steps to take next. Employment attorneys know how hard this can be and that’s why most of them will also offer free consultations. They’ll review your situation and tell you if you have a strong case and there’s no commitment needed just to have that first conversation.
Employees usually wait for absolute proof before they’ll even think about talking to an attorney and that’s a big mistake. When something doesn’t feel right about how your employer treats you, trust that instinct. Your gut feeling about unfair treatment is usually correct.
Why You Need a True Employment Law Specialist?
Employment discrimination attorneys can be hard to find. Many lawyers say that they take on these cases when discrimination work is actually just a small fraction of what they do. Most of their time goes to car accidents or workers’ comp cases instead. The attorney who works on personal injury claims all day probably isn’t the right person for your discrimination case at work.
Employment law changes constantly and you need a lawyer who stays up with it. Most general practice attorneys just don’t have that knowledge. The lawyer who handled your neighbor’s slip and fall may be great at personal injury work. But workplace discrimination is a different area. Plenty of attorneys may lack the specific knowledge needed to handle your case.
Discrimination cases aren’t exactly the same and each one requires a lawyer who knows that particular area inside and out. A lawyer who works on disability accommodation cases all day long probably won’t know anything about racial harassment claims. These areas of law are different from one another and it takes years of focused practice to get skilled at any one of them. You wouldn’t go to a foot doctor for heart problems and the same logic applies to discrimination lawyers. You need a lawyer who lives and breathes your exact type of case.
State bar websites let you verify your attorney’s credentials and background. Employment law certifications definitely matter. These types of qualifications show a true dedication to this area of law. Any articles that they’ve published or presentations that they’ve given about employment topics help gauge their expertise level and how well they stay up with the latest developments.
The modern workplace looks nothing like it did before 2020 and discrimination has evolved right along with it. Remote work discrimination and online harassment have exploded into big legal problems and plenty of experienced attorneys still don’t know how to handle them. A skilled discrimination lawyer today has to be comfortable with claims about inappropriate Zoom meetings and hostile Slack messages. They need to know hybrid workplace policies and the ways that discrimination manifests in virtual work environments.
How You Pay Your Employment Attorney?
Most employment discrimination attorneys charge something called a contingency fee. You won’t have to pay a dime out of pocket at the start of your case. Your attorney just takes a percentage of the money that you eventually recover from a settlement or court verdict. The percentage is usually somewhere between 33% and 40% of your total recovery.
Contingency fees work very well for discrimination cases, and there’s a simple reason why. Employees who face discrimination at work have usually either lost their job or taken a serious pay cut. Money is already tight and the last burden you need on top of everything else is an expensive lawyer bill. With a contingency fee, you can hire a great attorney and you won’t have to pay them anything at the beginning to take your case.
Legal cases have other costs that go on top of attorney fees. Court filing fees alone run a few hundred dollars in most jurisdictions. Lots of cases also need depositions or expert witnesses and those bills pile up quickly. Every attorney has their own way to handle these costs. Some law firms cover everything at the beginning and then subtract those amounts from your settlement when the case concludes. Others ask clients to pay these costs as they come up throughout the process. At your first consultation with any attorney, make sure to ask how they handle case-related costs.
Employment discrimination settlements usually range from about $40,000 to $125,000. After your attorney takes their cut and you pay the case costs, most clients still come out well ahead financially. There’s an extra benefit that lots of clients don’t know about. Federal laws like Title VII have these fee-shift provisions that are written right into them. The employer actually has to pay your attorney fees separately from whatever settlement or damages that you get if you win the case.
Any attorney who asks for a large retainer up front for a discrimination case should raise some red flags. Most employment lawyers who are worth their salt just don’t work that way, and there’s a simple reason for it. Experienced discrimination attorneys know that their clients are already in the middle of job loss or workplace harassment and the last worry they need is to shell out thousands of dollars just to get their case started.
Where to Find the Right Employment Attorney?
The search for the right attorney for an employment issue is tough if you have no idea where to start. The National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA) has put together a directory that’s actually worth your time. NELA verifies that every attorney in their database specializes in employment law before they get added and this extra step makes all the difference. Your state bar association probably has its own referral service too. These programs vet all their attorneys beforehand and the consultations run somewhere between $30 and $50. For that amount, you get to sit down with an attorney in person and see if they actually get what you need help with. You’re not spending a fortune just to have that first meeting.
The EEOC will sometimes give you a list of attorneys after you file a charge and mediation gets underway. The problem is that an attorney who looks at your case from the very beginning can find problems you’d never spot on your own. They’ll also help you collect the right paperwork while everything is still fresh and not too hard to find.
University law clinics can also be a great option when money is tight. A few law schools have employment law programs where the students take on cases and their professors supervise them every step of the way. You get solid legal help at a fraction of the usual cost and the students get practice working with clients. Union members and professional association members actually get access to legal services or attorney referrals right through their organizations. Most members never even know that they’re already paying for this benefit through their membership dues.
Online attorney-matching services do offer quick case evaluations and connect you with lawyers nearby. They work just fine for simple legal help. But discrimination cases are different. You need an attorney who has the time to learn the ins and outs about your job situation and work history.
Before You Hire Your Attorney
Every attorney has a different style for disputes and you need to understand their style before you hire them. Some lawyers love to work out settlements behind closed doors. Others would rather fight it out in court. You also need to know how long everything is going to take. Most employment discrimination cases run 12 to 18 months from start to finish.
Communication style is also something that you should talk about during these early meetings with your attorney. Every lawyer deals with client contact differently. Some attorneys are the type who will call or email you each and every week without fail. Other lawyers like to wait until there’s actually something worth sharing about your case. Either approach can work just fine. But you’ll save yourself plenty of stress if you learn which type your attorney is from the start.
The right documents can set the tone for these first consultations. Pull together your performance reviews from the last couple of years because they help paint a picture of your work history. Any emails or messages about the discrimination need to be printed out and put in order by date. Your employee handbook matters too since it shows what company policies were supposed to be followed. And if you’ve been writing down incidents when they happened, those records you took at the time are worth their weight in gold.
A skilled attorney will talk about how the courts handle discrimination cases. They’ll explain what evidence you need to have and which defenses your employer is probably going to use. An attorney who’s willing to point out the problems in your case is actually doing you a favor. The ones who promise sure-fire wins or throw out dollar amounts before they’ve even looked at your documents are bad news. What you actually want is an attorney who can tell you what local juries have been awarding in cases like yours.
The engagement letter is your formal agreement with the attorney and each clause in there has weight. Scope limitations deserve extra attention because they spell out what services the attorney won’t take care of. The termination clause matters just as much since it covers how either party can walk away if the relationship isn’t working out.
Pick the Right Attorney for You
An attorney’s wall full of degrees and awards can be pretty dazzling as you walk into their office. But winning or losing your case depends on different factors than where your lawyer went to law school.
Time and availability matter more than almost anything else when you’re looking for an attorney. Solo practitioners charge less per hour but that same attorney could be juggling 20 other cases at the exact same time as yours. Bigger firms usually have entire teams of paralegals and junior attorneys who work on your case and give it the attention it deserves. The best attorney for you is the one who answers their phone when you need them and actually remembers the specifics of your case without having to dig through their files every time you talk.
Trial win rates can mislead you. The most successful employment discrimination attorneys don’t usually see the inside of a courtroom because they settle their cases well before that point. Actually, this works out great for clients since it shows that your attorney has strong negotiation skills and gets results without the long wait. An attorney who always brags about their trial victories could be the one who can’t negotiate worth a damn and forces every case into long litigation.
Geography matters. A local attorney has relationships with the judges and understands how your courthouse works from day to day. Sometimes it makes sense though to bring in an attorney from another city when that person has deep experience with your exact type of discrimination case.
Your attorney’s personality also has to match up with what you’re going through right now. Staying at the company that discriminated against you requires an attorney who can negotiate without burning any bridges. Already left that job and ready to go after them hard? An aggressive litigator could be just the right fit for that situation.
Check your attorney’s disciplinary record on the state bar website. Most attorneys with long careers have maybe one or two complaints filed against them and that’s normal. Multiple recent complaints or a suspension on their record mean you need to find another attorney.
Do You Need Help From a Lawyer?
Employment discrimination cases can be complex, and may involve many different parties. A discrimination lawyer in your area would be best suited to handling your employment discrimination claim. Your local lawyer can help you prepare your case by informing you of how your state’s laws will affect the outcome of your case.
It takes genuine courage to dig into workplace rights, and most employees never even make it that far. The logical next step is to find an experienced attorney who knows their way around these cases. They’re able to take those confusing company policies and legal deadlines and break them down into a manageable plan with concrete milestones along the way.
When you stand up for yourself, you’re not the problem and you’re not making waves just to make waves. What you’re doing is not about your own situation. You’re drawing a line in the sand and saying that this type of treatment isn’t okay, and that helps create workplaces where everyone actually gets treated with respect. Even if a case doesn’t go the way you wanted it to, it can still change how a company operates and the policies that they put in place. Those changes can protect other employees later from going through the same garbage you did.
The legal process ahead probably seems pretty intimidating and that’s normal. What helps most is that you can work through it piece by piece instead of all at once. Document everything that has been happening at work with exact dates and the names of any witnesses who were there. It’s always worth meeting with a few different attorneys before picking one. The right fit matters just as much as credentials and experience.
LegalMatch takes the uncertainty out of the process and connects you directly with attorneys who actually work on employment discrimination cases right in your area. You won’t have to cold-call dozens of law firms and just hope for the best anymore. You can also review the attorney profiles and compare different attorneys side by side. Then you can choose an attorney who has strong experience with cases like yours and who will treat your case with genuine respect and dedication.
