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Tim's Missouri Job Law Law Office of Tim Willoughby Representing individuals and small businesses in employment and contract matters

OFFICE - Directions 10097 Manchester, #207 St. Louis, MO 63122 ph:314-821-7500 fax:314-821-4580

What is an "Employment Lawyer"?

When I talk about how I "concentrate" in employment law, I mean that the bulk of my legal practice involves representing parties who have a problem arising from or relating to the employer-employee relationship. The Missouri Bar does not recognize a formal "specialty" in employment law, and no formal certification or special training is required to call yourself an "employment lawyer."

Any lawyer can take on an employment case.

It's not required that you present your problem to a lawyer who concentrates in employment law. Lawyers in Missouri are licensed to handle any type of case for which they deem themselves competent. Any licensed Missouri attorney could handle your case. The problem for people is that most lawyers seem reluctant to touch an employment case, particularly discrimination and wrongful termination cases. Contract cases are more likely to be acceptable to lawyers who do not otherwise do employment law.

Why there are so few "Employment Lawyers."

Only a relative handful of lawyers concentrate in employment law. There are good reasons for this.

• Employment cases do not commonly generate damage awards comparable with personal injury cases.
• Most potential clients are unemployed and money is tight, so they can't pay fees.
• The law favors the employer in discrimination and wrongful termination cases, so those types of cases are statistically much more likely to be losers in court than personal injury cases.
• Last, and probably least, employment law is often said to be more complex than personal injury law in general, and it's full of short deadlines that cause trouble for cases. But if the cases were more lucrative in general, then more lawyers would learn the complexities.

Help in finding "Employment Lawyers."

Many people seem to find employment lawyers through the yellow pages. You could look in the SWBell Yellow Pages at the back of the Attorney section, where lawyers advertise by their area of practice (the "Attorney Guide" section). You'll find lawyers under the Employment and Employment-Discrimination sections. I am listed there as well as a handful of others.

Some people call the Lawyer Referral Service of the St. Louis Metro Bar Assoc at 314-621-6681. I am listed with the Referral Service. I don't know how many other lawyers tell the Referral Service that they are interested in employment cases. I think more lawyers list with the Referral Service for employment cases than advertise in the Yellow Pages under the Employment categories.

Some employment lawyers practice by referral only. It would be inconsiderate to name them here.

Lawyers on the Web

Lawyers listed on big websites: I don't want to point you at any source in particular. In my experience looking around on the web, I have not tended to find any source that had an extensive list of lawyers in Missouri who concentrate in employment law. I instead find a smattering of lawyers listed here and there.

Individual lawyers on the web, or homepages on the web: Check out my links list on the front page of the site. I link to a page where I list individual homepages of fellow employment lawyers as I run across them. These lawyers may or may not practice in Missouri.