Jennifer is an employment and labor lawyer for Barley Snyder LLP. She counsels businesses on any kind of employment issue in the workplace, ranging from disability and termination issues to discrimination and sexual harassment. While Jennifer says eager students can major in just about anything, she suggests they consider a minor in business, especially if employment law is in their future.
Transcript
My name is Jennifer Craighead Carey and I am a partner with the law firm of Barley Snyder, where I specialist in employment law. So in my field, I spend about half of my time counseling businesses on employment issues that come up in the workplace. From disability, to termination issues. And I also defend them in employment discrimination lawsuits, as well as conduct workplace training. Most of my cases are filed in federal court, and the life cycle of a case in federal court is fairly short. You can go to trial anywhere between 12 and 18 months. So that's part of my time, and then I would say the other 50% of my time I'm on the phone or responding to email messages about various employment issues or reviewing policies or conducting training. I may get a call about somebody who's been accused of sexual harassment, and the employer needs guidance on how to do a workplace investigation. They want me to review the investigation and advise them on what course of action would be appropriate. That's a common issue. Another common issue that comes up is somebody has engaged in misconduct or has performance issues and the employer wants guidance on how to deal with that. Or an employee may have a disability and need an accommodation in the workplace and the employer will contact me for advice on how to go about accommodating that individual. Those are just some examples. Well, a busy week can be two things. One, it can be a lot of emergency issues that come up. A lot of times, things in the workplace arise and the employer needs a response right away. Yesterday I was on the phone with an employer who had a workplace violence issue. That's actually very common. And so in my field, employers are generally reaching out to me with some sense of urgency and they need guidance either immediately or within a relatively short period of time. And I can have weeks where I spend 75% of my time on the phone, counseling clients. Opposite of that would be if I have a lot of employment litigation and I'm spending a lot of time in depositions, and meetings, and managing cases.
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