Am i doing this wrong: hiring an employment lawyer

December 20, 2022 8:17 AM

I've been given four days by my employer to review a new agreement that my employment is conditional upon*, and the general advice here on metafilter and elsewhere is to get a lawyer to review such documents. I found what I think are good leads at nela.org. But every lawyer I've contacted so far says it may be 3 days before they even review the info (that I've relayed to their answering service). Am I doing this wrong?

*I say conditional because I'm employed "at will", but it would be great to get a lawyer's advice on whether this assumption is also true.

posted by Tandem Affinity to Law & Government (14 answers total)

I mean, it's the week before Christmas. Four days is not reasonable of your employer.
posted by mskyle at 8:21 AM on December 20, 2022 [12 favorites]

This is practical, not legal, advice; inform your employer that you need a few extra days to review the document. Use care as to whether this will lead to negative consequences for you; for a reasonable employer, it should not, but...
posted by praemunire at 8:27 AM on December 20, 2022 [16 favorites]

Do you have any friends who have used an employer lawyer, for reviewing severance or anything? Or anyone who has another kind of lawyer in a firm that includes employment lawyers? If you ask them to reach out with the deadline included, they may have a number/email that bypasses the answering service.
posted by warriorqueen at 8:54 AM on December 20, 2022

Response by poster: Thanks for the tips. (Yes I think the delivery and deadline on this document was completely strategic.)
posted by Tandem Affinity at 9:07 AM on December 20, 2022

I agree that the timing is unreasonable. But, if you feel you will be penalized for asking for more time, you could, if you have a copy of your previous agreement, do a side-by-side comparison of the previous agreement and the new one and see if any huge changes have been made. If you were happy with your previous agreement and this one is basically the same with perhaps new salary amount (higher!) or bonus information, you could probably go ahead and sign. If you discover significant and disturbing changes, then you have a good excuse to have more time--or you could push it back on them and say that you want to discuss the changes. A lot of these types of contract forms seem to be boilerplate and no one wants to make big changes because that is when the lawyers get involved.
posted by agatha_magatha at 9:07 AM on December 20, 2022 [5 favorites]

How many people in this very discussion had a lawyer review the contract for their current job?

Me, it's me. I'm the lawyer.

Most people in the U.S. don't have individual job contracts. When you do have an individual job contract, it's most often because you have the leverage to get one. In which case, it's a pity to forfeit that leverage for free by blindly signing the contract. If nothing else, bureaucracies screw up the numbers all the time, and no one but you or someone you hire is going to make sure the figures actually reflect that 5% raise you were supposed to be getting. Not to mention--if there are nondisclosure or noncompete or IP assignment provisions, you really need to be aware of them, because they can constrain your behavior well beyond the parameters of the job itself.
posted by praemunire at 12:01 PM on December 20, 2022 [6 favorites]

the general advice here on metafilter and elsewhere is to get a lawyer to review such documents

I disagree with this advice. I have never had a lawyer review any of my employment agreements. The reasons are fairly straightforward:

1. I have no leverage to request any substantive changes in the agreement. The agreements I've received are legal boilerplate that the company demands all employees sign. If I declined to sign it, I would have my offer revoked (if not employed) or fired (if employed).
2. Lawyers cost money. Due to 1) - I would be wasting money by talking to them.
3. Legal agreements are often reasonably easy to read by an adult, and I've found this always to be the case in the agreements I've signed.

Note, although I have never requested substantive changes in an agreement, I have requested caveats related to patents I own. I have added clauses to multiple agreements that intellectual property and patents created prior to my employment are not owned by the new employer. I have never had a complaint about this, and I created the modified document without the help of a lawyer.
posted by saeculorum at 12:19 PM on December 20, 2022 [3 favorites]

If you’re not already a client or contact it’s just going to be hard to get quick service, especially near the end of the year. I would establish a relationship with a lawyer between now and the next review if you can’t get an extension on this signing.

(Not a lawyer but I’ve struggled to hire one before.)
posted by michaelh at 1:44 PM on December 20, 2022

Fwiw, I requested a bunch of quotes from lawyers on Yelp and provided context for the advice I was looking for. One responded with some advice, another I managed to get time with in a day or two over the weekend.
posted by ellerhodes at 1:47 PM on December 20, 2022

In your place I'd do two things:
1. If there is an existing employment agreement, I'd compare it with the new one to see what's changed
2. I'd call my professional association's legal helpline (and ask their advice specifically about the changed passages) - this is an association for the freelance profession I'm in, but there may well be a similar body you could join if you're not already a member.
posted by altolinguistic at 2:37 PM on December 20, 2022

→ (Yes I think the delivery and deadline on this document was completely strategic.)

Somewhere in the new employment contract, there is frequently a part that says that your employer has given you a chance to consult with legal counsel and has not coerced you into signing. Here, it sounds like they haven't given you that chance. Ask them what they'd do if you struck out the legal consultation part.

You're doing nothing wrong. They sound like they're doing a whole bunch wrong
posted by scruss at 2:56 PM on December 20, 2022

although I have never requested substantive changes in an agreement, I have requested caveats related to patents I own. I have added clauses to multiple agreements that intellectual property and patents created prior to my employment are not owned by the new employer.

These are substantive changes!
posted by praemunire at 3:13 PM on December 20, 2022 [10 favorites]

An employer doing this when most lawyers and professionals are away is at best poorly run and at worst trying to screw people over. Maybe not you individually but everyone collectively.

When you say they gave you four days, what have they given as the consequences, if any, for not having signed by (checks calendar) Christmas Eve?

My strategy would be to reach out to multiple employment lawyers and state very simply "I would like a consult and n-page employment contract review, and I can pay. My employer has given me a deadline of Dec 24 to review and sign."

You might have to try ten or twenty people to get a taker, and you should hit as many up as possible ASAP.
posted by zippy at 4:57 PM on December 20, 2022 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks all - for anyone referencing these answers in the future, I ended up trying just about all these suggestions simultaneously. I ended up with two lawyers getting back to me in the required time frame, but a connection through a colleague got back to me same-day (and I felt she was a really good option as well). In retrospect, I 100% needed the advice I got and would have seriously mis-stepped without guidance, so I would really urge anyone on the fence to make the investment unless you really like the excitement of risk. If it's a simple matter and maybe you'd have been fine without formal advice, it's going to be quick and cheap and give you peace of mind. Five stars, will do this again.
posted by Tandem Affinity at 10:25 AM on January 7, 2023 [3 favorites]