-: 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.