The Role of Employee Contract Lawyers
The career options and pathways available to legal professionals is as dynamic as the range of issues that change, year by year and decade by decade, from the influence of technology or ideological changes in developing countries to recent attention to environmental protections. One of the legal professions that is gaining more attention, as the articles in this special issue demonstrate, is the comprehensive employee contract agreements or those lawyers who negotiate and write the contracts that govern employment. In a world where people are hired for more specific roles and even having multiple roles within a particular business, the skills and duties of the employee contract lawyer are becoming even more important.
A significant part of the role of the employee contract lawyer is to draft the terms and conditions of employment within the context of bargaining and negotiations. These lawyers typically intervene at all stages of the employment process and their work could be said to ultimately influence the academic areas of sociology, history, economics, and industrial relations.
Given that duty, the task of protecting their client’s interests may then influence the power structure of the business that would be studied in sociology or enable the organisation to more advantageously draw in customers and clients by employing the cost savings achieved through the legal work, which could be studied in the areas of economic and history. The legal profession, whichever area you are interested in, provides unique opportunities for those who hope to make a significant contribution to the study of different fields and industries.
As the case studies and analyses published in this special issue demonstrate, the responsibilities of the employee contract lawyer extend to handling workplace compliance training, authoring memoranda of advice on employment-related issues, devising termination policies, and conducting expert opinions for legislation and award changes at the request of the Court. In each of these responsibilities, the implications of changes in the law are more immediate than for other areas of law, given the coinciding financial and personal impacts of employment.
The need for professional legal assistance and expertise also finds manifestation in atypical forms of employment, including supervised internships that allow a business to employ staff, the casual workforce, freelance and short-term contractual employment, and other specialised roles like domestic employment. These are subject to employee protections that differ within jurisdiction and industry, yet all require an adherence to due process.
Although employee contract lawyers are no stranger to running and managing a business, their focus is on supporting their own clients through the drafting of contracts, negotiations, and the legal advice outlined above. By extension, they also directly influence the educational architecture of businesses, potentially impacting the employee contributions to global trade, socio-economic cycles, and community perceptions.
The value of the contributions made by the first two articles in this special issue, “The opinion of two lawyers employed in Melbourne, Australia, on employment law,” by Moon and Cheong, and “Lawyer’s mental health,” by Moon-Suck Choe and Hee-Jin Lim, becomes apparent when considered alongside this analysis of the employee contract lawyer and the legal profession’s contributions to the industrial relations and human rights fields.
The complexity and depth of employee contract law serves only to corroborate the need for careful consideration when drafting employment contracts. In many offices, law students will dip their toes, so to speak, with exposure to employment law, but as this special issue notes, it can be a complex area of practice that may require more senior expertise.
The contracted nature of employment also permits ongoing evaluation and negotiation with the possibilities of staff being able to be re-hired with amended workplace contracts at a later stage. However, without guidance or counsel from the employee contract lawyer and assessment of the employee relations climate of a particular industry, businesses run the risk of an unproductive workplace environment and unnecessary recruitment costs.
The deregulation of trade assisted in increasing the volume and scope of industry from which businesses could recruit employees and had a flow-on effect to the labour market. An increase in applicants to assist in financial management or education positions could mean that candidate with a theoretical knowledge may be selected instead of candidates with practical experience. Changes to demand for skilled and unskilled worker categories has facilitated other changes in local labour market opportunities, like the increasing share of casual and freelance employment.
The diligence of the employee contract lawyer helps to prevent issues between management and employees so that businesses can concentrate on fulfilling their goals, from developing the future work force to adhering to legal requirements. The assessments of the legal professionals published in this special issue are also valuable resources for further study and reflection upon the external influences at play in the field of education and testing of employment law.