Advocating for clients toward prompt and effective resolution of employment-related claims has become paramount in today's legal practice for both plaintiff and defense counsel.

Employment litigation, which often includes administrative pre-litigation stages and court-related processes, can be particularly time-consuming and expensive for employees. For employers, defending against employment-related lawsuits frequently leads to business disruption and expense that can continue for years. Oddly, however, the advocacy commitment of both plaintiff and defense counsel often are questioned when those counsel raise Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) to clients as a mechanism in employment-related disputes.

Constructively approaching a client about ADR in an employment matter should include mention of the shorter time frame to reach a final resolution, the lower expense of an ADR resolution, and the avoidance of much of the adversarial nature of the process that often exists in all litigation, but especially in the inherently personal arena of employment disputes.