40 Years a Wage & Hour Lawyer

“If 90% of success in life is showing up, the other 10% depends on what you’re showing up for.”

— Woody Allen

Forty years ago this May, I graduated from GWU law school. One of my last classes was entitled “Federal Labor Standards Law”  taught by a practicing lawyer named Gilbert J. Ginsburg. Gil had a two-hatter practice – he was a government contracts and a wage & hour lawyer. When I joined him after studying for and taking the bar exam later that summer  of 1983, he put me to work immediately on a Davis-Bacon Act case involving ornamental iron works cleaning  of the facade of a building in Chicago.  Thus, my career track was set at the starting gate. I have been doing wage & hour law almost every week of my life since. You know what they say about lawyers -- if they keep practicing, eventually they may even get good at it.  

Back in the day, most big law firms didn’t have wage & hour practices. The reason being that the fees generated in the average individual Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) dispute over minimum wages or overtime pay tended to dwarf the damages at issue. It just wasn’t deemed lucrative enough for big law.  

This changed rapidly in the 1990’s  as the FLSA collective action case load grew, and the dollars at stake became much larger. The FLSA emerged as the most frequently litigated federal cause of action. The plaintiff’s bar  led the way; the defense bar followed. Thus, a whole field of law developed, and I was there for the birth. I got to write some books about the FLSA which became the best sellers in the field at the time. And I got to practice law nationwide, appearing in federal or state courts in at least a dozen states over time. I rode the tiger.  

Looking back, it was a wonderful professional life. And it goes on. My work at Abrahams Wolf-Rodda, LLC has been the most satisfying part of all.  I was excited to give notice to reclaim the copyright for my first book, The Fair Labor Standards Handbook. So, I hope by this Fall, I will be reunited with my first literary love. And thereafter with the rest of my books too in due course. The copyright laws give authors the right to reclaim their copyright assignments after 35 years. Woo, Woo! 

Here is a toast to 40 more years. I am only half kidding. I have no plans to retire. Why should I? I have no hobbies. Family and work have been my life. So, I am thinking, as my mother-in-law used to say, of going out with my boots on. If you are fortunate to find something you like to do in life, then why not stick with it.