Winning Labor and Employment Cases Through the Effective Use of Civil Procedure

Attorneys should attend this course if they want to sharpen their mastery of civil procedure and turn the Federal Rules into powerful tools for advancing plaintiffs’ employment cases. Too often, practitioners overlook the straightforward application of the rules they learned in law school. This course will demonstrate how a disciplined approach to the rules, rather than relying on guesswork or hostility, can ensure that claims are taken seriously and cases progress efficiently toward resolution.

Participants will learn how to strategically apply civil procedure rules from the pleading stage through discovery, motions practice, and settlement. Using real-world case studies, the program will demonstrate how to file effective pleadings, hold defendants accountable for deficient answers, leverage discovery obligations, respond to obstructionist tactics, and use the rules themselves to advance wage-and-hour and discrimination matters.

This program is designed for any plaintiff-side employment attorneys who want to improve case management and maximize results by leveraging procedural rules. It will also benefit newer attorneys seeking to “raise the floor” in litigation practice, as well as experienced practitioners looking to refine strategies against difficult opponents.

Learning Objectives:

1. Recognize how disciplined use of federal civil procedure rules streamlines case advancement and avoids unnecessary conflict.
2. Apply Rules 8, 11, 12, and 15 effectively at the pleading stage to strengthen complaints and hold defendants accountable for deficient answers.
3. Utilize Rules 26 and 37 to enforce discovery obligations, prevent abuse, and move quickly on motions to compel.
4. Develop protective strategies under Rule 26(c) and respond to improper or overbroad defense discovery requests.
5. Translate procedural leverage into practical results at summary judgment, mediation, and settlement negotiations in wage-and-hour and discrimination cases.
6. Explore ways to get courts/judges to take defendants’ conduct or rules violations seriously, such that attorneys can advance or even win their case on that basis.

Course Time Schedule:

Eastern Time: 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Central Time: 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Mountain Time: 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
Pacific Time: 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM
Alaska Time: 7:00 AM - 8:30 AM
Hawaii-Aleutian Time: 6:00 AM - 7:30 AM

This course is also being presented on the following dates:

Wednesday, February 25, 2026
Wednesday, March 25, 2026
Wednesday, April 29, 2026
Wednesday, May 13, 2026
Wednesday, June 17, 2026