Littler

The Littler Difference

We realize that in-house counsel, HR professionals and corporate executives do not just manage legal work; they are expected to be business partners and contribute to the organization’s overall success. This means you need us to do more than just great legal work. You need us to be your strategic partners, as well as legal counselors who understand your industry and your business. Our lawyers need to help your organization make money, save money and present you with ideas to help you reduce cost, manage risk and succeed in your professional role.

That’s why we run our business the way you run your business, making important investments in our firm, client relationships and the future of the legal profession. We understand your need for high-quality, cost-effective legal services. Here are just a few examples of how we can help you meet your business goals:

• We can manage all of your litigation needs – from administrative charges, to single plaintiff litigation, to class actions – so that your costs are predictable and you have the valuable business analytics that will help manage risk and prepare for the future.

• We have developed a strong subject matter focus through our Knowledge Management Department and our vast network of global labor and employment thought leaders who can give you precise recommendations to help solve your business and legal issues.

• We invest in research and development to create products and services, such as Littler CaseSmart, ComplianceHR and Littler GPS, to offer new and alternative ways of delivering legal services that maximize efficiencies and control costs.

• Our pricing and project management teams help us develop alternative fee arrangements that enable us to meet your needs, give you pricing predictability and achieve expectations on any project.

• Whether you are based in a single location or have global operations, we have the depth and breadth of lawyers you need through our more than 75 U.S. and global offices and our strong relationships with lawyers worldwide.

• Littler values diversity and inclusion and our lawyers and culture reflect that value. We always rank at the top across the broad range of diversity metrics.

• We care what you think. We conduct comprehensive client satisfaction interviews throughout the year to ensure our clients are getting the service and value they want and expect.

• Our goal is to provide exceptional client service and our priority and focus is to deliver that to you. Read about Our Client Service Guarantee™

Our Firm History – Passion. Vision. People.

In 1942, Robert Littler, at that time the Pacific Coast director of the War Labor Board, and Thomas Coakley, until then a California deputy attorney general, formed the first law firm in the San Francisco Bay area to focus exclusively on representing employers in labor and employment law matters. Arthur Mendelson joined the firm in 1944.

By the 1960s, the firm saw rapid business development with expanding unionization and other employment law changes in northern California. With the addition of Wesley Fastiff and others, Littler was particularly qualified to meet these needs. The firm represented companies in a wide variety of industries, including numerous trucking companies, with Fastiff handling many landmark cases nationwide. With the passage of civil rights legislation and other new employment laws, many of the firm’s attorneys successfully represented and defended employers in civil rights, wrongful termination, workplace safety and employee benefits disputes, in addition to a continued representation of clients in traditional labor law matters.

By the end of the 1970s, Littler had grown to 50 attorneys servicing employers from offices strategically located in California, providing effective representation of employer interests in union-related matters and the ever-growing area of employment law regulation. Beginning in the 1990s, in response to a greater employer need for its focused practice and advice, the firm expanded nationwide, establishing dozens of offices and adding hundreds of attorneys throughout the country to best serve employers no matter their geographic location.

With the globalization of the economy and the growth of multinational labor and employment law needs, Littler began expanding internationally. In October 2010, Littler opened its 50th office and its the first international location in Caracas, Venezuela, and in 2011, formed a strategic alliance with TransAsia Lawyer, one of the leading employment law firms in the People’s Republic of China. 

Littler broadened its global services by opening two offices in Mexico in 2012 and expanded throughout the Americas over the next few years with offices throughout Central and Latin America. In 2015, the firm moved into Canada, opening an office in Toronto, and entered the European market shortly thereafter by combining with leading labor and employment law boutiques in Germany (2015), France (2016) and the United Kingdom (2017). Today, Littler’s 23 global offices span three continents, providing multinational employers with legal representation in the areas of cross-border employment issues, labor relations, dispute resolution and litigation.

With the advent of new technology platforms and the demands of a changing legal market in the early to mid-2000s, Littler introduced its first innovative product to the market, changing the way it delivers legal services to clients. The firm’s award-winning Littler CaseSmart platform is an integrated solution of technology, talent and legal project management that offers immediate benefits in terms of cost, efficiency and risk management for the defense of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission charges and single-plaintiff employment litigation. Since the launch of Littler CaseSmart, the firm has rolled out a suite of other innovative products and service lines to give employers technologically sophisticated options for confronting an ever-changing and increasingly complex legal environment.

With more than 75 offices globally, more than 1,300 Littler attorneys provide the firm’s clients with representation and daily advice on virtually all areas of labor and employment law.

Littler is the largest law firm in the world exclusively devoted to representing management in employment, employee benefits and labor law matters. The firm has always had, and continues to have, the necessary legal resources, wherever they are needed, to provide world class employment and labor law representation for its clients.