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Canadian attorney Howard Levitt has an interesting article published today on FinancialPost.com about trends in Canadian employment class action law.  The article offers some practical preventative tips for employers, but also makes a few keen observations about the dynamics surrounding a recent increase in employment class actions in Canada, including this gem: 

It’s a new phenomenon: Roving groups of lawyers searching for corporate conduct deleteriously affecting large groups of employees quickly move to find one employee willing to start a class action on behalf of all.

Many of these lawyers have little or no expertise in employment law.

Levitt’s description conjures images of Canada as the wild frontier of employment class action law.  Certainly, there are many examples of young lawyers who have hit it big in class action lawsuits in the U.S.   But the inexperienced class action lawyers roaming the country in search of class actions like 49ers speculating for gold have long since settled down to cultivate the fertile class action ground south of the border. 

The roving bands have settled into established firms and consortiums of trial lawyers with the expertise, resources, and influence to edge out even the most enterprising of young lawyers.  This often occurs behind the scenes through a process called ”private ordering,” politely described in the Federal Judicial Center’s class action Pocket Guide for judges as when counsel competing for the role of lead counsel in a case agree amongst themselves to divide up responsibilities and fees.  Sometimes, however, the struggle becomes more public, as it did when several different groups of firms competed for the role of lead counsel in this recent case.  “Auctioning,” or competitive bidding for the role of class counsel, has also been used in some cases.

So, if you’re a young enterprising class action lawyer in the U.S., you may have to pay your dues a bit before you earn your first private jet.  And for those would-be prospectors thinking about heading north to stake your claims, in addition to a quality gold pan and a sturdy mule, you’ll need to submit an application to the National Committee on Accreditation.

For some online articles discussing the phenomenon of “entrepreneurial litigation” try these links:

http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/MULR/2006/14.html#Heading131

http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR969/MR969.ch10.pdf

http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/olin_center/corporate_governance/papers/04.Halfteck.class-action.pdf