07 Jan 2016, 9:24 pm
I'm already settled in my chosen field, but to offer some suggestive thought to my fellow Aspies who are still deciding which way to head out there...have you given any consideration to becoming a labour/employment lawyer? Although the legal profession in general seems to be ill-suited to Aspies, I think employment law may be the exception - it involves less pay than other legal jobs like in criminal or civil or corporate...but think about it: it entails a sense of social justice, you have to memorize several precedents and provisions, and most of us could sympathise with those who had been downtrodden and given a raw deal by a former employer because of some characteristic beyond their control.
Of course, you'd have to practice in front of a mirror and watch clips of lawyers to get the "soft" aspects down pat. But other than that...
If you had to bring a case for those who'd been screwed over like a guy who was cheated out of severance pay for his length of service, or a pregnant woman who was let go under false pretenses, or a woman who was harassed out of work in a male-dominated environment...I think it's people like us who would be all the more compelled and motivated to make the best of the case and win. Where we might trip up is making an emotional appeal in court, relying too much on facts and logic, when you also want to say something like "this was a hard-working mother of 3 who just wanted to put food on the table, and what she was willing to put up with, to provide for her kids who couldn't provide for themselves..." you get the idea. 
In those circumstances, you'd have to deploy whatever's in your arsenal, so to speak, because some of those company-hired lawyers can be pretty darn slick and slimy. 
08 Jan 2016, 10:53 am
