An Employment Discrimination Lawyer’s Honest Answer (Even If You Don’t Like It)
If you’re looking for an employment lawyer, something probably went sideways at work. You were fired, pushed out, written up out of nowhere, or told a story about your “performance” that didn’t match reality. And now you’re asking the same question almost everyone asks:
“Do I have a wrongful termination case?” “Can an Employment Lawyer Help?”
As employment attorneys practicing in Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, the Main Line, Montgomery County, Bucks County, and Chester County), Delaware, and New York (New York City, Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx, and Westchester), we get this question constantly.
Here’s the part most employment lawyers won’t say plainly:
Most people who feel they were wrongfully terminated do not have a legal claim.
That doesn’t mean you’re wrong to be upset.
It means the law protects far less than people think.
What an Employment Lawyer Means by “Wrongful Termination”
In everyday language, “wrongful termination” means unfair. In the law, it means illegal. Those are very different things. And frankly, even lawyers who aren’t employment discrimination lawyers often struggle to see the difference.
In Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New York, most workers are at-will employees. That means your employer can fire you for a bad reason, a mistaken reason, or no reason at all — as long as the reason is not prohibited by law.
Unless you have a written employment contract, a union agreement, tenure, or you’re a senior executive with negotiated protections, you are almost certainly at will. Most people who have contracts know it. If you’re unsure whether you have one, you probably don’t.
So when you speak with an employment lawyer, the first question isn’t “Was this fair?” It’s “What law was violated?”
The Hard Truth From An Employment Lawyer: Most Firings Are Legal
This is where people often feel blindsided.
You can be fired because:
- your manager doesn’t like you,
- the company wants someone cheaper,
- leadership changed,
- you rubbed the wrong person the wrong way.
- Your boss preferred another employee because they were having romantic or sexual relationships with them (yes, this is true, it’s called the ‘paramour exception’ we hate it, but it’s still the law. Don’t believe us, here’s a case).
None of that is illegal by itself.
To have a viable case, the termination usually has to be tied to discrimination or retaliation — and that’s where things become very fact-specific, very quickly.
What an Employment Lawyer Looks for First: Protected Activity
Almost every strong wrongful termination case starts the same way: the employee did something the law protects, and the employer didn’t like it.
That “something” might be complaining about discrimination, requesting medical leave, taking military leave, reporting unpaid overtime, raising safety concerns, or flagging an ethical or legal violation.
But here’s the part people underestimate: it usually needs to be documented.
An email. A written complaint. An HR report. Something that shows the employer was put on notice. Without that, the employer will simply say, “They never complained,” and courts often accept that explanation.
People sometimes ask about recording conversations. That’s risky. New York is a one-party consent state. Pennsylvania is not. Secret recordings in Pennsylvania can do more harm than good. Don’t believe me? Here’s me on the news talking about an alleged sexual assault victim charged with wiretapping because she recorded what she claimed was a sexual assault. While an extreme example, an experienced employment lawyer will be very careful here.
Timing Is Often the Whole Case
Even if you engaged in protected activity, timing matters more than most people realize.
Being fired a few days after complaining looks very different than being fired three months later. Judges and juries are human. They look for common sense connections.
You also need a real adverse action. Being treated coldly, excluded from meetings, or having your boss stop responding to emails usually isn’t enough. Courts look for termination, demotion, pay cuts, or formal discipline. The Supreme Court calls this a “materially adverse” action.
A lot of people come in saying, “The workplace became hostile.” An employment lawyer has to translate that into something the law actually recognizes — and often, it can’t be done.
“They Gave a Reason, But It Wasn’t Fair” Isn’t the Same as Pretext
Another hard conversation we have all the time goes like this:
“But their reason wasn’t fair.”
Fairness isn’t the standard. Pretext is.
What matters is whether the employer’s explanation collapses under scrutiny. For example: firing someone for being late when they had written authorization to arrive late, or suddenly accusing someone of misconduct but never identifying what the misconduct was.
By contrast, “someone else did it too” or “my boss didn’t like me” rarely carries the day.
Employment lawyers aren’t judging whether the employer was kind. We’re judging whether their story holds together.
Your Performance History Matters (Whether It Should or Not)
This part is uncomfortable, but real.
The strongest cases usually involve employees who were doing well, not already on a Performance Improvement Plan, not being written up repeatedly, and not on the brink of termination before the protected activity occurred.
If you were already struggling, even a legitimate complaint may not save the case. Courts look at the whole record. So do juries.
An employment lawyer has to ask: How will this person look to someone who doesn’t know them?
Damages: The Part No One Wants to Hear About
Even if everything else lines up, the case still needs damages.
Employment cases are economic cases. Lost wages matter. Efforts to find a new job matter. Sitting at home waiting for a lawsuit to resolve doesn’t help.
There’s a frustrating paradox here: good employees often find new jobs quickly, which can reduce damages. That’s one reason many wrongful termination cases — even ones with real legal issues — aren’t worth litigating.
This is also why many employment law firms operate on volume. They have to.
Why Our Employment Law Practice Is Different
We are not a volume employment law firm.
We are a Catholic apostolate, grounded in truth and human dignity. Our firm funds this work through commercial matters, which allows us to be selective — and honest — in employment cases.
That means we will tell you when you don’t have a case. Not because we don’t care, but because we do. False hope helps no one. But when we do take a case, we are prepared to take it seriously and see it through.
An employment lawyer’s job isn’t to validate every grievance. It’s to tell the truth about the law and stand by clients when the facts justify it.
Speak With an Employment Lawyer Who Will Be Straight With You
If you’re looking for an employment lawyer in Philadelphia, the Main Line, Montgomery County, Delaware, or New York City (including Queens, the Bronx, or Westchester), and you want a candid assessment rather than a sales pitch, we’re happy to talk.
You may not like the answer.
But it will be an honest one.
And if you do have a real case, we won’t shy away from it.