A litigation attorney is a lawyer who represents clients in disputes, steering a case from the complaint through discovery, motion practice, settlement negotiations, trial and any appeal.
Litigator is the same job by its other name.
The role combines written advocacy, evidence work and courtroom advocacy across plaintiff-side, defense-side and commercial disputes.
Here is the job day to day, who employs litigators, and how the career path runs.
What does a litigation attorney do day to day?
The job tracks the life of a dispute: what a litigation attorney does changes with each phase a case passes through.
The arc below is the civil litigation work cycle.
Plaintiff and defense litigators travel it from opposite ends, but the phases — and the skills they demand — are shared.
- Case assessment. Before anything is filed, a litigator tests the facts: what happened, what the law does with those facts, who the witnesses are and what the records would show. On the plaintiff side this shapes whether and how a claim is brought; on the defense side, how a suit is met.
- Pleadings. The complaint that starts a lawsuit, the answer that responds to it, and the early motions that try to frame — or end — the case before evidence gathering begins.
- Discovery. Each side builds its evidence: written questions and document requests, records pulled from third parties, and depositions — sworn testimony taken on the record before trial. Because business records are electronic, reviewing emails and other digital files through e-discovery tools is core evidence work.
- Motions. Written arguments asking the court to decide or narrow issues: to dismiss claims, to compel evidence, or to resolve the case so it never reaches a jury. Motion practice is where a litigator's research and writing are on full display.
- Settlement negotiation. Disputes can end in an agreed resolution, and negotiating that end — directly or through a mediator — is litigation work in its own right: valuing the case, structuring terms, papering the deal.
- Trial. When a case is tried rather than resolved earlier, the litigator selects or challenges a jury, delivers opening and closing statements, examines and cross-examines witnesses, and gets evidence in front of the judge or jury.
- Post-trial work and appeals. After a verdict or ruling come the motions that test it and, where a matter is appealed, the appeal itself — where the writing grows longer and the audience is a panel of judges reading a closed record.
Underneath all of it sits case management: the docket calendar and its deadlines, expert witnesses and co-counsel, client updates, and the paralegals and litigation support staff who run the document, filing and e-discovery machinery a case stands on.
Litigation is one branch of the broader work of what attorneys do — the same license, aimed at disputes rather than deals or filings.
Where do litigation attorneys work and who employs them?
Litigation happens wherever disputes do, and several kinds of employer keep litigators busy:
- Law firms, on both sides of the docket. Plaintiff-side firms bring claims for individuals and businesses; defense firms represent the parties facing them; and larger firms house litigation groups whose matters run from a single contract fight to multi-party commercial disputes.
- Government. Prosecutors and public defenders are courtroom lawyers on the criminal side, and government attorneys also handle civil enforcement and defend public entities.
- Companies. In-house legal departments manage their employer's disputes — shaping strategy, coordinating discovery and working with the outside firms that appear in court.
- Public interest and legal aid organizations. Litigators there bring or defend cases tied to the organization's mission.
As for how many lawyers do this work: there is no official headcount of litigators to cite.
Our research found no per-practice-area count for the profession — the BLS occupational data for lawyers is not split by practice area (SOC 23-1011) — so treat any "share of attorneys who litigate" figure as an estimate, not a statistic.
What skills and credentials does a litigation attorney need?
The credential is the one every attorney holds: a license to practice law.
Admission is decided jurisdiction by jurisdiction, so the requirements that matter are the ones where you intend to practice.
The skills are the craft built on that license:
- Persuasive writing. Briefs and motions are where litigation arguments live; the reader is a judge with a stack of other cases.
- Oral advocacy. Arguing a motion, examining a witness and, at trial, presenting the case to the court.
- Research under pressure. Finding the authority that moves a judge on a live dispute, on a deadline, is a different skill from researching a seminar paper.
- Evidence. What gets in, what stays out, and how to build the record now that supports the argument you intend to make later.
- Strategy and judgment. Which motions are worth fighting, which depositions to take, what a case is worth, and when an agreed resolution serves the client better than another year of fighting.
- Deadline discipline. Litigation runs on court-set deadlines, and a missed one can cost more than a lost argument.
Admission requirements are set jurisdiction by jurisdiction
What does a typical caseload or workload look like?
The honest answer first: we will not invent a number here.
Caseload and workload vary with the employer, the practice and the calendar, and our research found no verified cross-firm figure for how many matters a litigation attorney carries.
What shapes the workload is easier to describe:
- Volume model. A litigation practice can be built for volume — many smaller matters in parallel — or for weight: fewer cases, each running for years. The daily texture of the job differs between the two.
- Side of the docket. Plaintiff and defense litigators work the same case from opposite ends — building the claim or meeting it — and the work mix follows.
- Case stage. A matter in discovery consumes document review and deposition preparation; a matter approaching trial consumes everything. Weeks swing with the docket's stages.
- Calendar pressure. Court deadlines structure the week, and trial preparation compresses everything around it.
Hours and billable expectations are employer-specific, so the truest picture comes from the interviews: ask how many active matters you would carry, which stages they sit in, and what the billable or productivity expectation is.
Those answers describe the job better than any average would.
How does the role compare with nearby attorney roles?
Litigation attorney vs. trial lawyer.
The terms trade as near-synonyms, and both describe one job seen from different ends.
"Trial lawyer" foregrounds the courtroom; "litigator" covers the whole arc a case travels, from the first filing to the final ruling.
Litigation vs. transactional practice.
A corporate attorney works deals: contracts, governance, closings.
A litigator works disputes: filings, evidence, arguments.
Transactional work is drafted to prevent the fights litigators handle — and when a deal turns into a dispute, the matter crosses from one practice into the other.
Litigation vs. the substantive specialties.
Fields such as family law and employment law are litigation-centered practices: the subject matter differs while the procedural craft is shared.
Criminal defense is its own courtroom arena, with its own rules, clients and career path.
Each of those practices has its own guide, the way this page answers the question for litigation.
Litigation vs. appellate practice.
Appeals are a distinct craft — the record is closed, the audience is a panel of judges, and the writing carries the argument.
Litigators who concentrate there trade depositions for briefs.
How do you become a litigation attorney?
The short version: earn the law degree, clear admission where you intend to practice, and build the litigation craft from there — through litigation-focused roles, courtroom exposure, and the discovery, drafting and deposition work that fills a new litigator's docket.
The credential gate is the same whichever door you enter through: admission to practice law where you work, confirmed with the bar admission authority there.
How much do litigation attorneys make?
Pay tracks the employer, the market and the side of the docket, so a single salary figure for "litigation attorney" hides more than it shows.
The figures that are tracked for the role are collected on the litigation attorney salary page.
Where to find litigation attorney jobs
Open roles are listed at litigation attorney jobs on this site — a board built only for legal jobs, updated as firms post new roles.
Beyond the board, litigation openings surface through firm career pages, government and public-interest job listings, bar association career centers, and the network you build in practice.
Career information, not legal advice. Admission to practice law is decided jurisdiction by jurisdiction and the requirements change — confirm the current ones with the bar admission authority where you intend to practice.