3,000 emails. 200 HR records. The discriminatory pattern is in there. Find it.
Upload the entire discovery production. Vaquill AI reads across emails, personnel files, performance reviews, and disciplinary records to surface patterns, build comparator analyses, and draft complaints with inline citations to the evidence. Every answer verified before you see it.
The pain points AI actually solves in employment law.
Not hypothetical. These are the bottlenecks employment law lawyers hit every week.
Email and electronic discovery drowns solos
A single custodian can produce 10,000+ emails. Add Slack messages, Teams chats, and text messages, and the volume overwhelms solo practitioners who lack the e-discovery platforms BigLaw uses. Missing a "smoking gun" email buried on page 2,847 of a production means missing the case.
Comparator analysis requires cross-document pattern recognition
Discrimination cases require showing similarly situated employees were treated differently. That means comparing performance reviews, disciplinary actions, promotions, and compensation across multiple employees. For hostile work environment claims, the lawyer must organize months or years of incidents into a chronological pattern of severe or pervasive conduct.
EEOC filing deadlines are rigid and frequently litigated
180 days without a state agency, 300 days with one. 90 days from right-to-sue letter to file in federal court. The continuing violation doctrine (National Railroad Passenger Corp. v. Morgan, 536 U.S. 101) and the discovery rule add complexity. For FLSA claims, the 2-year statute (3 for willful) runs backward, meaning damages are lost every day the complaint is not filed.
A single case implicates 4 to 6 statutes with different standards
Title VII (15+ employees, damages caps), ADA (qualified individual + reasonable accommodation), ADEA (20+ employees, but-for causation per Gross v. FBL Financial), Section 1981 (no cap, race only), FLSA (enterprise vs individual coverage, liquidated damages), state FEPAs with their own thresholds and caps. Each has different elements, burdens of proof, and procedural requirements.
Fee petitions get cut 20 to 40% for insufficient documentation
Under fee-shifting statutes, prevailing plaintiffs recover attorney fees via the lodestar method (reasonable hours times reasonable rate, Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424). Courts routinely reduce petitions for block billing, vague entries, or excessive time. The difference between good and bad time entries is thousands of dollars in fees.
Plaintiff-side employment solos have no purpose-built AI tool
BigLaw defense firms (Littler, Jackson Lewis, Fisher Phillips) build proprietary technology. Compliance platforms (SHRM, Mineral, Traliant) serve HR departments. But the plaintiff employment lawyer who screens dozens of intakes, manages EEOC deadlines, drowns in email discovery, and juggles multi-statute complexity has no dedicated workflow tool.
In-house employment counsel sit between HR and outside firms
A in-house team owns handbook compliance across every state the company hires in, reviews accommodation requests under the ADA and state analogs, drafts and revises policies as new laws take effect, and responds to EEOC charges with position statements that lock in the company narrative. Sending every handbook update or accommodation question to outside counsel is not affordable. Doing it without a system invites inconsistency.
Your employment law workflow, with AI at every step.
Intake and case screening
Screen 20+ potential clients for every case accepted. Rapidly assess: viable legal claim or just unfair situation? Sufficient damages to justify contingency? Has the EEOC filing deadline passed? Is the employer covered (15+ for Title VII, 20+ for ADEA, 50+ for FMLA)?
AI research: statute coverage thresholds, filing deadlines, and state-specific claim viabilityEEOC charge filing and administrative exhaustion
File charge within 180/300 days. Draft the charge narrative to preserve all claims. For Title VII, ADA, and ADEA, administrative exhaustion is mandatory before federal suit. Missing the deadline is malpractice-level catastrophic.
Keyword alerts: track EEOC right-to-sue letter deadlines by matterComplaint drafting (multi-statute)
Draft federal and state claims in parallel. Title VII + state FEPA + Section 1981 to maximize damages and avoid caps. Federal complaints must satisfy Twombly/Iqbal plausibility; state courts may still use notice pleading.
AI drafting grounded in case law + uploaded intake documentsDiscovery: emails, HR records, and personnel files
Review thousands of emails, Slack messages, performance reviews, disciplinary records, and internal investigation reports. Find the pattern that proves discriminatory treatment or the "smoking gun" statement that proves pretext.
upload the full production, ask questions across all documentsComparator analysis
Compare how the plaintiff was treated versus similarly situated employees outside the protected class. Build a table of disciplinary actions, performance ratings, promotions, and compensation across comparators.
Document chat: "Compare disciplinary actions for plaintiff vs [comparators] across all uploaded records"Summary judgment (defense) or opposition (plaintiff)
Defense moves for summary judgment arguing no prima facie case or legitimate nondiscriminatory reason without pretext. Plaintiff opposes with exhaustive record citations and circuit-specific McDonnell Douglas research.
Citation graph: trace how your circuit applies McDonnell Douglas to your claim typePosition statement (in-house and defense-side)
Respond to EEOC charge. This document locks in the employer's articulated reason, which becomes the centerpiece of the McDonnell Douglas framework. Inconsistency with later litigation positions is devastating.
AI drafting: draft position statement consistent with uploaded HR records and investigation filesEmployee handbook compliance (in-house and defense-side)
Review handbooks for compliance with federal and state employment laws. Flag at-will disclaimers that conflict with progressive discipline policies, harassment reporting procedures that undermine the Faragher/Ellerth defense, and non-compete provisions unenforceable in the client's states.
Compliance Check: run handbook against Title VII + ADA + FMLA + state FEPAs simultaneouslyWhat you can do with Vaquill AI today.
Specific employment law workflows, not generic AI promises.
Discriminatory pattern discovery in HR production
Upload 3,000 emails and 200 pages of HR records. Ask: "Identify all instances where disciplinary action was taken, including employee name, infraction, and discipline imposed." Then: "Build a chronology of performance reviews and disciplinary actions for the plaintiff and comparators." The chronology builder produces a timeline with inline citations to specific pages in the source PDFs. Use this to draft the comparator analysis section of the complaint.
Circuit-specific McDonnell Douglas research for ADA claims
Research how your circuit applies McDonnell Douglas to failure-to-accommodate ADA claims. Specifically: can failure to engage in the interactive process alone establish a prima facie case, or must the plaintiff independently identify a reasonable accommodation? Get answers with inline citations to circuit opinions. Use the citation graph to trace how subsequent panels have applied or distinguished the holding.
Faragher/Ellerth defense evolution via citation graph
Start with Faragher v. City of Boca Raton (524 U.S. 775) in the citation graph. Trace forward through citing decisions, filtered by your circuit. Identify how courts define "reasonable care to prevent and correct" in your jurisdiction: does it require just a policy, or training plus investigation procedures plus multiple reporting channels? The graph visually maps how the defense has evolved.
Employee handbook compliance across states
Upload a 60-page handbook for a company operating in California, Texas, and New York. Run Compliance Check against Title VII, ADA, FMLA, and all three states' requirements. Vaquill AI flags: at-will disclaimer conflicts with progressive discipline (implied contract risk), single-channel harassment reporting (Faragher/Ellerth vulnerability), missing state-specific paid family leave provisions, and unenforceable non-compete clauses in California.
Wage/hour decision monitoring via keyword alerts
Set up keyword alerts for FLSA collective action certification decisions in your circuit, plus new DOL guidance on independent contractor misclassification. Get Slack or Telegram notifications when new decisions drop. Add a second alert for state wage/hour legislation. Stay current without spending hours monitoring PACER or legal blogs.
Built for the law you actually practice.
Vaquill AI understands these employment law concepts when you research, draft, and verify.
McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting
The foundational circumstantial evidence framework: (1) prima facie case, (2) employer articulates legitimate nondiscriminatory reason, (3) plaintiff shows pretext. McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green (411 U.S. 792, 1973). Each circuit has its own gloss on what satisfies each step.
ADA: reasonable accommodation and interactive process
Employers must provide reasonable accommodations unless undue hardship. The interactive process is legally required and failure to engage is independently actionable in most circuits. US Airways v. Barnett (535 U.S. 391, 2002).
ADEA: but-for causation (Gross v. FBL Financial)
Age must be the "but-for" cause, not merely a motivating factor (557 U.S. 167, 2009). This higher bar makes ADEA claims harder to prove than Title VII claims, which allow mixed-motive analysis.
FLSA: collective actions and the Swales split
FLSA allows opt-in collective actions (29 U.S.C. 216(b)). The Fifth Circuit's Swales v. KLLM Transport (985 F.3d 430, 2021) replaced the two-step Lusardi framework, creating a circuit split on conditional certification that makes jurisdiction-specific research critical.
FMLA: interference vs retaliation
Two distinct claims: interference (employer denied or discouraged leave, no intent required) and retaliation (adverse action for taking leave, follows McDonnell Douglas). The distinction affects both elements and available damages.
Section 1981: race discrimination without caps
42 U.S.C. 1981 provides a cause of action for race discrimination in contracts with no damages cap and no administrative exhaustion. After Comcast Corp. v. NAAOM (140 S. Ct. 1009, 2020), but-for causation is required.
Retaliation: Burlington Northern standard
Burlington Northern v. White (548 U.S. 53, 2006): retaliation claims are broader than discrimination claims. Any "materially adverse" action that would dissuade a reasonable worker from filing a charge qualifies, not just "ultimate employment decisions."
Faragher/Ellerth affirmative defense
For supervisor harassment without tangible employment action: (1) employer exercised reasonable care to prevent and correct, (2) employee unreasonably failed to use corrective opportunities. Faragher (524 U.S. 775, 1998); Ellerth (524 U.S. 742, 1998).
Non-compete enforceability (post-2024)
FTC rule struck down in Ryan LLC v. FTC (N.D. Tex. 2024). State-level reform continues: California bans entirely (B&P Code 16600), Colorado and Illinois restrict to high earners, Minnesota bans for most workers. A fast-moving area requiring constant monitoring.
Title VII damages caps by employer size
Compensatory and punitive damages capped: $50K (15-100 employees), $100K (101-200), $200K (201-500), $300K (500+). This is why plaintiff lawyers pair Title VII with Section 1981 (uncapped) or state FEPAs with higher or no caps.
Fee-shifting: lodestar method (Hensley v. Eckerhart)
Prevailing plaintiffs recover reasonable hours times reasonable rate (461 U.S. 424, 1983). Courts scrutinize heavily: block billing, vague entries, and excessive time get cut 20 to 40%. Meticulous contemporaneous records are essential.
How the employment law AI landscape looks today.
An honest look at who else serves employment law lawyers with AI, and where Vaquill AI fits.
Paxton AI
General legal AI with an employment law page. Offers research and drafting but lacks document chat for discovery review, comparator analysis across HR records, or employment-specific workflows. $499/month Individual plan.
Littler CaseSmart (BigLaw proprietary)
The largest employment law firm's proprietary case management and analytics platform. Not available to outside lawyers. Represents the benchmark for employer-side employment tech, but small defense firms have no access.
NELA (plaintiff resources)
National Employment Lawyers Association provides practice guides and brief banks to members. No AI tooling. The plaintiff employment bar's professional organization, but not a technology provider.
Compliance platforms (SHRM, Mineral, Traliant)
Serve HR departments with compliance toolkits, handbook builders, and training. Entirely different use case: compliance prevention, not litigation. Complementary, not competitive.
Vaquill AI (where we fit)
The gap no competitor fills: 100-document chat for discovery review and comparator analysis, AI research with inline citations for multi-statute complexity, compliance check for defense-side handbook review, chronology builder for hostile work environment timelines, and keyword alerts for wage/hour developments. Transparent per-seat pricing, not locked behind BigLaw walls.
Employment Law lawyers ask us
Can Vaquill AI handle 3,000 emails from an employment discovery production?
Yes. Upload thousands of documents per matter. Batch the production by custodian or topic. Once ingested, ask questions across the full production: "Identify every email where a supervisor discusses the plaintiff's performance" or "Find all communications about the accommodation request." Every answer cites the exact document and page with highlighting.
Can I build a comparator analysis from HR records?
Yes. Upload personnel files, performance reviews, and disciplinary records for the plaintiff and comparator employees. Ask Vaquill AI to compare treatment across the group. The chronology builder organizes the data into a timeline you can use directly in your complaint or summary judgment briefing.
Does Vaquill AI handle multi-statute employment research (Title VII, ADA, ADEA, FLSA, state law)?
Yes. Every research query searches across federal and state case law with inline citations to court PDFs. The citation graph lets you trace circuit-specific applications of McDonnell Douglas, Faragher/Ellerth, the Swales collective action framework, and other employment doctrines. Cross-conversation memory remembers your circuit and the statutes at issue across sessions.
Can I use this for defense-side handbook review?
Yes. Upload the handbook and run Compliance Check against Title VII, ADA, FMLA, and applicable state FEPAs simultaneously. Vaquill AI flags at-will/progressive discipline conflicts, single-channel harassment reporting (Faragher/Ellerth risk), missing state-specific provisions, and unenforceable restrictive covenants.
Is this useful for plaintiff employment lawyers specifically?
Yes, and there is no other AI tool purpose-built for plaintiff employment practice. Upload discovery, build comparator analyses, research circuit-specific burden-shifting frameworks, draft complaints grounded in the evidence, and track wage/hour decisions via keyword alerts. The entire plaintiff employment lifecycle in one platform.
Is this useful for in-house employment counsel?
Yes. Run handbook compliance against Title VII, ADA, FMLA, and every state FEPA your company hires in, all in one pass, and surface conflicts before the next audit. Review accommodation requests against ADA and state analogs with cited authority. Draft and revise policies as new laws take effect. Respond to EEOC charges with position statements grounded in your HR records, so the articulated reason holds up if the charge becomes litigation. Cross-conversation memory keeps your jurisdictions and prior decisions in context.
Is my client data secure? Employment cases involve sensitive personal information.
AES-256 encryption at rest, TLS 1.3 in transit, US data residency on AWS, full tenant isolation, and a contractual commitment to never train models on your data. Aligned with SOC 2 controls. See /security for the complete posture.
Find the pattern. Draft the complaint. Cite the law.
Upload discovery, surface discriminatory patterns across HR records, audit handbooks across every state you hire in, research circuit-specific employment law with a citation graph, and monitor wage/hour decisions, all in one platform.
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