Most wage & hour strategy gets locked in before anyone has run the numbers. Counsel commits to a theory of the case, and only later — after discovery, after an expert is retained — does the actual exposure come into focus. By then the strategy is expensive to change.
Why the order matters
An early exposure read reframes the conversation. It surfaces which claims carry real dollars, which are noise, and where the record has gaps that need to be closed before they become a problem. That is leverage you want at the start, not the end.
What a good early read looks like
It should be fast, cheap, and honest about uncertainty. You are not trying to prove damages to the penny — you are trying to know, roughly, what you are walking into, so the strategy you commit to is the right one.