We provide essential and comprehensive labor and employment legal services to our clients by providing consistent and common sense advice and guidance in employment and personnel administration. Our areas of expertise include, as examples, the drafting of personnel rules and policies, enforcing workplace management and employee rights, assisting with drafting and implementing hiring processes, employee evaluation, promotion, discipline and discharge processes, employee training, personnel file maintenance and disclosure, personnel investigations, due process hearings and appeals, and disability and retirement issues. In addition to our extensive advisory work, we handle complex, and often sensitive, labor and employment litigation. We assertively and ethically represent our clients as advocates when litigation arises, and have represented clients at all levels of the state and federal judicial systems and administrative and regulatory agencies.
Expertise
Employment Law
- Employee privacy and background investigations
- Employee handbooks, employment policies and employment agreements, including severance and last-chance agreements
- Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and California Labor Code
- Employee benefits, including health, CalPERS and supplemental retirement plans
- Employee health and safety
- Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA)
- Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA)
- Family and medical leaves, including Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), California Family Rights Act (CFRA) and Pregnancy Disability Act (PDA)
- Workplace safety, including California Occupational Safety and Health Act (CalOSHA), including handling citations and appeals, and workers’ compensation issues
- Drug and alcohol testing, including policies
- Workplace investigations
- Training service, including supervisor harassment training pursuant to AB 1825
- Employee discipline and discharge
- Employee layoffs/reductions in force
- Workplace violence policies, investigations and restraining orders
- Discrimination, harassment and sexual harassment, including Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title II and Title VII), Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), Age Discrimination in Employment Act and Older Workers Benefit Protection Act
- Employment litigation, including disability, gender, race and age discrimination; harassment; wrongful termination; whistleblower; federal civil rights act; qui tam actions; False Claims Act; Government Code section 1090; and wage/hour
- Representing clients before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Department of Fair Employment & Housing (DFEH), Employment Development Department (EDD), California Labor Commissioner, and Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
- Police personnel, including Skelly hearings and actions involving Public Safety Officers’ Bill of Rights Act (POBRA)
- Unemployment compensation, including disputing claims and appeals
- Public Records Act as it relates to personnel matters
Labor Relations
- Collective bargaining and negotiating/drafting labor agreements with employee organizations, including negotiating impasses
- Enforcement and defense of labor agreements
- Prosecuting/defending against unfair practice charges filed with Public Employee Relations Board (PERB)
- Grievance administration
- Employee relations
- Meyers-Milias-Brown Act (MMBA)
- Representing clients before the Public Employee Relations Board (“PERB”), National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), and local personnel boards
Expertise in Action
Our attorneys have provided labor and employment legal advice to a number of public agency clients, including the cities of Bell, Carson, Covina, Chino Hills, Culver City, Cypress, Fillmore, Hemet, Industry, Irwindale, Lake Forest, Lawndale, Menifee, Palm Springs, Perris, Signal Hill, South Pasadena, and Stanton. Additionally, our attorneys have served as corporate and/or employment counsel to a number of private companies, including national transportation companies, national food distributors, insurance agencies, and real estate agencies.
We believe in a team approach both in terms of attorneys staffing a given matter or representing a particular client, as well as working with the client’s internal management team. We begin by focusing the delivery of services with a designated attorney “team” so that in the event of the unavailability of a primary attorney, there will be someone else immediately available who is familiar with the client and/or matter who can respond promptly to the client. We also appropriately staff matters based upon efficient and economical use of senior attorneys, junior attorneys, paralegals and document clerks.
We realize the sensitivity inherent in employment issues, and make it our primary purpose to present options and develop effective strategies to obtain successful results, often by preventing or resolving employment disputes or liability issues before they become detrimental to our clients. To accomplish this, our lawyers often work as part of a client’s management “team,” providing services ranging from simple legal guidance to direct representation in personnel administration, complex labor negotiation and administratively and/or civilly contested matters. In this way, we develop a breadth and depth of understanding of the client and its unique cultural and labor relations needs.