California Labor Code Litigation
Seyfarth Shaw has one of the largest labor and employment departments in California, with 100 labor & employment lawyers practicing in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento. We were the first national firm to open California offices over 30 years ago. Today, our California attorneys constitute approximately one-third of our labor and employment attorneys nationwide.
We have achieved extraordinary results for our California clients. This achievement is attributable to a number of factors: the quality and excellence of our California labor and employment litigators and counselors, a deep labor and employment bench at all levels of experience dealing with the peculiarities of federal and California employment laws, and a team based system that differentiates us from our competitors and enables us to draw upon expertise throughout our national platform to deliver value and efficiency to our clients.
California Workplace Counseling and Compliance Solutions
Our attorneys are experts in guiding clients through the many peculiarities of California's employment laws and auditing client employment policies and handbooks to assure compliance. Our team of L&E attorneys will provide you with high value by drawing upon other firm resources as appropriate to provide prompt, efficient expertise in a variety of niches unique to California employment law. Among those niches are the following:
California Fair Employment and Housing Act
There are profound differences between California law and federal law on various aspects of employment discrimination law. Needless to say California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) is far broader in scope and onerous in its requirements than its federal counterparts. Seyfarth Shaw is unmatched in its ability to safely guide clients through the complexities of California’s anti-discrimination statutes, whether regarding California’s special rules concerning disability or age discrimination, retaliation, or workplace harassment.
Wage and Hour Matters
Our attorneys represent employers in a broad range of wage and hour matters, including California and federal wage and hour investigations. This representation starts at the time an investigator makes initial contact and continues through any court litigation. Seyfarth Shaw also regularly advises clients on day-to-day issues concerning compliance with federal and California laws regulating wages and hours, and routinely conducts comprehensive wage and hour compliance audits for our clients. Our attorneys are especially knowledgeable regarding California wage-hour law, which differs in numerous significant respects from the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. Our expertise in this area is evidenced by the fact we have handled over 150 California wage and hour class action lawsuits concerning of virtually every conceivable California wage and hour issue, including, misclassification of employees, "off the clock," vacation, rest and meal periods, travel time, donning and doffing, tip pooling, business deductions, denied reimbursements, bonuses, commissions, pay stub violations, regular rate calculations, and California’s “bounty-hunter” statute. Indeed, we have more experience in this regard than any other law firm in the country.
Leave Law Compliance
Seyfarth Shaw’s leave law task force is comprised of attorneys in a number of our offices. They regularly meet and exchange information concerning both federal and California family leave compliance, staying current with the latest court decisions and proposed changes in the laws. Task force members have given hundreds of speeches and training sessions on leave law compliance, regularly counsel clients on these complex and counter-intuitive issues, draft and review leave law forms and policies, handle federal and state agency claims or inquiries, advise clients on the important differences between the federal Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the California Family Rights Act (CFRA). Our lawyers also are well versed in California’s myriad other leave and accommodation statutes such as those pertaining to pregnancy, kin care, jury duty, and school-parent leave. Our attorneys are well-equipped to advise clients on all legal issues arising from employee absences.
Workforce Restructuring
Our attorneys are frequently involved in advising clients on the legal and practical implications of workforce restructuring efforts and in the design of reduction-in-force plans. Workforce restructurings require consideration of federal, state and local discrimination laws, the federal WARN Act, the Cal-WARN Act, ERISA, the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act, and other statutory schemes. Our business restructuring and transactional employment practice is devoted to managing labor and employment issues arising from corporate mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures; subcontracting and outsourcing; workforce reductions; facility closings, relocations and consolidations; corporate reorganizations; bankruptcy; and ESOPs. We have substantial experience conducting due diligence in connection with acquisitions of California companies and we have successfully guided many national clients through significant workforce restructuring projects.
Consumer Credit Reporting Acts
Our lawyers regularly advise employers on compliance issues under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and other statutes that govern obtaining accurate information about applicants and current employees, including the California Consumer Credit Report Agencies Act (CCRAA), and the California Investigative Consumer Reporting Agencies Act (ICRAA). Seyfarth Shaw has produced an FCRA State Compliance Package to ensure employers obtain the information they need to make better employment decisions in compliance with the requirements of the FCRA, CCRA, and ICRAA. Through work with the United States Chamber of Commerce and SHRM, our attorneys play a lead role in seeking FCRA reform to avoid the unintended consequence of the application of it and similar laws to workplace investigations of misconduct.
Workplace Investigations
There may be nothing more important to good employee relations and credible, defensible disciplinary actions than well-informed decision making, a key of which is conducting thorough and unbiased investigations. Done correctly, investigations can help keep an internal problem from becoming an external one, mitigate the potential for morale and productivity problems, and prevent legal liability and financial losses. Conversely, a poorly conducted investigation can have the exact opposite effect, resulting in costly legal exposure. Seyfarth Shaw attorneys are experienced in handling internal workplace investigations under California’s unique laws and can assist clients in any workplace investigation. We can either handle the entire investigation or can help our client by setting up the protocol to follow if conducting their own investigation.
Employee Privacy Rights
California is one of the few states whose constitution expressly protects the individual’s right to privacy. Unlike most constitutional provisions, the California provision applies not only to governmental agencies but also to private employers. Additionally, California has enacted many statutes which protect the privacy rights of employees. Our attorneys can equip clients with the know-how required to: implement policies governing drug testing, background searches, the use of e-mail, voicemail, the Internet, video surveillance, and other new technology; avoid eavesdropping, invasion of privacy and other employee claims; investigate, identify and prosecute persons who “anonymously” post trade secrets or other confidential information on the Internet; and reconcile company proprietary interests in electronic communications with California’s labor law duties.
California Employment Litigation
One of the hallmarks of Seyfarth Shaw’s labor and employment practice is our strength in employment-related litigation. Throughout the state of California, our attorneys have litigated thousands of employment-related lawsuits, arbitrations, and administrative agency complaints. These cases span the complete spectrum from discrimination claims brought under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) to claims based on the California Labor Code, common law claims and contract claims.
Our employment litigation work has involved representation in California State Courts and Federal Courts, as well as before the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). We routinely represent employers in California Superior Court defending claims brought under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act alleging harassment, retaliation, discrimination, failure to accommodate and failure to engage in an interactive process, to name a few. We also represent employers in wrongful termination, breach of contract, privacy rights and wage and hour cases. In addition, we have handled numerous cases alleging a violation of the California Family Rights Act, the California Labor Code, including Private Attorney General Act (PAGA) claims, California WARN Act, California Constitutional and other statutory claims. With the rapidly changing legal landscape in California, our attorneys remain abreast of changes in the California legislative and case law. Our California attorneys are also experienced in handling Federal Statutory claims brought under Title VII, the Americans With Disabilities Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Equal Pay Act, the Family Medical Leave Act and the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act.
Our attorneys also regularly handle cases before various California Administrative Agencies. We have handled thousands of wage and hour cases before the California Labor Commissioner’s office. In addition, we have handled numerous discrimination complaints before the California Fair Employment and Housing Commission, as well as unemployment benefits and employment tax cases, and other appeals before the California Employment Development Department.