Practice Capabilities
In recent years, the legal and regulatory employment environment has become increasingly complex. Employers confront a maze of requirements and unprecedented financial liabilities in failing to meet them. Our Employment and Labor Practice Group places a special emphasis on keeping pace with the rapidly changing employment laws and providing our clients with effective representation in this ever-evolving area.

The diverse and extensive scope of our team's experience enables us to provide a full range of services to our clients nationwide. We act throughout the country as outside counsel to corporations of all sizes, with respect to their ongoing employment and labor law obligations. Our areas of concentration include the following:  

• Civil litigation before state and federal courts in cases involving:
  • Discrimination, harassment and wrongful termination
  • Restrictive covenants
  • Unfair competition, corporate raiding and trade secret misappropriation
  • Class action wage and hour issues
  • Disability access and accommodation
  • Employment Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) 
  • Bonus compensation and contract disputes
• Proceedings before administrative agencies, including:
  • National Labor Relations Board
  • Office of Federal Contract Compliance
  • California Department of Labor Standards Enforcement
  • New York State Division of Human Rights; New York City Commission on Human Rights 
  • Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
  • Employment Development Department (EDD) 
  • California Department of Fair Employment Housing
  • Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and U.S. Department of Labor
• Advice, counseling and compliance, including policy and handbook drafting, in areas such as:
  • Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)/California Family Rights Act (CFRA)/Pregnancy Disability Leave 
  • Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) 
  • Wage and hour
  • Defamation
  • Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
  • Privacy
  • Personnel policies, codes of conduct and e-mail/computer usage policies
  • Internal investigation of complaints
  • Illness and injury prevention programs
• Harassment, training and "fair workplace" seminars
  
• Traditional labor and collective bargaining
  
• Drafting of employee and related agreements, including:
  • Invention assignment and proprietary information agreements
  • Separation agreements
  • Restrictive covenant/nonsolicitation/
    noncompetition agreements
  • Confidentiality and nondisclosure agreements
  • Arbitration and alternative dispute resolution agreements
  • Independent contractor and consulting agreements
• Executive compensation and employee benefits, including:
• Employment and severance arrangements 
• Equity and incentive compensation plans 
• Deferred compensation and retirement plans 
• Welfare benefit plans 
• Profit-sharing and stock plans

Given the growth in litigation arising from employment matters, we work with clients to develop successful strategies to prevent litigation and educate employers in preemptive measures. When the need arises, our employment litigators have extensive experience in the courtroom, as well as such alternative dispute resolution forums as arbitration and mediation.

We also provide services in the area of union-related labor law. We regularly assist our clients with collective bargaining negotiations, defending against union organizing campaigns and unfair labor practice charges and preparing for picketing and strike activity. You will find us before the National Labor Relations Board, the Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the United States Department of Labor, the California Fair Employment and Housing Commission, the California Labor Commissioner, the New York State Division on Human Rights, as well as other local, state and federal agencies. We also regularly handle grievances and arbitrations for our clients with the Screen Actors Guild — American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), the Directors Guild of America (DGA), the Writers Guild of America (WGA), the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) and the Independent Film & Television Alliance (formerly AFMA).

Our experience in executive compensation and employee benefit matters includes counseling employers in all phases of an organization's existence and employees throughout their careers on issues ranging from the design and negotiation of employment arrangements and incentive compensation plans to retirement plans and tax and estate planning. 

Service Approach
Our legal expertise and understanding of our clients' businesses and objectives enable us to give practical advice for prudent business decision making. From coast to coast, our goal is to assist our clients in making the best decisions concerning employment and labor issues by identifying risks and providing solutions, while staying aggressive and focused. Whether developing employee manuals or standing in front of a jury, we approach every matter with passion and responsiveness, as our clients have come to expect.

Notable examples of our representations include the following:  

• Lead counsel in defending class-action-type claims by EEOC and private plaintiffs against a New York securities brokerage firm; highly publicized case in which 18 women claimed sexual harassment and discrimination and demanded payment of $100 million
• Representation, on a national level, of the nation's largest nonprofit charity, the Salvation Army, in employment and management matters
• One of two lead counsel in defending a $700 million lawsuit representing talent agencies against charges of race discrimination and conspiracy in the concert promotion industry; case established new standards for e-mail discovery; district court dismissed all counts on summary judgment
• Defended a major entertainment industry payroll company and several television production companies against multiple entertainment industry-wide wage and hour class action lawsuits
• Defended a major independent television production company against a wage and hour class action lawsuit involving multiple subsidiary companies
• Representation of one of the country's leading commercial insurance brokers in connection with a wide variety of restrictive covenant and fair competition litigation
• Representation of a national compensation consultant in designing, documenting and/or restructuring hundreds of nonqualified deferred compensation and insurance-funded supplemental executive benefit arrangements, including bringing those arrangements into compliance with recent deferred compensation legislation
• Handled extensive investigation by a major television network and independent television production company of claims that a judge on a reality television program engaged in impropriety with respect to the competition

Clients and Industries
Our clients generally come from a wide range of industries, such as advertising and media, financial institutions and investment banks. We also represent a number of organizations in the entertainment industry in the area of union-related labor law. In addition, our group has considerable experience defending national nonprofit religious, charitable and medical institutions. Some representative clients include the following organizations:

Leadership in Law
Members of our Employment and Labor Group have been recognized for excellence in the Chambers USA Guide to America’s Leading Business Lawyers, Super Lawyers and other leading law firm directories, as well as industry trade publications. Attorneys in the group are also frequently featured as speakers at seminars and conferences, and regularly publish articles and client alerts on topics such as employee benefits and executive compensation, as well as on changes in employment law.