Labor & Employment

We help companies navigate sensitive pattern-or-practice claims for sexual harassment, gender and racial discrimination and pay equity. Our representations include:

• Activision Blizzard in aggressively litigating California Civil Rights Department (CRD) claims of systemic sexual harassment, gender and pay discrimination. We persuaded CRD to drop its pattern-and-practice claims of harassment, limit the period for individual claims and settle for approximately half of what comparable companies facing similar claims had paid.
• A major sports equipment company in advising senior leadership on CRD’s ongoing investigation into an alleged culture of pervasive gender discrimination and harassment.
• A special committee of the board of a cutting-edge transportation company in investigating allegations of discrimination and retaliation by the company’s CEO.
• Southern California Edison in obtaining voluntary dismissal of a putative class action alleging racial discrimination against African American employees. Through targeted depositions and statistical evidence, MTO demonstrated the absence of a pattern or practice of discrimination, leading the plaintiffs to dismiss their lawsuit after the initial phase of discovery.
• A major retailer in an internal investigation into sexual harassment allegations made by multiple claimants. When CRD indicated an intent to sue on the employees’ behalf, we negotiated a settlement with CRD, avoiding any public litigation filing.
• NBCUniversal in achieving a very favorable settlement in a series of long-running putative class actions alleging that all the major TV networks, studios and talent agencies engaged in a pattern and practice of discriminating against older television writers.

We lead litigation and confidential investigations involving allegations of workplace misconduct, counsel clients on compliance matters, recommend policy changes and help develop communication strategies for these challenging issues. Our representations include:

• Harbor Distributing, L.L.C., Reyes Holdings, L.L.C., and several individual defendants in defeating claims for disability discrimination, retaliation, harassment, failure to provide reasonable accommodation, wrongful termination and other causes. After we successfully moved the matter into arbitration, we won on the merits and the court entered judgment against the plaintiff.
• A technology startup in preventing disruptions to a critical capital raising process after a terminated senior executive asserted whistleblower retaliation claims, alleging the start-up had improperly shared user data. We negotiated a favorable confidential settlement that prevented any public allegations and allowed the company’s capital raise to proceed unimpeded.
• University of California in:
  • Persuading a federal court to abstain from interfering with sexual harassment disciplinary proceedings against a former dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law.
  • Defeating, on summary judgment, a whistleblower retaliation and wrongful termination suit brought by a former senior administrator at UCLA Health.
• Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in:
  • Obtaining dismissal of an EEOC complaint brought by a former employee alleging discrimination and harassment.
  • Defeating challenges in multiple venues to an arbitrator’s decision against an employee alleging religious discrimination and whistleblower retaliation.
• A specialty retailer in an internal investigation of alleged sexual abuse of a minor employee by a high-level field manager.

We have been at the forefront of employee misclassification matters, including those arising from California’s AB 5 and similar laws. Our representations include:

• Lyft in actions brought in California by the California Attorney General, several city attorneys, the California Labor Commissioner and private plaintiffs, and in Massachusetts by the Massachusetts Attorney General, alleging that rideshare drivers are misclassified as independent contractors. We resolved similar suits brought by private plaintiffs in New York, Massachusetts and Washington, D..C, on favorable terms.
• Instacart in using strategic enforcement of the company’s arbitration agreement, and an anticipated change of venue motion, to obtain dismissal of a proposed class action based on misclassification claims.
• Handy Technologies, a subsidiary of Angi, Inc., in resolving a lawsuit claiming it misclassified tens of thousands of its “Pros” in California as independent contractors. The settlement with the district attorneys of San Francisco and Los Angeles County permits Handy to maintain its business model with some modest changes to its app.

We have extensive experience handling class and representative actions alleging violations of California and federal wage-and-hour law, winning dismissals, de-certifications and precedent-setting verdicts for our clients. Our experience includes:

• See’s Candies in using a fact-gathering campaign to demonstrate that break policies were lawful when a statistical analysis of employee timecards suggested otherwise.
• Carrington Mortgage Services in defeating class certification in a proposed class action involving overtime pay for 11,000 employees.
• GardaWorld in obtaining a ruling that federal law preempts California’s meal and rest period laws for armored car drivers. The ruling helped settle a similar matter in the State of Washington.
• Downtown Women’s Center in defeating certification of a putative wage-and-hour class action and representative (PAGA) action. On a remaining claim regarding bonuses, MTO negotiated an extremely favorable settlement resulting in claim preclusion for the entire class on all claims originally pled.
• Cornerstone Building Brand in dismissing, or resolving on favorable terms, multiple class and individual actions claiming meal and rest period violations and off-the-clock claims.
• Merrill Lynch in settling a nationwide class action covering more than 21,000 financial advisors, setting the standard for such settlements throughout the industry.

We have successfully compelled many PAGA matters to arbitration and have defeated or vastly narrowed claims for lack of manageability. Our experience includes:

• A discount retailer in resolving a PAGA action involving over 30,000 employees for just $289,000 after aggressive motion practice caused the plaintiffs to abandon most of their claims.
• Martin Luther King, Jr., Community Hospital in mediating a PAGA and class action over payment for time spent in required pre-shift COVID-19 screenings to a very favorable settlement.
• Multiple major retailers in so-called “suitable seating” cases, which were resolved at extraordinary discounts compared to similar defendants.

We advise companies on protecting their intellectual property and executives on their rights to change jobs, particularly in confidentiality-driven industries. Our experience includes:

• Applied Materials, Inc. in federal litigation and a civil action against former executives for alleged trade secret misappropriation.
• Intel Corporation in obtaining a temporary restraining order against a former employee who allegedly stole trade secrets before joining a competitor.
• A high-level technology executive in multi-forum litigation concerning their move to a California employer from an out-of-state rival.
• Amgen in advising on restrictive employment covenants and their enforceability.