Overview
Katherine M. Forster is an employment litigator who helps companies navigate highly sensitive claims related to sexual harassment and abuse, gender discrimination, pay equity and related retaliation – with particular expertise in addressing allegations of systemic wrongdoing.
She also litigates wage/hour and discrimination class actions and other high-profile matters, including executive terminations and whistleblower retaliation claims.
Katherine has prevailed at trial as well as on dispositive motions, defeated class certification, enforced arbitration agreements and obtained extraordinary settlements – where tens or hundreds of millions of dollars are often at stake.
She has extensive experience in the technology, retail, legal services, entertainment and media, health care, manufacturing and nonprofit sectors.
Katherine authored an amicus curiae brief on behalf of the U.S. and California Chambers of Commerce in a California Supreme Court case of first impression regarding the state’s suitable seating law. She was also one of the principal counsel of record in Reynolds v. Bement, in which the California Supreme Court held that corporate officers and directors could not be held personally liable under the then-existing California Labor Code for wage claims by corporate employees.
Prior to entering law school, Katherine was a project manager in the aerospace and defense industry.
In her free time, Katherine enjoys collecting wine and cooking.
Capabilities
Experience
Employment Litigation
Katherine’s litigation experience includes discrimination, harassment, wrongful termination and whistleblower retaliation claims; wage/hour claims; executive compensation matters; trade secrets disputes; constitutional issues; and claims arising under the Unruh Civil Rights Act as well as federal and state employment laws.
She has deep expertise in navigating government agency investigations, including EEOC Commissioner’s charges and CRD Director’s charges. Katherine also handles internal investigations and provides strategic employment law compliance advice to employers and management.
Key representations include:
Activision Blizzard in defending against claims of systemic sex discrimination, harassment and retaliation by the California Civil Rights Department (formerly Department of Fair Employment and Housing).
99 Cents Only in obtaining reversal on appeal of a trial court ruling that the company had waived its right to compel individual arbitration of wage and hour claims.
A publicly traded company defending against claims for whistleblower retaliation under the Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd-Frank Acts.
A major film studio defending against sexual harassment and gender discrimination claims.
A high-profile nonprofit foundation defending against a legal challenge to an internship program it funds to encourage underrepresented groups to pursue museum careers.
A large retailer defending against claims it violated state law by failing to provide seats to cashiers.
Class Actions
Katherine has litigated over 100 wage/hour and discrimination class actions as well as collective and representative actions.
Key representations include:
See’s Candies in defeating class certification in an action alleging wage and hour violations.
Southern California Edison in obtaining the dismissal of a putative class action alleging a pattern and practice of racial discrimination and summary judgment in a related individual action.
Merrill Lynch in its defense against a nationwide wage and hour class action by its financial advisors.
NBCUniversal in attaining favorable settlements in two putative class actions alleging age discrimination against television writers by all the major TV networks, studios and talent agencies.
More
- Chambers USA, Band 2: Labor & Employment
- The Best Lawyers in America, 2024, 2025, 2026 in three employment law categories
- Top Labor & Employment Lawyer, Daily Journal, 2024
- Leader of Influence: Labor & Employment Attorney, Los Angeles Business Journal, 2022, 2023, 2024
- Top 50 Women Attorneys in Southern California, 2016-2018
- Distinguished Service Award, Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles (WLALA), 2016
- Southern California Super Lawyers, 2012-2025; Rising Stars, 2008-2011
- Top 100 Women Lawyers in California, Daily Journal, 2009
- Member, board of directors, Equality California Institute, serves as co-chair of the Governance Committee, and sits on the Executive Committee
- Past member, board of directors, Downtown Women’s Center, served as Board Secretary and sat on the Executive Committee
- Past member, board of directors, Harriet Buhai Center for Family Law
Katherine does extensive pro bono work in the areas of impact litigation to promote LGBT rights as well as non-profit advice and counseling.
She and co-counsel at Lambda Legal are currently challenging an Idaho law that would require schools to discriminate against transgender students by requiring them to use restroom facilities that match their sex assigned at birth.
She and co-counsel at ACLU and DRW obtained a preliminary injunction barring the Washington Department of Corrections from “outing” transgender, non-binary and intersex prisoners and from disclosing their medical information, sexual history and history of sexual victimization in response to Public Records Act requests.
She led a Munger Tolles team that, along with Lambda Legal, brought a lawsuit asserting sex discrimination claims on behalf of a transgender veteran who was denied service at a local barbershop.
She is also part of a team that has successfully defended California’s law prohibiting licensed clinical professionals from practicing sexual orientation change efforts on minors.
- Member of the invitation-only American Employment Law Council
- Past chair, Labor & Employment Law Section, Los Angeles County Bar Association, 2020-2021
- Past president, Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles (WLALA), 2008-2009
- Founding chair of the LACBA/WLALA Joint Task Force on the Promotion and Retention of Women Lawyers, 2008
- Longtime member, California Women Lawyers, the Association of Business Trial Lawyers, and the LGBT Bar Association
Publications
- Quoted, “9th Stance on Offensive Music Will Reverberate,” Law 360, June 9, 2023
Speaking Engagements
- “Lifecycle of an Arbitration,” 44th annual Labor & Employment Law Symposium, March 28, 2024
- “Employers Beware: What’s Now, What’s New and What’s Next,” Institute for Corporate Counsel
- “Trends in Wage and Hour Litigation – Perspectives from the Plaintiff and Defense Side,” LACBA Labor & Employment Law Symposium
- Year in Review, LACBA Labor and Employment Law Symposium
- “Navigating the Employee Leave Laws: What Happens When the Statutes Intersect, Conflict and Overlap?,” LACBA Labor and Employment Law Symposium
- “Eliminating Bias in the Legal Profession,” Burbank and Orange County Bar Associations
- “Nuts and Bolts of Employment Law,” LACBA
- Taking the Step to Federal Court, Federal Bar Association
- “Tracking Diversity – Continuing the Retention and Advancement of Women in Law Firms: Fresh Perspectives for Changing Times”, LACBA/WLALA Joint Task Force, Nov. 17, 2009
- “Anatomy of the Plaintiff’s Employment Lawsuit and Cutting-Edge Employer Practices to Avoid Employment Lawsuits,” LACBA, Feb. 8, 2008
News & Insights
Awards & Recognitions