When general counsel and HR leaders need guidance through the intricacies of California law, they often must work with many different lawyers to get their answers. Clients appreciate working with John as a single go-to resource who can handle the client’s full range of labor and employment matters.
Over the course of more than 20 years of practice, John has developed a wealth of experience, having worked at boutique employment law firms and AMLAW 100 firms, and he writes and speaks frequently on various employment law issues. John is experienced in almost every aspect of California labor and employment law, including:
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Harassment and discrimination litigation
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Wage and hour class and collective actions
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Advice and counseling (including the development and rollout of personnel and wage and hour policies)
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Oversight of internal investigations
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Drafting and negotiating of employment agreements
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Trade secret and employee mobility issues
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Employee “raiding” disputes
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Responding to threats of workplace violence
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Claims of alleged retaliation before the California Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board
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Unemployment claims before the California Employment Development Department
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Wage claims before the California Labor Commissioner
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Collective bargaining negotiations
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Other traditional labor matters (including union campaigns, responding to charges before the NLRB, labor arbitrations, and strike-related issues)
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COVID-19 compliance and planning, including the development and rollout of employee vaccination policies
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LGBTQ issues in the workplace
John brings a “live-in-the-client’s-shoes” mentality to every matter he handles, whether it’s tailoring the defense of a wage and hour class action to manage litigation costs strategically, drafting internal client documents with an eye toward how they might look before a jury, or recommending policy changes to reduce potential long term exposure. John takes particular pride in the work he does at the pre-litigation stage, where he often finds himself endeavoring to persuade the opposition that litigation against our client will not be worth their time or effort.
John is an active member of the firm’s Artificial Intelligence practice group and writes and speaks frequently regarding AI issues.
John earned his bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University and his law degree from the UCLA School of Law.