Orange County Employment Attorney: Following its January 10th conference, the U.S. Supreme Court released its list of cases it will take and it appears that Bingham McCutchen has been left standing without a rose. This rejection dashes Bingham’s final hope to overturn a December 2012 trial court ruling that denied Bingham’s attempt to force a disability…
Orange County Employment Attorney: Reports have been popping up this week detailing how Yahoo CEO, Marissa Mayer, has implemented a system where managers are forced to rank Yahoo employees on a bell curve and then fire those at the low end. This seems to be the second major HR disaster coming from Mayer’s reign after…
Orange County Employment Attorney: Caltrans received a very special Halloween treat yesterday when a Los Angeles jury awarded employee Tony Brake, a 50-year old bridge engineer and first-line supervisor, over $570,000 in economic and emotional distress damages after senior Caltrans employees subjected him to whistleblower retaliation after he reported (and refused to participate in) discrimination against…
Didn’t you get that memo? One of the most important new employment cases coming down from the California Supreme Court this year has definitely been Harris v. City of Santa Monica. In a nutshell, the Court’s holding in Harris gives California Employers even more incentive to document and exaggerate the mistakes and shortcomings of their employees.…
Orange County Employment Attorney: Just last week, on Monday, August 12, 2013, Governor Brown signed into law a bill that amends California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act to specify that sexually harassing conduct need not be motivated by sexual desire. Senate Bill 292, sponsored by the California Employment Lawyers Association, overrules the Court of Appeal’s…
Orange County Employment Attorney: Urasawa, the trendy and enormously expensive Beverly Hills sushi restaurant, ranked second most expensive restaurant by the Daily Meal, will have to pay its workers large amounts of fines totaling $65,785. Three of Urasawa’s workers will be paid $38,585 for unpaid work accrued after not receiving overtime pay for work over…
Orange County Employment Attorney: The California Court of Appeal slammed the door today on mega law firm Bingham McCutchen’s attempt to have a wrongful termination lawsuit (filed against them by their former litigation associate, Hartwell Harris) thrown out of court and into binding arbitration. In the 10-page opinion (certified for publication), all three justices in…
Orange County Employment Attorney: Orange County’s injured athletes might need to return home. The proposal, AB 1309, was unveiled last week by Assembly Insurance Committee Chairman Henry Perea (D-Fresno). The bill will effectively ban professional sport team players who work outside of California from filing for workers’ compensation benefits for work-related injuries. Proponents of this…
Orange County Employment Attorney: A big law firm with an office in Orange County, Greenberg Traurig LLP, and one its former attorneys, Francine Griesing, will move towards mediation to settle claims in a $200 million class action case involving sex discrimination. Griesing has claimed that the firm has systemically discriminated against female shareholders in regard…
Orange County Employment Attorney: Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo, has now disallowed employees to work from their home. This has led other companies, including those in Orange County, to question whether telecommuting works or not. Critics on one side say that there is no accountability; working at home inhibits creativity and damages company culture. On…