News
Roberta Hayashi Heads Berliner Cohen Employment and Labor Practice
January 02, 2006
Roberta Hayashi has returned to the Silicon Valley law firm of Berliner Cohen as partner, effective January 1, 2006, to head the Firm’s employment and labor practice. Ms. Hayashi left Berliner in 2000 to become partner at Skjerven Morrill and later Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP.
In announcing the firm’s newest practice group head, managing partner, Andy Faber, said: “Roberta has over twenty years’ experience representing and advising Silicon Valley employers. We are indeed pleased to welcome her back to lead Berliner’s strong focus on employment law counseling and litigation.”
Ms. Hayashi’s practice focuses on representing employers, ranging from small professional corporations to Fortune 500 companies, in employment and business litigation. She has trial experience in wrongful termination, discrimination, and misappropriation of trade secret and proprietary information actions in both state and federal court.
Ms. Hayashi has been active in the Santa Clara County Bar Association for many years, serving as its President in 1996 and as Chair of the Civil Practice, Long Range Planning, and Minority Access Committees. In 2006, she will serve as co-chair of the SCCBA Federal Courts Committee. She is a frequent speaker at employment law seminars and other continuing legal education programs on trial practice and legal ethics. Ms. Hayashi has been appointed to serve on the Santa Clara County Superior Court Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee and Bench/Bar/Media/Police Committee.
She recently completed a three-year term as a Lawyer Representative to the Ninth Circuit Conference.
Ms. Hayashi is a graduate of the University of California, Davis, School of Law, where she was editor-in-chief of the UC Davis Law Review, and of Stanford University, Phi Beta Kappa. Born and raised in the San Jose area, she resides with her husband and sons in Los Gatos, California.
Berliner Cohen’s experienced employment trial attorneys advise and represent employers of all sizes on a full range of legal issues affecting the workplace, including harassment and discrimination, unfair competition and trade secrets, wrongful discharge, wage and hour issues, and labor disputes. Berliner Cohen is one of the largest and oldest law firms in San Jose serving the business and regulatory needs of private business and public agencies. For 40 years, the Firm has developed the special expertise required by a diverse client base consisting of nationally recognized business interests and a number of Silicon Valley’s largest national and multinational corporations, new ventures, leading real estate developers and brokerages, cutting-edge technology companies, healthcare and other service providers, banking and financial institutions, municipalities, public agencies and individuals. Berliner Cohen also meets the growing demands of the San Joaquin Valley with its expanding office in Merced.