Berliner Cohen’s Employment Law and Litigation Group had an active 2013, including the successful resolution of the following:
In early 2013, Roberta Hayashi and Kara Arguello were lead counsel in an employee sales commission dispute that was resolved on the eve of jury trial in Orange County.
In August 2013, Christine Long and Kara Arguello successfully tried a wage and hour case -- in which they had previously defeated class certification, in the Santa Clara County Superior Court. At issue were the pay methods of the employer and whether the plaintiffs qualified for overtime pay, meal and rest breaks.
Susan Bishop represented a restaurant in a Department of Industrial Relations class claim, and obtained a substantial reduction of the amount the agency sought to recover for unpaid overtime and penalties.
Christine Long returned to the courtroom late in the year, and with the assistance of Sara Pollock, obtained a complete defense jury verdict in the Alameda County Superior Court in a wrongful termination case filed by a management employee.
Over the course of the year, Susan Bishop continued to implement a creative strategy of resolving individual wage and hour class action claims, thereby limiting the risk of class action lawsuits, and worked with Christine Long to oppose class-certification in a multi-million dollar Federal wage and hour class action case, arguing the class certification motion the same day the jury returned its verdict in the Alameda County wrongful termination case.
In September 2013, we were pleased to welcome Jennifer Leung, a San Jose native and 2008 graduate of Santa Clara University School of Law, to our group. Jennifer brings with her prior litigation and employment law experience with firms in Sacramento and Mountain View. Jennifer promptly added to our list of successes in her first case with Berliner Cohen, by obtaining a dismissal of an overtime claim brought by a manager who tried to claim he was non-exempt and thereby avoiding tens of thousands of dollars in liability, interest and statutory penalties for our client.