Employment Law/ Wrongful Termination

The Firm's experience in wrongful termination litigation has followed the proliferation of such cases in our court system (at one point nearly half of the new case filings in San Diego Superior Court were employment disputes). The Firm has handled virtually all areas of employment litigation including discrimination cases involving race, gender, sexual orientation, religion and national origin, "public policy" wrongful termination cases involving a wide variety of issues of public importance in many industries, and wage and hour class action litigation. Many of our Firm members have tried employment cases to verdict. We also offer day-to-day advice on evolving issues in employment law and frequently are asked to advise our clients with respect to prospective terminations of employees and negotiation of separation agreements.

The following are examples of employment litigation handled by the Firm:

• The Firm successfully defended to jury verdict a national commercial real estate broker's claim of sexual discrimination and wrongful termination after four years of litigation. The pretrial demand was $3 million. The Firm defended the brokerage company and both defendant-managers and obtained a fee award following trial.
• The Firm defended a national government contractor against claims made by a former employee, the program manager of a top secret defense contract program, that he was terminated in retaliation for blowing the whistle on improper time-charging practices and other improprieties.
• The Firm defended a San Diego law firm against wrongful discharge and age discrimination claims brought by four terminated "floater" secretaries.
• The Firm successfully defended a San Diego bank against charges of race discrimination, wrongful discharge, failure to promote and related claims. We obtained summary judgment as to the plaintiff's tort claims, including the race discrimination and failure to promote claims, thereby reducing the bank's exposure.
• The Firm represented the president of the American subsidiary of one of the world's largest real estate development firms against charges of tax evasion, whistle-blowing and age discrimination. We obtained summary judgment on behalf of our client, the purported target of the allegations of improper conduct.
• The Firm defended three of a plaintiff's co-employees accused of sexually harassing her on the job to the point of causing her constructive wrongful discharge. Based on an exhaustive deposition of the plaintiff and careful investigation, the plaintiff ultimately agreed to a nominal, confidential settlement.
• The Firm defended a company and two of its managers against claims of sexual harassment, quid pro quo harassment (sexual favors for job advancement), sex discrimination and wrongful termination claims. The matter was settled on favorable, confidential terms shortly before trial.
• The Firm defended a San Diego-based commercial real estate brokerage company and one of its managers against claims by a commercial broker of quid pro quo harassment, hostile environment discrimination, sexual preferable treatment and constructive wrongful discharge. We succeeded in forcing her claims to be resolved through private, binding arbitration, and then whittled down most of her claims, through an exhaustive deposition and careful investigation, to a nuisance-value settlement.
• The Firm successfully defended a manufacturer and its president against wrongful discharge claims by a general manager. The Firm extracted the president from the case by demurrer at the initiation of the action, and shortly thereafter obtained an order of summary judgment against the plaintiff on behalf of the manufacturer. The Court awarded our client recovery of all the attorneys' fees incurred.
• The plaintiff, a sales manager of a national trash hauler, claimed to be a whistle-blower of fraudulent billing practices by his employer. That whistle-blowing led to an investigation by the California Attorney General, San Diego County District Attorney and San Diego City Attorney, and later, a consent degree settlement by the company. We successfully defended the company against the whistle-blower/wrongful discharge claims by obtaining summary judgment in favor of our client. Costs were ultimately collected from the plaintiff after his appeals were exhausted.
• Plaintiff, a former general counsel to his employer, a Japanese electronics manufacturer, alleged he was discharged as a consequence of age discrimination and for exposing gender discrimination against his staff. The client's worker's compensation carrier was persuaded to share in defense costs based on the pleading of causes of action that we contended should have been raised by the plaintiff as a worker's compensation claim. We obtained summary judgment on all of the plaintiff's claims.
• The Firm represented the Dean of a law school against charges of wrongful termination by the Assistant Dean for exposing the Dean's alleged expense reimbursement improprieties. At the commencement of trial, we obtained a voluntary dismissal of our client in return for a waiver of costs. The Firm represented three employee defendants in a wrongful discharge and discrimination suit. After approximately nine days of a non-jury trial, and after plaintiff rested, we successfully moved for judgment and the action was dismissed against our clients.