Work with a variety of clients on addressing and resolving labor and employment-related issues, with a focus on advising and counseling California and multi-state employers on managing day-to-day employment issues, ranging from wage and hour compliance issues, preparing leave of absence related communications, risk reduction strategies for employee layoffs and terminations, designing and updating employer handbooks and policies, to advising on transactional employment matters, including employee separation agreements and negotiations. Specialized focus on helping employers address new developments in state and federal legislation, equal employment opportunity laws and policy, pay equity issues, and #MeToo related legislation. Assist employers of every size with all aspects of the employment relationship, from new hire and onboarding requirements, employment contracts and arbitration agreements, to employment-related policies and practices, including methods to reduce labor costs while maximizing multi-state workplace compliance. Represent employers in pre-litigation employment disputes and negotiations, including wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, and retaliation claims, as well as charges involving governmental agencies including the California Labor Commissioner, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and California Civil Rights Department.

Represented employers and businesses in employment claims ranging from FEHA and wrongful termination issues, administrative charges, to employee separation disputes, including violations of trade secret and confidentiality agreements. Provided advice and counseling in connection with all aspects of employee hiring, compensation, discipline, and termination, including employment and severance agreement review, negotiation, and implementation, and audits of employment policies and practices. Prepared employee handbooks, arbitration and work from home agreements, and other compliance updates for multi-jurisdictional employers. Advised on employment policy changes to address litigation-related wage and hour, disability accommodation, and leave of absence claims. Provided guidance on federal, state, and local COVID-19 mandates and policy, including review of workplace vaccination and testing programs, COVID-19 vaccination exemption requests, supplemental paid sick leave, and masking requirements. Authored legal alerts and blogs, and conduct industry webinars regarding California and federal employment law trends, cases, and best practices.

Defended employers in individual, multi-plaintiff, representative, and class action litigation matters including discrimination, harassment, retaliation, employment-related torts, and wage and hour claims. Provided day-to-day advice and counseling on personnel matters regarding risk management and litigation avoidance, including wage and hour compliance, workplace investigations, employee termination risk assessment, family and medical leave, and disability accommodation issues. Interviewed employees and conducted factual investigations. Drafted employee handbooks and employment-related policies. Specialized focus on COVID-19 related pandemic advice regarding application of state and local stay-at-home orders, reduction in force and WARN Act compliance, business re-opening, public health reporting and employee quarantine and vaccination issues, state, local, and federal sick leaves, accommodation requests, and related wage and hour issues. Conducted webinars on a variety of topics, including wage and hour, harassment/discrimination, and pandemic-related employment issues and best practices.

Represented and advised clients in various employment law matters, including discrimination and harassment claims under the FEHA, Title VII, Title IX, ADA, FMLA, and CFRA, wrongful termination in violation of public policy, retaliation claims, wage and hour claims, and severance negotiations. Assigned primary and sole responsibility for a large caseload of actively litigated cases in addition to pre-litigation matters. Oral advocacy and courtroom experience included appearances for status conferences and judicial settlement conferences and lead negotiations for pre-trial settlements. Propounded, responded to, and opposed written discovery requests and subpoenas, and took and defended depositions of party witnesses. Negotiated settlements and advocated for clients using alternative dispute resolution, including mediation and settlement conferences. Represented clients in administrative matters, including DLSE claims, EDD unemployment appeals, and Skelly hearings. Extensive legal writing experience included drafting pleadings and motions, including motions for sanctions, summary judgment and anti-SLAPP oppositions, and protective orders. Provided clients with guidance on workplace investigations and all leave-related issues, including disability accommodations, medical leaves, FMLA/CFRA leave, and pregnancy leave rights. Emphasis on handling complex disability discrimination, failure to accommodate, and termination issues with cross-over workers' compensation claims involving public entities.

Project created by a cooperative agreement with CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health to assist 23 grantee states in the identification of effective policies and programs to prevent sexual risk behaviors among students that contribute to HIV infection, STDs, and unintended pregnancy. Performed a 50-state assessment of state statutes and regulations pertaining to sexual health education, school-based health clinics, and safe and supportive environments in public schools across more than 200 variables derived from scientifically verified criteria. Trained 2 co-workers to assist with pulling laws from state education codes; drafting coding questions, research protocol, and codebook.

Created an updated legal map of current state child care regulations and statutes related to sleep safety for 8 states to determine if states with child care sleep safety regulations have lower rates of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and other sleep-related infant deaths than states with no such regulations. Performed independent legal coding across 50 variables for current legal requirements as well as past regulations from the years 2000 to 2010. Responsible for generating a research protocol and codebook. Will assist in drafting journal articles for publication in both a medical and legal journal and will collaborate on the creation of a national policy brief about the findings and implications of the research project.

Worked under the direct supervision of an administrative law judge and assisted with pretrial work, settlement conferences, and administrative hearings for cases involving workplace discrimination, harassment, retaliation, disability reasonable accommodation requests, and violations of the Family Medical Leave Act. Drafted 4 judicial decisions in addition to calculating damages awards, performing legal research, preparing legal memoranda, drafting orders, and responding to motions.

Acted as consultant for the National Coalition of STD Directors (NCSD), an organization which represents the interests of state and local STD program directors and acts as an advocate for these members to national policymakers and organizations. Compiled all current state insurance statutes and regulations that could potentially breach the confidentiality of insured dependents because of inadvertent disclosures of confidential health information due to insurance claims administration and billing practices. Created a research protocol to ensure the systematic collection and measurement of state-level laws. Coded 376 laws for all 50 states and the District of Columbia into a legal dataset using Public Health Law Research’s LawAtlas platform. Drafted policy recommendations for improving access to confidential health care services for insured dependents based on the findings and presented the information in a factsheet published and disseminated by NCSD. Provided technical assistance to NCSD on various legal and regulatory questions pertaining to STDs on as as-needed basis.

Researched and compiled current laws related to sexually transmitted disease control and prevention efforts across all states. Analyzed state insurance statutes and regulations to assess how health insurance laws impact confidentiality protections for young adults and adolescents and their access to sensitive health services. Utilized cross-disciplinary methods to determine the public health outcomes associated with state specific health insurance policies, including billing and claims procedures. Drafting article about findings and implications of the project to be published in a Public Health policy journal.

Performed legal research and analysis on a wide variety of federal regulations, including provisions of the Affordable Care Act concerning employer-sponsored wellness programs, public health laws related to organ transplantation, and regulations governing administrative hearings with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Merit Systems Protection Board. Assisted attorneys with witness interviews and drafted pleadings and motions in preparation for administrative hearings with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Created presentation for public health law conference on the impact of CDC’s data sharing policies and the trade secrets exemption contained in the Freedom of Information Act on the agency’s response to food-borne disease outbreaks.

Agency responsible for monitoring cases in Georgia involving pleas of Not Guilty By Reason of Insanity. Assisted attorneys with directly representing 15-20 insanity acquittees. Performed client intakes and interviewed clients in state psychiatric hospitals and group homes. Maintained communication with clients’ in-patient and out-patient treatment teams and recorded all treatment recommendations and changes. Reviewed client case files, Conditional Release Plans, and other legal and medical documents related to pending hearings. Subpoenaed witnesses and drafted petitions and production orders. Prepared opening arguments and created detailed summaries of each client’s charges, psychiatric and behavioral history, mental health diagnoses, and treatment progress notes for presentation at yearly court hearings.

Operated the only legally sanctioned Clean Syringe Exchange Program in San Diego and recruited clients for Intensive Prevention Case Management. Worked one-on-one with clients to provide tailored risk reduction plans, referrals to treatment, and support services. Provided HIV counseling, testing, early intervention, and other communicable disease information to clients in all county-funded alcohol and drug treatment programs. Developed and co-facilitated Hepatitis C Support Group. Partnered with physician to create Suboxone Support Group to offer drug treatment and support to intravenous drug users. Implemented third party payer system to sustain Intravenous Drug User services programs by linking clients with State-Only Family Planning Program.