Unlicensed Law Clerk is Exempt from Overtime Pay, California Court of Appeal Finds

Under California law, employees fall within one of two classifications:  (1) nonexempt, hourly employees, who are entitled to overtime pay (and certain other benefits), or          (2) exempt, salaried employees, who are not entitled to overtime pay (or certain other benefits).  Because in many ways it is advantageous for employers to classify employees as exempt (so as to avoid paying overtime, keeping meticulous time

Read More »

Unlicensed Junior Accountants May Be Exempt Under California Law

In Campbell v. PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP, 642 F.3d 820 (9th Cir. 2011), the Ninth Circuit considered whether 2,000 unlicensed accountants in California who had sued PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP were categorically ineligible to fall under two exemptions to California’s overtime laws—the professional exemption and the administrative exemption—and concluded that they were not, reversing the trial court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the plaintiffs. The Court first explained

Read More »

California Court Approves $1,571,500 Verdict In Favor of Disabled LAPD Officer

In Cuiellette v. City of Los Angeles, 194 Cal. App. 4th 757 (2011), the California Court of Appeal concluded that substantial evidence supported a $1,571,500 verdict in favor of plaintiff Rory Cuiellette, a former Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officer, on his claims of disability discrimination and failure to accommodate a disability under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act In this case, the plaintiff had

Read More »

Where Employer Treated Similarly Situated Employees Differently, Ninth Circuit Allowed Employee’s Discrimination Claims to Proceed to Trial

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal opinion in Zeinali v. Raytheon Co., 636 F.3d 544 (9th Cir. 2011), marks yet another reminder that employers that treat similarly situated employees differently can set themselves up for costly discrimination lawsuits. In Zeinali, the plaintiff, who is of Iranian descent, had been employed by Raytheon for approximately four years.  At the start of his employment, Raytheon informed the plaintiff that

Read More »

California Court Affirms Nearly $2.5 Million Verdict In Retaliation Case

In Green v. Laibco, LLC, 192 Cal. App. 4th 441 (2011), the Court affirmed a jury verdict awarding plaintiff $1,237,086 in compensatory damages and an equal amount in punitive damages on plaintiff’s claims that she was terminated “because of her complaints about patient care and safety, because she refused to give false information to the State Department of Health Care Services, and because she complained about

Read More »

New California Law Protects Health Care Coverage for Pregnant Employees

The State of California today marked another step in the direction of protecting pregnant workers when the Governor signed into law a Senate Bill requiring employers of five or more employees who maintain health care coverage for their workers to continue providing workers who take Pregnancy Disability Leave health care coverage at the same terms and conditions that coverage would have been provided to the

Read More »

Recent Posts

Categories

Skip to content