Laura Reathaford

Laura Reathaford serves as the Partner in Charge for the firm's Los Angeles office, where she also leads the California Employment practice, providing labor and employment legal services to the firm's California-based clients and clients with California-based employees. She focuses her practice on wage and hour class and collective actions with a particular emphasis on representative actions under California’s Private Attorneys General Act (“PAGA”).

Laura is an experienced trial attorney and has received favorable judgments in FLSA and PAGA actions, as well as in single plaintiff harassment and wrongful termination matters. She represents the management of both public and private businesses across the country in the banking, grocery, fashion retail, manufacturing, healthcare, and telecommunications industries. She regularly defends and advises clients on employment issues, including terminating employees, drafting employee handbooks and complying with leave and disability rules as well as state and federal wage and hour laws.

Laura's successes include defeating class certification in various wage and hour class actions, narrowing the scope of PAGA representative actions during discovery and at trial, obtaining summary judgment, representing management against union grievances and litigating a variety of other employment disputes, including claims for wrongful termination, sexual harassment, whistleblower retaliation and discrimination. 

• Presenter, “998 Offers and FEHA Actions: How They Work, When to Use Them, and Their Impact on Settlement,” Los Angeles County Bar Association, September 29, 2022
• Presenter, “Private Attorneys’ General Act (PAGA) Update: The Future of PAGA After Viking River Cruises,” Alameda County Bar Association, July 27, 2022
• Co-presenter, "FLSA Freshen Up and Brush Up: Recent and Problematic Wage and Hour Issues," Lathrop GPM 2022 Employment & Labor Law Seminar, April 12, 2022 (Kansas City); May 4, 2022 (Minneapolis)
• Presenter, "California Osmosis: Lessons Learned," Lathrop GPM 2022 Employment & Labor Law Seminar, April 12, 2022 (Kansas City); May 4, 2022 (Minneapolis)
• Featured, “Attorney of the Month Profile,” Attorney at Law Magazine, April 13, 2021 
• Presenter, "Dealing with Unconscious Bias & Discrimination," Women, Diversity & Change Summit, November 7, 2018
• Presenter, "PAGA Trials," Bridgeport PAGA Workshop, Los Angeles, March 24, 2017
• "’Rest’ Means Rest," Daily Journal Podcast, January 13, 2017
• "The Spread of ‘Ban-the-Box’ Laws," Bloomberg Radio, August 11, 2014
• "Employee Expense Reimbursements: A Potential Wage and Hour Hotbed?," BLR, November 2013
• "Donning and Doffing & Walking Time Allegations, and the Latest Claims Arising from Meal and Rest Breaks," American Conference International, May 29-30, 2014

• Author, “The status of plaintiffs’ post-offer costs when a 998 offer is rejected,” Los Angeles Daily Journal, October 27, 2022
• Author, “Killing employee jobs, one break premium at a time,” Los Angeles Daily Journal, July 26, 2021
• Author, "The Ninth Circuit Delivers Commonsense Win to Employers Under PAGA,” Attorney At Law Magazine, July 26, 2021
• Author, “Why can't employees agree to arbitrate individual PAGA claims?,” Westlaw Today, June 27, 2022
• Co-Author, "Punitive damages: hypothetical or hyper-technical?" Los Angeles Daily Journal, April 26, 2021
• Co-Author, "Insurance Tips for Employers," Attorney At Law Magazine, April 13, 2021
• Co-Author, "How Strong Corporate Guidance Can Prevent Seven-Figure Liability in Employment Cases," Attorney At Law Magazine, July 1, 2020
• Author, "SB 806 and the Proposed New Test for Independent Contractor Misclassification, Attorney At Law Magazine, April 29, 2020
• Author, "Employer's Perspective: PAGA 15 Years Later, California Lawyers Association, July 2019
• Author, "Ignoring Compelling Legislative History Opens PAGA Floodgates, Daily Journal, June 4, 2018
• Author, "Avoiding Labor Entanglements for Commission-Earning Employees in a Changing Legal Landscape, The State Bar of California Business Law News, 2017
• Author, "PAGA Performance," Los Angeles Lawyer, June 2016
• Author, "He said, she said: Employment litigators debate California’s Private Attorney General Act," Westlaw Journal Employment, June 7, 2016
• Author, "Advising Clients On The Best Way to Navigate Whistleblower Issues," Verdict Magazine, Summer 2015
• Author, "Has PAGA Really Made a Difference," Los Angeles Daily Journal, June 2, 2015
• Author, "San Francisco Handcuffs Employers to Give Ex-Cons a Break," Wall Street Journal, August 11, 2014
• Author, "Responding the Right Way to PAGA Employment Litigation," The Recorder, July 23, 2014
• Author, "California Courts May No Longer Be Able to Certify a Ham Sandwich," Corporate Counsel, June 26, 2014
• Author, "Guidance on Statistics in Class Actions," Los Angeles Daily Journal, June 4, 2014
• Author, "Appellate Courts Shift Course on Certification," Los Angeles Daily Journal, January 9, 2014
• Author, "Calif.: New Law Expands Protections for Whistleblowers," Society for Human Resource Management, December 16, 2013
• Author, "How to Defend Regional Class Actions," Los Angeles Daily Journal, August 23, 2013
• Author, "Plaintiffs look to PAGA as Class Certifications Get Tougher," Los Angeles Daily Journal, May 1, 2013

Quoted

• Quoted, "Uber Case Lawyers Face Tall Order to Produce More Info, Los Angeles Daily Journal, July 5, 2016
• Quoted, "Case of allegedly negligent plaintiffs' lawyer shows murkiness of PAGA, Los Angeles Daily Journal, May 6, 2016
• Quoted, "Lawyers Balking at Governor's PAGA Reforms, Los Angeles Daily Journal, February 24, 2016
• Quoted, "In 2015, Arbitration, Misclassification Disputes Dominated Employment Law," Los Angeles Daily Journal, December 30, 2015
• Quoted, "Cases, Manageability Issues Persist," Los Angeles Daily Journal, May 2015

• American Bar Association
• Association of Southern California Defense Counsel, Amicus Committee
• Law Society of Upper Canada
• Los Angeles County Bar Association
• The State Bar of California

• Top Women Attorneys, Los Angeles Business Journal, 2020
• Benchmark Litigation, the Guide to America's Leading Litigation Firms and Attorneys, "Labor & Employment Star," 2019 - 2022
• Top 100 Women Lawyers in California, Daily Journal, 2018
• Finalist, Leaders in Law, Los Angeles Business Journal, 2018
• Woman of Promise, Comerica Bank and Los Angeles Lakers' Women's Business Awards, 2018
• Southern California Rising Star, Super Lawyers, 2013-2018