At our recent masterclass, “Exiting with Confidence: Best Practices for Lawful Terminations and Litigation Prevention,” Anne McWilliams, Caylee Scott, and I went back to basics on one of the highest-risk moments in the employment relationship: the termination. We debated whether a back-to-basics topic would draw interest, but preparing for it reminded me why it is
This week Anne McWilliams and I presented our masterclass on the mid-year PAGA and class action update for California employers, and I want to share some of the data we covered because it surprised even me. When the Legislature reformed PAGA in June 2024, many of us expected the volume and value of these cases
Back in February, we covered the five key provisions of the sweeping PAGA regulations proposed by California’s Labor and Workforce Development Agency (LWDA). Five months later, those regulations are still not final—but they are moving, and this week the state signaled it has no intention of backing down. At a gathering of employment lawyers
If your company is facing a claim under California’s Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA), most cases end not with a trial but with a negotiated settlement. Understanding where the settlement dollars actually go—and what a judge will scrutinize before signing off—helps you evaluate any proposed deal with clear eyes. Here are five things every California
Terminating an employee is one of the hardest things a business does, and it is almost certainly the most legally scrutinized decision you will make in the workplace. It is also one of the few decisions that triggers immediate legal obligations — the clock starts running the moment you end the relationship. Yet how to
California employers have extensive obligations under the Labor Code to create and maintain accurate time records and pay stubs. The Labor Code itself doesn’t prescribe a specific format or technology, but the way employers handle these records has only grown more important — particularly after the 2024 Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) reform, which ties
July 1 is just around the corner, and with it comes another wave of local minimum wage increases across Southern California. For employers operating in multiple jurisdictions—particularly those with hotel, hospitality, or healthcare workers—the compliance landscape continues to grow more complex. Beyond the day-to-day importance of paying the correct rate, accurate wage compliance is now
On April 1, 2026, the Ninth Circuit handed California employers a meaningful win in O’Dell v. Aya Healthcare Services, Inc., No. 25-1528. The court reversed a Southern District of California ruling that had used a procedural doctrine—non-mutual offensive collateral estoppel—to invalidate arbitration agreements for more than 250 opt-in plaintiffs based on two prior arbitrator decisions
Five AI Strategies California Employers Should Be Executing Right Now
AI is not coming to your workplace. It is already there. Your employees are using it — on personal accounts, on free tools, and in ways your current policies almost certainly do not address. The California employers who are winning the next decade are not
Posting a job opening sounds straightforward — but in California, it comes with a growing list of legal requirements that many employers overlook. From pay scale disclosures to salary history prohibitions, the rules around job postings have evolved significantly in recent years and continue to be refined by legislation, agency guidance, and litigation. Getting these