Greines, Martin, Stein & Richland

. Tata Consultancy Services, a global IT company headquartered in India, went to trial in 2018 against a class of plaintiffs claiming discriminatory termination. The plaintiffs said the company had a pattern or practice of intentionally discriminating against non-South Asian workers due to their race or national origin. An Oakland, California jury unanimously rejected their claims. TCS was represent...ed by a team from Loeb & Loeb, with GMSR partner Laurie Hepler serving as legal-issues counsel at trial. Plaintiffs then appealed to the Ninth Circuit, where Laurie and Geoffrey Kehlmann won affirmance of the victory. The court concluded that (1) even if the jury instructions the judge crafted (with no relevant models) were imperfect, any error was harmless because it wasn’t likely to have affected the verdict, and (2) any error in the exclusion of certain evidence from trial was also harmless. https://www.gmsr.com/gmsr-wins-ninth-circuit-affirmance-in/ #EmploymentLaw #Appeal #HumanResources

What Are Friends For? Amicus curiae (friend of the court) briefs are an ever-expanding dimension of appellate practice. Here are some pointers to consider in soliciting or writing them: Amicus briefs can serve various functions, from providing factual/industry context to raising legal arguments that the parties missed. They should not merely parrot the arguments in the merits briefing.... Amici can be particularly impactful when the California Supreme Court is deciding whether to grant review in a case. Short amicus letters explaining why an issue matters to groups other than the parties can shore up a petitioner’s claim that the case merits the Court’s attention. Amicus briefs mean extra reading for busy courts. Keep them short and punchy, and make sure the main points are apparent from even a quick skim of the table of contents. The practical message: Amicus briefs can be a useful tool in significant cases, particularly if they concisely offer a unique perspective. https://www.gmsr.com/what-are-friends-for/

GMSR’s Robin Meadow authors article on successful navigation of judicial references. Judicial references are an attractive alternative to waiting behind the superior court’s Covid-19 backlog to get to trial. But there are traps for the unwary: Many practitioners do not know about some important legal aspects of references, and they often fail to appreciate what they must do to create a proper record for appeal. In this article for the ABTL Report, Robin Meadow provides a road...map to the process. To read the article, Escaping The COVID-19 Backlog: Judicial References, originally published in the Fall 2020 edition of the ABTL Report, click here: https://www.gmsr.com//gmsrs-robin-meadow-authors-article-/ #litigation

Wishing our friends, clients, and their families a happy and healthy 2021.

GMSR’s Jeffrey Raskin authors article on using public policy against arbitration. Countless published cases invoke California’s public policy in favor of arbitration to justify everything from expansive interpretation of arbitration agreements to the extremely narrow scope of judicial review of arbitration awards. Less well-known are two doctrines that allow parties to use public policy against arbitration, either to avoid arbitration altogether or to empower courts to review... awards for errors of fact or law. To read the article, Turning The Tables: Using Public Policy Against Arbitration, originally published in the Fall 2020 edition of the ABTL Report, click here: https://www.gmsr.com//gmsrs-jeff-raskin-authors-article-o/ #litigation

https://www.gmsr.com/about/pink-light/

Turn on the Pink Light! This week we turned on the Pink Light for a win on behalf of one of our clients. The Pink Light is a pink, neon APPEALS sign that we mounted in the hallway of our office many years ago. Every time we score an appellate win for one of our clients, we rejoice internally via email by announcing: Turn on the Pink Light for a win on behalf of client X. The moment the light goes on, we all feel connected to one another and to our clients for whom we’...ve achieved success. Now, more than ever, as we work primarily from home during the pandemic, the Pink Light brings us together as a firm. We can’t see the light from home, but we still announce our wins by asking anyone who might be in the office to turn on the light. As one senior partner said in announcing our recent win: If a light turns on in the office and no one is there, the light still shines. The Pink Light’s origin is a meaningful part of GMSR’s history (and legend). Click here to read the story: https://www.gmsr.com/about/pink-light/

Nadia Sarkis and Tim Coates win second appeal relating to student’s discrimination claim against school district. On the heels of a Ninth Circuit victory relating to the same events, the Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s dismissal of a student’s discrimination claim for failure to comply with the Government Claims Act. Deciding an issue of first impression, the Second District held that having sought administrative review under the Education Code does not excuse the ...need to file a pre-suit Government Code tort claim. The Court also rejected plaintiff’s alternative argument that he substantially complied with the claims statute. #litigation #appellate #appeals #lawyers https://www.gmsr.com/gmsr-wins-second-appeal-relating-to-s/

Nadia Sarkis and Robert Olson win reversal for client community college of adverse $3.4 million FEHA judgment. A jury awarded plaintiff, a kitchen worker at a community college, $3.4 million, including $2.775 million in noneconomic damages and over $500,000 in attorneys’ fees, for the failure to accommodate and to engage in the interactive process relating to two physical conditions: carpal tunnel syndrome and a subsequent rotator cuff injury. The Court of Appeal reversed. It... agreed with GMSR’s arguments (a) that no substantial evidence supported that any reasonable accommodation could have addressed plaintiff’s totally disabling rotator cuff condition and (b) that such an available accommodation was a required element of an interactive process claim. Because the judgment could not be apportioned between damages for the shoulder and wrist conditions, the judgment as to the college’s failure to accommodate her wrist condition had to be reversed. The court ordered a retrial limited to FEHA liability and damages, if any, for the wrist condition. https://www.gmsr.com/gmsr-wins-reversal-for-client-communi/ #humanresources #employmentlaw #appeal