Winston & Strawn

Winston & Strawn maintains an active labor and employment litigation practice operating out of California. The California-based labor and employment lawyers assist clients from its offices in San Francisco and Los Angles.

Joan Fife is the head of the San Francisco labor and employment group. She recently successfully represented Cox Communications and Cox Media Group in a putative class and collective action that is one of the first of its kind, alleging that the various employers directed advertisements on Facebook to various age ranges, and thus violated state and federal laws regarding age discrimination and publication of job advertisements. In an ongoing class action, Fife is defending Diamond Foods against plaintiffs seeking to assert numerous alleged claims against the company, including failure to provide rest breaks and accurate itemized wage statements, unfair competition and penalties under the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA). Fife prevailed against the plaintiff’s claim for inaccurate wage statements and additionally against their Motion for Leave to Amend to add a cause of action for waiting time penalties on the same underlying rest period claim. Monique Ngo-Bonnici chairs the Los Angeles labor and employment practice, as well as the Silicon Valley office’s practice. Last year, she successfully resolved a putative wage and hour class action for OPI Products and Coty. The case alleged damages of over $5 million and the alleged claims of failure to pay overtime, provide meal periods and furnish accurate wage statements, as well as claims under the California Business and Professions Code section 17200 and civil penalties under the state’s Labor Code and PAGA. Ngo-Bonnici obtained release agreements from most of the class members while the case was pending, allowing the plaintiffs’ lawyer to settle for $222,000 with the few remaining class members. Laura Petroff operates out of the firm’s Los Angeles office. Her practice involves the full gamut of labor and employment litigation. She is the lead lawyer defending HCI Equity Partners and Certified Safety in two wage and hour class actions that are consolidated in the Northern District of California. The defendants had sought out the labor and employment practice after the first settlement demand for mediation was $68 million. The case involves workers in California and Washington, and additionally plaintiffs’ counsel are attempting to include workers in Alaska and Illinois as well. An additional case has also been filed, which may be consolidated with the others as well.
.

Winston & Strawn’s Chicago office is equipped with the largest concentration of labor and employment lawyers practicing with the firm. The labor and employment team is highly active in related matters, ranging from single to multi-plaintiff cases, and litigating a wide-array of claims on behalf of clients.

Daniel Fazio resolved a lawsuit filed under the ADEA and Title VII against Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago as well as Fannie Mae, which the plaintiff alleged was a joint employer. However, the case became complicated by a jurisdictional question when the district court extended the plaintiff’s deadline to file a Notice of Appeal to December 14, beyond the 30 day limitation as set forth by Rule 4(a)(5)(C). The plaintiff filed the Notice of Appeal within the December 14 deadline; however, the Seventh Circuit dismissed the appeal for lack of jurisdiction, finding that the 30-day limit on extensions found in Rule 4(a)(5)(C) created a jurisdictional requirement that the district court lacked power to circumvent. The plaintiff then filed a petition to the Supreme Court and oral arguments were held in 2017, and the court ruled finding that the Seventh Circuit erred in dismissing the appeal for lack of jurisdiction. However, the Seventh Circuit affirmed the dismissal of the case on the merits in July 2018.

Rex Sessions is the lead lawyer for the team handling Louis Vuitton (LVMH) cases, including wage and hour matters, discrimination cases, breach of contract disputes and arbitrations. The team also assists the client in traditional labor matters.
.

Winston & Strawn has grown from its Chicago beginnings and has blossomed into one of the nation’s most prominent and prolific litigation hubs. It is also recognized as one of the country’s most trial-centric. “Of all the ‘big-law’ firms, Winston really seems like the one that is focused on building out a bench stocked with true trial lawyers,” observes a peer. “They are also attracting stars in the making, undoubtedly with the agenda of giving them the platform to hone their trial skills further.” The firm has also chosen wisely with its expansion strategy, shying away from going all-in with any particular market and instead maintaining a geographically even roster of trial talent, which is spread among its offices in New York, DC, Texas, Illinois and California.

The most obvious example of the firm’s trial star power is Chicago’s Dan Webb, long a figurehead within the firm. “Once upon a time, I thought that Winston wouldn’t have the light bulbs changed without consulting Dan Webb first, so big was his gravitas,” quips one peer hyperbolically. “Nowadays, there are plenty of other great trial lawyers at Winston with their own skills and reputations…but I still think they would not change the light bulbs without Dan Webb’s blessing!” Despite his senior status, Webb remains active and visible, with near-annual trial victories to confirm this. Webb represents TreeHouse Foods in one of the largest antitrust cases in food industry history, concerning single-serve coffee pods. In late 2017, the Southern District of New York handed TreeHouse a victory when it summarily denied Keurig’s motion to dismiss the client’s complaint that Keurig engaged in anticompetitive conduct designed to maintain the coffee giant’s monopoly of the single-serve coffee pod market. Another Chicago star, Robert Sperling earns plaudits for his securities and financial institution-focused practice. Sperling represents the former CFO of Valeant Pharmaceuticals in a putative class action brought by holders of Valeant common stock and debt securities. Plaintiffs filed suit after the prices of Valeant securities declined significantly following negative publicity concerning prices that Valeant charged for certain drugs, Valeant’s relationship with a now-defunct pharmacy, and a restatement of certain of Valeant’s historical financial statements. The plaintiffs allege billions of dollars in damages.

Winston & Strawn recently doubled down in its white-collar capacity, making the auspicious recruit of DC trial veteran Abbe Lowell to its ranks. Lowell, a politically savvy and connected practitioner who attends to both criminal and civil matters, joined the firm in May of 2018 from Norton Rose Fulbright (after that firm had absorbed Lowell’s longtime former firm, Chadbourne & Parke.) Peers view Lowell’s hire as “unquestionably a win-win situation.”

Lowell’s position within the firm was via an invitation from his old pal from law school, New York-based Jeffrey Kessler, another Winston partner not wanting for recognition. Kessler attends to a unique hybrid of sports and antitrust law. While his work in the latter practice often depends on keeping his clients out of the limelight, the former practice lands Kessler squarely in the headlines. Kessler won a major victory in March 2018 on behalf of college football and basketball players challenging the legality of the National College Athletic Association’s (NCAA) restraints on compensation when the Northern District of California denied the NCAA’s motion for summary judgment and granted partial summary judgment in favor of Winston’s clients. Kessler first brought the suit in 2013. Subsequent to several earlier rulings, a potentially history-making showdown bench trial was held in September 2018 and, in March 2019, Kessler led the Winston team in scoring an historic victory when the court ordered a permanent injunction against the NCAA's limitations on colleges and universities providing education-related benefits beyond tuition. “Jeff Kessler is a huge name, and he’s on board for plaintiffs and defendants,” testifies a peer. “He has a superstar presence in the sports arena, for which he gets all the publicity, but we actually see him a lot more in the defense arena for antitrust matters. He can drive you crazy because he pounds the table to get what he wants. But quite often, get it he does.” Beyond Kessler, Susannah Torpey is noted as someone who is “getting a lot more active on the plaintiff side of antitrust. She just filed two major cases in this capacity.”

Intellectual property star Michael Elkin secured a major victory for client PNY Technologies and its CEO, who was named individually, when the District of New Jersey entered judgment in PNY’s favor on all 11 claims brought against it by a former consultant. The court also preserved all of our clients’ counterclaims. The protracted and contentious litigation, initiated in state court in Florida in 2015, alleged that PNY had failed to compensate the consultant plaintiff fully and in accordance with certain “secret” terms that were never written down or memorialized, which allegedly entitled the plaintiff to upwards of $500 million in damages.

Winston has also been making strategic augmentations to its California presence as of late. It has also been observed that some of its strongest players in California are women. In the Los Angeles office, Nimalka Wickramasekera, an intellectual property specialist, is currently representing Alphatec in connection with a patent infringement suit filed by a competitor that filed this suit after a number of key executives left the competitor for Alphatec. The patents asserted are related to spinal surgery systems. After unsuccessfully seeking expedited discovery, the plaintiff filed a motion for a preliminary injunction directed to Alphatec’s lateral surgical instruments and devices. “She has really come up and jumped in,” asserts a peer. “She is really one to keep your eye on.” The San Francisco office will soon be augmented by the arrival of Sandra Edwards, who will soon join the firm from her former post at Farella Braun & Martel. Edwards is a peer favorite, with one remarking, “I worked on a products case with her, and I considered her an experienced trial lawyer. I was impressed by her trial skills and her poise and strategic abilities as well.”