Of Counsel in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher's Los Angeles office, Elisabeth C. Watson has been a member of the firm's Labor and Employment Department for over ten years.  Ms. Watson represents and advises employers in all aspects of labor and employment law.  

Ms. Watson has extensive experience representing employers in single plaintiff and class action litigation involving harassment; discrimination; retaliation; wrongful termination; whistleblowers; independent contractor/common law employee status; unfair labor practices, unfair competition and trade secret claims; and wage and hour issues.  Ms. Watson spends significant time on the counseling, preventive planning and defense of wage and hour class actions and representative actions under California Business and Professions Code § 17200.  Ms. Watson’s wage and hour representations have included: 

• Defending numerous wage and hour class actions with a high degree of success in defeating class certification and obtaining favorable class settlements.
• Managing numerous company-wide wage and hour compliance audits, involving hundreds of job positions and all aspects of wage and hour compliance.
• Handling several high-profile wage and hour appeals and obtaining favorable rulings from the appellate courts. 

In addition, Ms. Watson has successfully defended employers against administrative claims (such as discrimination charges filed with the EEOC and DFEH, Labor Code Section 132a retaliation charges before the Workers Compensation Appeals Board, tax assessments by the Employment Development Department, and wage claims before the Labor Commissioner) and has counseled employers with respect to OFCCP and other government audits.

Ms. Watson also has extensive experience drafting employment contracts and severance agreements, reviewing personnel policies, preparing affirmative action plans, and advising employers with respect to terminations, large-scale reductions in force and reorganizations, trade secrets, and other employment-related issues.

Ms. Watson has conducted workplace investigations and provided corporate training regarding  a wide array of employment topics, such as common law employee/independent contractor issues, sexual harassment, conducting workplace investigations, legal compliance issues for HR personnel, wage and hour issues, and Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower provisions.

Ms. Watson is a contributing editor of the Employment Contracts chapter in the California Practice Guide: Employment Litigation (The Rutter Group).  She is a member of the ABA's Section of Labor and Employment Law.  She is also on the Board of Directors of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Monica.
 
Ms. Watson received her law degree cum laude in 1996 from Georgetown University Law Center.  While at Georgetown, she was a member of The Tax Lawyer which published her note entitled "Denial of Exempt Status Under Section 501(m)" in its Winter, 1995 issue.  Ms. Watson graduated cum laude from Wellesley College in 1991 with a B.A. degree in political science.