Deborah J. Clarke is a partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher's Los Angeles office.  Ms. Clarke joined the firm in 1989 and is a member of the firm's Labor and Employment Litigation Practice Group.  She was Co-Chair of this Practice Group from 2004 until 2008. She represents and advises employers in all aspects of employment and labor law, with her primary focus being the defense of Wage and Hour class actions and representative actions under Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 17200.  She has defended at least two dozen Wage and Hour class actions, both in California and nationwide, with a high degree of success in defeating class certification and obtaining favorable class settlements.  She also has handled numerous company-wide wage and hour compliance audits for national and international clients, involving hundreds of job positions and all aspects of wage and hour compliance.  She has also handled several high-profile Wage and Hour Multi-District Litigation appeals. In the 2008 U.S. Legal 500 Guide, Ms. Clarke was described as “a litigation expert” who “calmly, methodically and surgically bulldozes her opponents.”

In addition to her Wage & Hour class action expertise, she has handled numerous employment discrimination class actions; disability, gender, age and race discrimination cases; retaliation cases; sexual harassment cases and investigations; wrongful termination and whistleblower litigation; RIF litigation; WARN Act litigation; labor arbitrations; labor-management negotiations, unfair competition and trade secret claims; mediation and other forms of alternative dispute resolution; advice on corporate compliance obligations; and various proceedings before state and federal agencies such as the EEOC, DFEH, OSHA, the State Labor Commissioner, and the NLRB.

Ms. Clarke has tried both jury and non-jury employment cases, and has argued a number of significant cases before California appellate courts and the Ninth Circuit.  She has also handled at least 40 interest and discharge labor arbitrations for national and international employers involving the Teamsters, IAM, IUOE, and other unions.

Ms. Clarke authored and edits the Employment Contracts chapter in the California Practice Guide: Employment Litigation (The Rutter Group), first published in 2002.  She is a member of The Employers Group Legal Committee, an elite group of approximately sixteen California management lawyers who represent the interests of over 5,000 employers in legislative, administrative and appellate matters, including as amicus curiae in significant labor and employment cases in California.  She has been a speaker at the ALI-ABA national conference on Labor & Employment Law and many other regional and client seminars.  She is a Member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Committee of the ABA's Section of Labor and Employment Law.  She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the California Women's Law Center. Some of Ms. Clarke's more notable victories include the following:

• Prachasaisoradej v. Ralphs Grocery Company, Inc., 42 Cal. 4th 217 (2007).  In this significant victory for California employers, Ms. Clarke wrote the amicus briefs on behalf of both the Employers Group and the California Employment Law Council before the California Supreme Court.  This was a case of first impression before the Supreme Court and resulted in a 4-3 decision in favor of employers.  The Supreme Court agreed with the position set forth in the amicus brief that employers may provide profit-based bonuses and other bonus programs to their employees (exempt and non-exempt alike) without risking that certain expense items routinely taken into consideration in the calculation of "profit" (e.g., workers compensation premiums, expenses, payroll, depreciation, shrinkage, and/or other losses) will invalidate the bonus or make it an illegal deduction of wages under the California Labor Code.  Although this case was a significant victory for California employers, it was, as Ms. Clarke argued, also a "win-win" for employees who had seen companies alter or entirely eliminate their bonus programs during the several years it took this case to work its way through the Courts given the uncertainty in this area.
• Farmers Insurance Exchange -- MDL Overtime Pay Litigation, 466 F.3d 853 (9th Cir. 2006).  In October 2006, the Ninth Circuit reversed a $52.5 million judgment against Farmers in a case involving the alleged misclassification of numerous types of exempt claims adjusters employed in six (6) different states.
• Sperline v. Save-A-Lot.   In January/February 2006, Ms. Clarke tried a misclassification wage & hour case to a jury in San Diego.  The jury awarded damages in accordance with the defendant’s position.  Moreover, Ms. Clarke was successful in her motion to deem meal/rest period payments to be “penalties” not wages, thus the Court (1) limited the applicable statute of limitations to one year, (2) dismissed the Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code Section 17200 claims, and (3) dismissed all claims for additional penalties.
• Wu v. MRBI.   In January 2005, Ms. Clarke defeated class certification as to damages in a California wage and hour class action involving reimbursement of employee business expenses under California Labor Code Section 2802.
• Scanlan, et al. v. Enterprise Rent-A-Car, et al.   In December 2002, Ms. Clarke and her team defeated class certification in a statewide wage and hour class action wherein plaintiffs alleged that approximately 3,200 California Assistant Managers were misclassified as exempt employees.  The plaintiffs’ counsel ultimately filed over 200 individual actions that were batched by the Court into groups for further discovery and trial purposes.  Plaintiffs then agreed to mediation and an employer-favorable settlement was reached.
• Earley v. Washington Mutual Bank, FA.   In 2000 – the early stages of Wage & Hour class action filings in California – Ms. Clarke obtained denial of class certification in two related cases against WAMU: an off-the-clock overtime case and a misclassification case.  The two classes consisted of approximately 5,000 California employees.  Ms. Clarke ultimately forced the plaintiffs to settle these two cases for nothing.
• Alvarez v. Home Savings of America, F.S.B.   Ms. Clarke obtained early Federal Court Dismissal in a purported wage and hour class action and a Bus. & Prof. Code § 17200 action alleging the bank had elicited improper wage releases from at least 1,000 employees under its enhanced severance program.
• Weston v. City of Pasadena.  Ms. Clarke and her team obtained a Directed Verdict after a six-week state court jury trial involving claims for gender discrimination, retaliation, constructive wrongful termination, intentional infliction of emotional distress and related claims.  The Directed Verdict was upheld by the California Court of Appeal.
• Pollack v. Princess Cruises, Inc., No. 93-55734, 94-55439, 1994 WL 712255 (Cal. Dec. 19, 1994) unpublished decision).  Ms. Clarke and her team obtained Judgment As A Matter Of Law after a three-week federal court bench trial involving Title VII claims for gender discrimination, failure to promote, harassment and retaliation.  The Judgment was upheld by the Ninth Circuit.

Ms. Clarke has obtained numerous Summary Judgments for national and international employers involving a variety of labor and employment claims.  All of those reviewed by appellate courts were affirmed.

Ms. Clarke received her law degree in 1989 from the University of Oklahoma School of Law, where she served as Chief Articles and Book Review Editor for the Oklahoma Law Review, published two Law Review notes, and was a member of the Order of the Coif.  While in law school, Ms. Clarke also received several awards including the American Jurisprudence Award for Trial Techniques, the Frank C. Love Memorial Scholarship for Outstanding Achievement, Outstanding Note for 1987-88, and Outstanding Service to the Oklahoma Law Review for 1988-89.  In 1985, she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Oklahoma where she graduated with Honors as a member of Phi Beta Kappa.