Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher has extensive experience representing employers in large and sophisticated wage and hour matters, including federal and state collective actions and class actions, and cutting-edge litigation with the U.S. Department of Labor.

Gibson Dunn lawyers have unparalleled experience with the Fair Labor Standards Act and also have significant experience dealing with the intricacies of state wage and hour laws, particularly the laws in California.  Our lawyers have been among the principal authors of California Practice Guide: Employment Litigation; Nancy P. McClelland, William D. Claster, and Deborah J. Clarke have been involved in numerous wage-and-hour class actions under California and federal law.  William J. Kilberg currently serves as Counsel to the Fair Labor Standards Act Reform Coalition and formerly was Solicitor of the U.S. Department of Labor, with responsibility for all Labor Department wage-hour litigation.  Eugene Scalia also served as Solicitor of Labor, and has recently returned to the firm after helping the Department draft its new proposed regulations defining “administrative, professional, and executive” employees for purposes of wage-hour requirements.

Litigation

Representative wage-and-hour cases include:

• Defending insurance company’s wage and hour practices in widely-cited case.  Reich v. John Alden Life Ins. Co., 126 F.3d 1 (1st Cir. 1997);
• Defeating class certification of California managerial employees asserting misclassification as exempt employees and seeking overtime wages and back pay. Scanlan v. Enterprise Rent-A-Car (Los Angeles Superior Court 2002);
• Defeating class certification in case involving both misclassification and off-the-clock classes consisting of approximately 4000 California employees.  Earley, et al. v. Washington Mutual Bank (Los Angeles Superior Court 1999);
• Defeating class certification in case alleging misclassification of managers and assistant managers.  Hooper v. Marie Callender’s (Los Angeles Superior Court 2003);
• Representing Tenet Healthcare Corporation against a putative class of 17,000 nurses who were allegedly denied proper compensation for meal and break rest periods.  Attanasio v. Tenet Healthcare Corporation (Los Angeles Superior Court 1999);
• Handling a leading case establishing rule that premium pay for extra hours of work does not necessarily render a salaried employee non-exempt under the FLSA.  Boykin v. Boeing Co., 128 F.3d 1279 (9th Cir. 1997);
• Filing an amicus brief on behalf of the Employers Group in an important wage-hour case in which a profit-based bonus for employees was challenged as containing impermissible deductions under the California Labor Code and the applicable Wage Order.  The Employers Group position was partially adopted by the Appellate Court which found that for exempt employees, all expense items other than workers’ compensation expenses are permissible; however for non-exempt employees, both workers’ compensation and other expenses, such as cash shortages, breakages and losses, are impermissible.  Ralph’s Grocery Company v. Superior Court (Swanson), Court of Appeal of the State of California, Second Appellate District, Division Seven, Civil Case No. B168257 (brief filed Oct. 2003);
• Obtaining court approval of a settlement of a “bet-the-company” wage and hour class action covering multiple claims with as much as a $100 million exposure.  We brokered a maximum $16 million settlement that allowed the Company to survive and obtained the prior owner’s payment of half the settlement cost.  In addition, we negotiated the right to retain residual amounts not paid to unlocatable class members, which has now resulted in reducing the $16 million by $7 million.

Counseling

Our experience in wage-hour litigation and familiarity with federal and state wage-hour regulations makes us adept at advising companies on wage-hour compliance; assisting in audits and investigations; and implementing preemptive, tailored strategies to influence dramatically the outcome of a case.

Publications

Gibson Dunn lawyers have authored numerous articles and papers addressing wage and hour issues, including:

• William J. Kilberg and Jason C. Schwartz, Saga of Reform: Regulation of Worker Overtime, National Legal Center for Public Interest (September 2004).
• Jessica Lee and Paul DeCamp, The Fair Labor Standards Act: Strategies for Compliance, Labor and Employment Law Bulletin (January 2003).
• Jessica Lee and Paul DeCamp, The Fair Labor Standards Act: Suggestions for Compliance and Reform, American Employment Law Council (October 2002).
• Paul DeCamp, Overtime Collective and Class Actions: The Need for Reform, Engage (October 2002).
• William J. Kilberg, The Fair Labor Standards Act: Forcing 1938 Job Categories on the Modern Economy, National Legal Center for Public Interest (2001).
• William J. Kilberg, A 1938 Law That Hurts Workers More Than It Helps Them, The Wall Street Journal (May 10, 1995).