Ms. Roddick is of counsel to the firm. Her practice focuses on employment litigation and counseling. Her clients span an array of industries including, but not limited to, financial services, insurance, consumer goods, fitness and hospitality.
Ms. Roddick represents clients in individual, class and representative actions under the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) concerning claims for unpaid wages, employee misclassification, reimbursement, wrongful termination, discrimination and harassment. She represents clients in both state and federal courts, as well as before various administrative and governmental agencies.
Ms. Roddick also maintains an advisory and counseling practice to help employers stay compliant with complex and evolving employment laws in order to manage risk, reduce liability exposure and promote litigation avoidance. She does this by drafting, reviewing and auditing employers’ employment policies and practices including employee handbooks, personnel policies, employment agreements and training manuals. She also provides company management and human resource professionals with training and day-to-day counseling concerning: wage and hour practices; employee classifications; disciplinary matters; disability accommodations; leaves of absences; internal investigations; arbitration agreements; severance agreements; and termination.
In addition to her employment practice, Ms. Roddick serves as outside general counsel for small and mid-sized businesses, providing them with general corporate, employment and litigation advice.
Some of her representative matters include:
- Defending major financial institutions in various employment and investor-related disputes.
- Defending restaurants and bars in wage and hour, wrongful termination and sexual harassment matters.
- Defending and counseling security system, guard and patrol companies in complex class action wage matters.
- Defending landscape company in wage and hour matters and providing day-to-day human resources counseling.
- Defending electric vehicle company in contract dispute.
- Defending produce company in business dispute.
- Defending wholesale and surplus lines insurance broker in various coverage disputes.
- Representing clients in class action and representative lawsuits involving the misclassification of employees as exempt and/or as independent contractors.
- Representing clients before governmental agencies including, but not limited to, the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE), the California Employment Development Department (EDD) and the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH).
- Providing corporate and employment counseling to domestic and international clients.
- Conducting wage and hour and human resource audits.