About the Authors
CONOR AHERN received his B.A. in 2008 from the University of Virginia and his J.D. in 2015 from Harvard Law School. Mr. Ahern is a fellow at the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project in New York City. During law school, he was a clinical intern at Greater Boston Legal Services and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of Boston as well as a summer fellow at the Gender Equity & LGBT Rights Project at Legal Aid at Work (LAAW) in San Francisco.
HILLARY BENHAM-BAKER is a founding partner in the law firm of Campins Benham-Baker LLP, San Francisco, where she represents employees in discrimination, whistleblower retaliation, and wage and hour matters. A substantial part of Ms. Benham-Baker’s practice focuses on family responsibilities, discrimination, and leave retaliation/interference issues. She received her B.A. with honors from Pitzer College and her J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, where she was awarded the Tony Patiño Fellowship. Ms. Benham-Baker serves on the Executive Committee of the Alameda County Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Law Section. She is also a member of the California Employment Lawyers Association and the American Bar Association’s Section of Equal Employment Opportunity. Ms. Benham-Baker was named as a Northern California “Rising Star” by Super Lawyers magazine for the years 2011–2014.
HON. JULIA CAMPINS is a judge of the Superior Court of California, County of Contra Costa. Before her appointment to the bench, Judge Campins was a partner in the law firm of Campins Benham-Baker LLP in San Francisco, where she specialized in representing employees and plaintiffs in employment discrimination, civil rights, and employee benefits actions. She received her B.A. from Columbia College and her J.D. from Columbia University School of Law. Judge Campins is an Executive Editor of Employment Discrimination Law (ABA-BNA 5th ed, 2013; and Supplements). She is also the author of the “Equitable Remedies” chapter in Employment Damages and Remedies (Cal CEB) as well as chapters in Class Action Fairness Act: Law and Strategy (ABA-BNA 2013). She previously served as co-editor of the American Bar Association’s Section of Litigation: Class Actions and Derivative Suits newsletter, for which she wrote several articles. She has also written articles in the ABA Labor and Employment Law Section’s Employee Benefits Committee newsletter and the National Employment Lawyers Association’s publication, The Employee Advocate. She is a frequent speaker on employment and civil rights issues. In 2013 and 2014, Judge Campins was named a Northern California “Super Lawyer.” In 2011 and 2012, Super Lawyers magazine named her a “Rising Star” among Northern California attorneys.
KEITH A. GOODWIN is an associate in the Labor and Employment Law Department of Proskauer Rose LLP, Los Angeles. He received his B.A. (summa cum laude) from California Polytechnic State University and his J.D. from Columbia University School of Law. Mr. Goodwin represents public, private, and nonprofit employers in trade secret misappropriation, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wage and hour, and wrongful discharge cases.
MARINA C. GRUBER is an associate in the San Jose office of Littler Mendelson P.C., where she represents employers in matters concerning discrimination and sexual harassment, wage and hour claims, wrongful termination cases, the Family Medical Leave Act, and the California Family Rights Act. She also counsels employers regarding employment handbooks, policies, and procedures. Ms. Gruber regularly publishes materials and speaks on matters concerning California employers, including legislative changes and compliance with prevailing wage laws. Ms. Gruber received her B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, and her J.D. from Cornell University Law School. In 2013, 2014, and 2015, she was named a “Rising Star” by Super Lawyers magazine.
RACHEL S. HULST, an experienced employment attorney and workplace investigator, is a partner in the law firm of Hulst & Handler LLP, a firm dedicated to helping solve workplace problems before they escalate to litigation. The firm services clients in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. For over 16 years, before founding Hulst & Handler LLP, Ms. Hulst represented companies in all types of employment litigation cases (single plaintiff and class actions) before California state and federal courts and administrative agencies and counseled employers on employment law issues. Ms. Hulst received her B.A. from the University of California, San Diego (Provost Honors), and her J.D. from Golden Gate University School of Law, where she graduated in the top 20 percent of her class.
JOHN F. HYLAND practices exclusively in the area of employment law. Before forming Rukin Hyland Doria & Tindall, he was Of Counsel with Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP in the firm’s San Francisco office, where he advised and represented companies in state and federal court actions covering all areas of employment law, including wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, disability law, employee privacy, employee leaves, and wage and hour issues. Mr. Hyland regularly conducts training seminars and presents on a wide array of employment law issues. Law & Politics magazine selected him as one of its Northern California Super Lawyers each year from 2006 through 2012 and again in 2014. San Francisco’s Best Lawyers named him in its 2012 edition and The Best Lawyers in America selected him for inclusion in its 2012, 2013, and 2014 editions. Mr. Hyland received his B.S. from St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia and his J.D. from Golden Gate University School of Law, where he graduated in 1995 with highest honors and first in his class. While at Golden Gate, he served as a contributing author and associate editor of the Golden Gate Law Review.
ELIZABETH KRISTEN is the Director of the Gender Equity & LGBT Rights Project and a Senior Staff Attorney at Legal Aid at Work (LAAW) in San Francisco, where she represents workers in cases involving violations of the family and medical leave laws as well as cases involving gender, pregnancy, disability, sexual orientation, national origin, and race discrimination. She received her B.A. from Miami University and her J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. Before beginning her work at LAAW in 2002 as a Skadden Fellow, Ms. Kristen clerked for the Honorable James R. Browning on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. She is a member of the American Association of University Women, the National Employment Lawyers Association, and the California Employment Lawyers Association and she is a past Board member of the Pride Law Fund. In 2012–2013, she served as a Harvard Law School Wasserstein Public Interest Fellow. She was a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law from 2008 to 2013 and is currently a member of CELA Voice. In 2015, she received a “California Lawyer of the Year” award from California Lawyer magazine.
STEPHEN M. MURPHY, who earned his undergraduate degree from College of the Holy Cross in 1977 and his J.D. from the University of San Francisco in 1981, maintains a solo practice in San Francisco, specializing in plaintiffs’ employment litigation. Mr. Murphy handles a wide range of employment issues, including wage and hour, wrongful termination, Family and Medical Leave Act, discrimination, and harassment claims. He has been honored as a Top 100 Northern California Super Lawyer, listed in Best Lawyers, and honored as the “Trial Lawyer of the Year” for 2008 by the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association. He has lectured and contributed articles to numerous legal journals and is a contributing author of Wrongful Employment Termination Practice: Discrimination, Harassment, and Retaliation (2d ed Cal CEB), California Basic Practice Handbook (Cal CEB), and Handling a Wrongful Termination Action (Cal CEB Action Guide).
ANTHONY J. ONCIDI is a partner in the Los Angeles office of Proskauer Rose LLP, where he heads the firm’s Labor and Employment Department. Mr. Oncidi received his B.A. (cum laude) from Pomona College and his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School. His practice focuses on representing employers and management in all aspects of employment law, including wage and hour class actions and cases involving wrongful termination, trade secret violations, restrictive covenants, and whistleblower, harassment, and discrimination claims. He also advises and counsels clients on employment-related matters. Mr. Oncidi is the author of Employment Discrimination Depositions (Juris Publ’g 2013), co-author of Proskauer on Privacy (PLI 2014), and is a regular columnist for the Los Angeles Daily Journal and the California Labor and Employment Law Review, the official publication of the Labor and Employment Law Section of the State Bar of California.
JULIA PARISH (she/her) is a senior staff attorney with Legal Aid at Work’s Work and Family Program and Project Survive. She provides free legal advice, know-your-rights workshops, and direct legal services and representation to workers dealing with family and medical crises. She also co-founded the Healthy Mothers Workplace Coalition, a collaboration of government agencies, community-based organizations, and employers that seeks to improve workplace conditions for pregnant and parenting workers though public education, public policy development, and an award program that recognizes employers with family-supportive workplace policies. Ms. Parish has been instrumental in drafting and advocating for the passage of landmark San Francisco laws including the Family Friendly Workplace Ordinance, Retail Workers Bill of Rights, Paid Parental Leave Ordinance, and Lactation Accommodations Ordinance.
LORRIE T. PEETERS is an employment law attorney practicing in both California and Illinois. Ms. Peeters represents primarily employees in workplace disputes, although she also provides management with compliance training and counseling. She concentrates her litigation and negotiation practice in the areas of family and medical leave and wage law and also represents clients with matters involving claims of discrimination and retaliation. She received her B.A. in 2002 from Northwestern University and her J.D. in 2006 from the Loyola University Chicago School of Law. After law school, she joined Caffarelli & Siegel Ltd. as an Associate Attorney and became a Partner in 2013. She currently works as Of Counsel for Caffarelli & Associates Ltd.
JOSE (JOE) PEREZ is an associate in the Labor and Employment Law Department of Proskauer Rose LLP, Los Angeles. He received his B.A. from the University of Puerto Rico, his Master’s in Management from the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge, and his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. Mr. Perez works on a wide variety of employment litigation matters, including leave of absence, wage and hour, discrimination, and privacy claims. He counsels clients on strategic corporate planning, reductions in force, and overtime exemptions, and he assists clients in drafting employment policies and practices under state and federal laws.
SHARON A. TERMAN is the Director of the Work and Family Program and a Senior Staff Attorney at Legal Aid at Work (LAAW) in San Francisco. Ms. Terman represents workers with family and medical leave claims as well as claims of pregnancy, gender, and disability discrimination. She also provides legal advice to low-income workers, engages in community education, and participates in legislative advocacy to expand workers’ rights. She received her B.A. with highest distinction from the University of California, Berkeley, and her J.D. with distinction from Stanford Law School. After law school, she clerked for the Honorable Richard A. Paez of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals before joining LAAW as a Skadden Fellow. She is the 2011 recipient of the Stanford Law School Miles L. Rubin Public Interest Award, and she was named a 2015 Northern California “Rising Star” by Super Lawyers.
KATHERINE M. WUTCHIETT is a Staff Attorney for Legal Aid at Work (LAAW)’s Work & Family Program and Project Survive, where she advocates for the rights of workers to care for their health and their families’ health without having to sacrifice their jobs or income. She leads the implementation of LAAW’s medical-legal partnership with WIC and home visiting programs in Contra Costa County and provides legal advice, representation, technical support, and community education regarding the workplace rights of those struggling with family and medical crises across California. Ms. Wutchiett has trained hundreds of health care and service providers and has provided legal representation to dozens of low-wage, frequently immigrant, workers, through state investigations, mediations, and litigation, while also engaging in policy advocacy. Ms. Wutchiett obtained her J.D. (summa cum laude) from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, Missouri, and clerked for the Hon. Bobby Shepherd of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, before starting as a Skadden Fellow at LAAW.
About the 2022 Update Authors
HILLARY BENHAM-BAKER is an update author of chapter 8. See her bio in the About the Authors section.
NORA CASSIDY (she/her) is an update author of chapter 1. Ms. Cassidy is an attorney at Legal Aid at Work (LAAW) in their Gender Equity & LGBTQ Rights Program. She provides training, education, and legal services to workers in the Central Valley with a focus on undocumented workers and those who have faced harassment based on their sex, sexual orientation, gender, or gender identity. Ms. Cassidy received her B.A. in history from Carleton College and her J.D. from the University of California, Irvine, School of Law. Before joining LAAW, Ms. Cassidy clerked for Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Magistrate Judge Bruce McGiverin on the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico.
ROSE-ELLEN FAIRGRIEVE is the update author of chapter 2. Ms. Fairgrieve is the founder of Fairgrieve Law Office in San Francisco, where she handles a full range of legal services for employers, including human resources advice and training, issue-specific counsel, litigation, administrative hearings, and appellate work. She has been a practicing attorney for over 20 years, with a primary focus on labor and employment law and municipal code enforcement. Before founding her own firm, Ms. Fairgrieve was Of Counsel in the Employment Practice Group with the San Francisco office of Gordon Rees and a Deputy San Francisco City Attorney, where she enforced the city’s labor laws as a member of the Labor and Employment team. Ms. Fairgrieve received her B.A. (with honors) from the University of California, Davis, and her J.D. (with honors) from the University of Southern California Gould School of Law.
JOHN F. HYLAND is the update author of chapters 3 and 4. See his bio in the About the Authors section.
ELIZABETH KRISTEN is an update author of chapter 1. See her bio in the About the Authors section.
MICHELLE L. LAPPEN is an update author of chapter 7. Ms. Lappen is an associate in Proskauer’s Labor & Employment Department and a member of the Employment Litigation & Arbitration Group in the firm’s Los Angeles office. She assists clients in a wide range of labor and employment matters in a variety of industries, including entertainment, financial services, and technology. Ms. Lappen received her B.A. from Barnard College, Columbia University, and earned her J.D. from Columbia Law School, where she was an articles and submissions editor for the Columbia Journal of Law & the Arts. During law school, she was also a teaching fellow for the Advanced Negotiation Workshop and advocated for state and federal legislation as a clinical student in the Columbia Law Health Justice Advocacy Clinic.
JARED H. ODESSKY is an update author of chapter 1. Mr. Odessky is an Attorney and Skadden Fellow in the Gender Equity and LGBTQ Rights Program at Legal Aid at Work (LAAW) in San Francisco, where he primarily represents workers facing discrimination and harassment based on their sex, sexual orientation, gender, and gender identity. He received his B.A. from Columbia University and his J.D. from Harvard Law School.
ANTHONY J. ONCIDI is an update author of chapter 7. See his bio in the About the Authors section.
JULIA PARISH is an update author of chapter 1. See her bio in the About the Authors section.
AMINAH SHAKOOR is an update author of chapter 1. She is a law clerk at Legal Aid at Work (LAAW) in San Francisco.
VALERIE SPRAGUE is an update author of chapter 1. Ms. Sprague is a paralegal/legal assistant for Legal Aid at Work (LAAW) in San Francisco, where she offers litigation and administrative support to attorneys working in the Gender Equity & LGBTQ Rights and Work & Family programs. She received her B.A. from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and she received a paralegal certificate from San Francisco State University, College of Extended Learning. Before joining the staff at LAAW, Ms. Sprague interned at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, within the Enforcement Unit.
SELA M. STEIGER is an update author of chapter 1. Ms. Steiger is staff attorney at Legal Aid at Work (LAAW) in the Work and Family Program. She provides legal advice and representation to pregnant workers and new parents, workers struggling with family and medical crises, and survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. Ms. Steiger also presents trainings on new parent and caregiving leave laws and engages in policy advocacy to advance the rights of working families. She received her J.D. from the University of California, Davis, School of Law (King Hall) in 2020. During law school, she represented clients in Title IX actions and domestic violence restraining order requests as a member of the UC Davis Family Protection and Legal Assistance Clinic. She also worked as a law clerk for the Children’s Law Center of California, the Family Violence Appellate Project, and Public Advocates.
SHARON A. TERMAN is an update author of chapter 1. See her bio in the About the Authors section.
KATHERINE M. WUTCHIETT is an update author of chapter 1. See her bio in the About the Authors section.
