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North America - United States • Labor and employment

Paul Hastings LLP

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The ‘world-class’ practice at Paul Hastings LLP is well-placed to handle contentious employment mandates including complex wage and hour claims, discrimination and harassment claims, government investigations, and sensitive labor disputes and negotiations. The group has additional experience in arbitration, trade secret cases, and government agency investigations. Elena Baca steers the practice from Los Angeles and specializes in class action defense, arbitration, and advisory mandates affecting C-Suite executives. Also in Los Angeles, ’outstanding advocate’ Felicia Davis specializes in pay equity litigation. Over in New York, Patrick Shea litigates cases involving employee benefits, discrimination, wage and hour claims, and wrongful dismissal. Additional names to note include San Francisco-based Jeffrey Wohl, who has a track record in defeating high-stakes class action claims; and the ‘very skilled’ Carson Sullivan, who is based in Washington DC and majors on the defense of pay equity class actions. Sarah Besnoff, lauded by one client as ’highly dedicated’, is the key senior associate-level contact. New York-based Sara Tomezsko was promoted to the partnership in February 2023.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • 'Paul Hastings is a world-class labor and employment law firm, and the depth of experience and their bench is second to none. They are pragmatic, dedicated, and very focused on the issues that matter.'
  • 'Carson Sullivan is very skilled at the approaches to class action defense; she also has a very deep wealth of experience in handling and dealing with statistical issues that frequently arise in these cases. Felicia Davis is a dogged litigator, an outstanding advocate, and one of the smartest lawyers I know. Sarah Besnoff is an up-and-coming lawyer who is highly dedicated to her clients and thinks outside the box.'
  • 'Paul Hastings is a world-class labor law firm - they excel at all aspects that clients need for their practices.'
  • 'Carson Sullivan is a seasoned attorney who knows how to handle complex litigation and discrimination claims.'

Key clients

  • Abbvie Inc.
  • Activision Blizzard, Inc., Activision Publishing & Blizzard Entertainment
  • Alphabet, Inc.
  • Applied Materials, Inc.
  • AT&T Inc.
  • Capital One Financial Corp.
  • CareDx
  • Coincident Capital GP, LLC; Coincident Management, LLC
  • Core Financial Partners
  • CoStar Group
  • DIRECTV
  • ESPN
  • Facebook Inc.
  • Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
  • General Atomics
  • Gilead Sciences
  • Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT)
  • Google LLC
  • The Goldman Sachs Group L.P.
  • Intel Corporation
  • Live Nation Entertainment Inc.
  • Longwood Management Corp.
  • Nike
  • Pacific Gas & Electric (“PG&E”)
  • Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC)
  • Target Corp.
  • Toyota Motor Corporation
  • United Continental Holdings Inc.
  • University of Southern California (USC)
  • The Walt Disney Company
  • Workday, Inc.

Lawyers

Leading partners

The strongest partners in their field, leading on market-leading deals and endorsed by peers and clients alike.

Next generation partners

Junior partners with significant recognition from clients and peers in the market and key roles on multiple matters.

Practice head

The lawyer(s) leading their teams.

Marc Bernstein, Kenneth Gage, Elena Baca, Carson Sullivan

Other key lawyers

Felicia Davis, Patrick Shea, Jeffrey Wohl, Sarah Besnoff