Stephen Berry is a partner and Chair in the Employment Law Department and is based in the firm’s Orange County office. He concentrates his practice in the representation of public and private employers in all aspects of employment law and labor relations, including defense of wage and hour and Fair Credit Reporting Act class actions, as well as employee mobility/trade secret protection, discrimination, retaliation, harassment, wrongful discharge, whistleblower, and ADA Title III access lawsuits; union organizing and decertification campaigns, contract negotiations, strikes, and arbitrations; and administrative proceedings before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, California Fair Employment and Housing Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, and other federal and state agencies. Mr. Berry also provides preventative counseling and training in all of these areas. Mr. Berry’s clients include major foreign and domestic-based international employers, including pharmaceutical, medical device, and other lifesciences biotechnology and technology firms, insurance companies, entertainment companies, container shipping lines and shipping terminal operators, transportation companies, and manufacturing firms.
EXPERIENCE
- Won over a dozen jury trials and arbitrations, including claims of disability discrimination by a former employee of a pharmaceutical company, sex discrimination by a former sales manager with a telecom company, wrongful termination by a former partner in a law firm and obtained a judgment against the former partner in an amount exceeding $100,000, and whistleblower retaliation at arbitration by the former head of sales for a medical device company
- Won complete summary judgment in two wage and hour class actions and 43 individual cases
- Defeated class certification in an exempt misclassification case, and in an independent contractor misclassification case
- Leads collective bargaining negotiations for the Los Angeles/Long Beach Harbor Employers Association (formed by 14 of the largest container shipping companies and terminal operators in the world) with ILWU Local 63, Office Clerical Unit
ACCOLADES & RECOGNITIONS
- Continuously named in The Best Lawyers in America since 2004, and named “Management Employment Lawyer of the Year” for the Orange County, California area by that publication each year since 2011
- Named to “Top Labor and Employment Lawyers of 2012” by the Daily Journal
- Named The Best Lawyers in America in 2018 for work in Employment Law – Individual and Management, Labor Law – Management and Qui Tam Law
