Trusted Litigation and Employment Law Specialists on Your Side
Since the firm was originally founded in 1996, Berger & Williams, LLP has been a leading employment law firm in San Diego, California. We are here to help individuals and businesses navigate California’s complex legal system. With decades of experience and thousands of satisfied clients, we help businesses stay on the right side of compliance with employment law in California, and we help employees recover when they are victims of unlawful practices.
Our San Diego employment attorneys have extensive experience representing both employees and employers in a wide range of employment law matters, including discrimination, harassment, wage and hour disputes, retaliation, wrongful termination, leaves of absence, among others.
Whether you are an employee or a business owner or manager, we are here to help you ensure the law is upheld fairly. Here’s how.
Discrimination in the workplace is illegal, and our employment discrimination attorneys in San Diego are dedicated to helping clients protect their rights. We represent employees who have experienced discrimination based on race, sex, age, disability, and other protected characteristics. We also counsel and advise businesses on how to comply with these important laws and assist employers in developing policies and procedures to prevent discrimination and respond to discrimination claims.
Sexual harassment in the workplace creates a toxic work environment and impacts a person’s physical and emotional well-being. Our sexual harassment lawyers in San Diego have extensive experience representing clients who have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace. We provide employers with the tools necessary to maintain lawful workplace environments.
Employers have a legal obligation to pay their employees in accordance with a variety of federal, state, and local laws. Our wage and hour attorneys in San Diego represent employees and business in all types of cases involving overtime wages, minimum wages, expense reimbursement, misclassification, and many other kinds of disputes.
We also work with businesses to establish compliant pay practices and correct mistakes when they occur.
California is an at-will employment state. Both employers and employees can terminate a working relationship without an underlying cause, at any time, with or without notice. However, there are exceptions to at-will employment.
Employers cannot terminate an employee for discriminatory reasons, in retaliation for exercising their legal rights, or for a variety of other protected activities. Our wrongful termination attorneys in San Diego represent employees in wrongful termination claims, including those involving retaliation for whistleblowing, discrimination, or exercise of legal rights. We also advise employers on best practices to avoid wrongful termination claims.
Employment contracts and agreements can be complex and require careful negotiation to protect the interests of both the employer and employee. The laws on employment, arbitration, and separation agreements change constantly. Our expert employment agreement attorneys in San Diego advise clients on the negotiation, drafting, and review of employment contracts, including arbitration agreements, non-compete agreements, confidentiality agreements, and severance agreements.
Sometimes employment disputes cannot be resolved through negotiation, and litigation becomes necessary. Our San Diego employment attorneys have decades of experience representing clients in more than 1,000 employment litigation matters through all phases of cases up to an including trial, post-trial and on appeal.
We work as experienced business litigation attorneys in San Diego, protecting your proprietary information and trade secrets, and defending you against claims from other businesses.
We provide aggressive, efficient, and effective representation to protect our clients’ rights and achieve the best possible favorable outcome.
At Berger & Williams, LLP, we understand that employment law matters are complex and emotionally challenging. That’s why we’re dedicated to providing compassionate and effective legal representation to employees and employers throughout San Diego and across California.
Contact us today for a free consultation with one of our experienced employment law attorneys in San Diego.
In September 2022, Tim Williams was appointed to the California Lawyers Association Labor and Employment Section’s Executive Committee. Tim will serve a three-year term working with other members and advisors steering one of the state’s largest voluntary membership sections providing continuing legal education, scholarship grants, written publications, and other related content to the labor and...
Effective February 2022, employers in California with more than 25 employees were again required to provide employees with COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave due to a COVID-19 related reason (such as to care for oneself, a family member, or if the employee was attending a vaccine appointment). The law was retroactive to January 1, 2022,...
In 2018, Tim Williams took over as lead counsel for the firm in Lee v. Dynamex. Originally filed in 2005, the case included two trips to the Court of Appeal and more recently, the California Supreme Court in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court (2018) 4 Cal.5th 903. Changing the law in California...
On February 25, 2021, the California Supreme Court issued an opinion regarding California’s meal period laws. It dramatically changes employers’ obligations in two respects, and reaffirms one key provision. First, if an employer is using a timekeeping system that “rounds” employee time entries for payroll at the beginning and end of the day, employers are...
In 2018, Tim Williams took over as lead counsel for the firm in Lee v. Dynamex. Originally filed in 2005, the case included two trips to the Court of Appeal and more recently, the California Supreme Court in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court (2018) 4 Cal.5th 903. Changing the law in California on...
The California Supreme Court recently determined that employees must be paid for tasks they are regularly required to perform for a few minutes before or after their regular work hours. Troester v. Starbucks involved a class action lawsuit against Starbucks by a shift supervisor who was required, after clocking out each day, to send...
An employee claimed he was tricked into accepting job that the employer misrepresented. After being fired, the employee sued the corporation and its two co-founders for fraud, breach of contract, and breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing. The employers claimed the employee was at will, and was not owed anything upon...
Following a voter referendum in June 2016, San Diego adopted a city-wide minimum wage higher than the California minimum wage, and a sick leave law more protective than state standards. Changes affect every business and every employee working in San Diego and will impact the city’s economy for years to come.
On December 22, 2016, the California Supreme Court ruled that employers in California must give their employees 10 minutes of work-free rest breaks every four hours or major fraction thereof, and cannot require them to remain on-call and available for duty. In Augustus v. ABM Security Services, Inc. (“ABM”), Augustus and others sued ABM alleging...
Harvey C. Berger represented a Vice President of Sales of a mid-sized technology company who went on FMLA leave for cancer surgery and treatment, but was terminated upon returning to work. Despite being rehired by his previous employer only four months later, Harvey was able to settle the case for almost $1 million, two weeks...
In 2015, California lawmakers enacted an expansive set of paid sick leave requirements that will apply to millions of California workers. Paid sick leave is now mandatory for nearly all private employees, and employers are obligated to continue to restore sick leave year after year. Local sick leave laws enacted since 2015 have expanded worker...
In September 2022, Tim Williams was appointed to the California Lawyers Association Labor and Employment Section’s Executive Committee. Tim will serve a three-year term working with other members and advisors steering one of the state’s largest voluntary membership sections providing continuing legal education, scholarship grants, written publications, and other related content to the labor and...
Effective February 2022, employers in California with more than 25 employees were again required to provide employees with COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave due to a COVID-19 related reason (such as to care for oneself, a family member, or if the employee was attending a vaccine appointment). The law was retroactive to January 1, 2022,...
In 2018, Tim Williams took over as lead counsel for the firm in Lee v. Dynamex. Originally filed in 2005, the case included two trips to the Court of Appeal and more recently, the California Supreme Court in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court (2018) 4 Cal.5th 903. Changing the law in California...
On February 25, 2021, the California Supreme Court issued an opinion regarding California’s meal period laws. It dramatically changes employers’ obligations in two respects, and reaffirms one key provision. First, if an employer is using a timekeeping system that “rounds” employee time entries for payroll at the beginning and end of the day, employers are...
In 2018, Tim Williams took over as lead counsel for the firm in Lee v. Dynamex. Originally filed in 2005, the case included two trips to the Court of Appeal and more recently, the California Supreme Court in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court (2018) 4 Cal.5th 903. Changing the law in California on...
The California Supreme Court recently determined that employees must be paid for tasks they are regularly required to perform for a few minutes before or after their regular work hours. Troester v. Starbucks involved a class action lawsuit against Starbucks by a shift supervisor who was required, after clocking out each day, to send...
An employee claimed he was tricked into accepting job that the employer misrepresented. After being fired, the employee sued the corporation and its two co-founders for fraud, breach of contract, and breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing. The employers claimed the employee was at will, and was not owed anything upon...
Following a voter referendum in June 2016, San Diego adopted a city-wide minimum wage higher than the California minimum wage, and a sick leave law more protective than state standards. Changes affect every business and every employee working in San Diego and will impact the city’s economy for years to come.
On December 22, 2016, the California Supreme Court ruled that employers in California must give their employees 10 minutes of work-free rest breaks every four hours or major fraction thereof, and cannot require them to remain on-call and available for duty. In Augustus v. ABM Security Services, Inc. (“ABM”), Augustus and others sued ABM alleging...
Harvey C. Berger represented a Vice President of Sales of a mid-sized technology company who went on FMLA leave for cancer surgery and treatment, but was terminated upon returning to work. Despite being rehired by his previous employer only four months later, Harvey was able to settle the case for almost $1 million, two weeks...
In 2015, California lawmakers enacted an expansive set of paid sick leave requirements that will apply to millions of California workers. Paid sick leave is now mandatory for nearly all private employees, and employers are obligated to continue to restore sick leave year after year. Local sick leave laws enacted since 2015 have expanded worker...
