California Leave Law: A Practical Guide for Employers

Bernadette M. O’Brien is a partner at Floyd, Skeren & Kelly, LLP, a leading workers‘ compensation defense firm, and managing attorney of the law firm‘s employment law department. Ms. O‘Brien is also a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR). She provides advice and counsel to employers, human resource administrators, risk managers and claims adjusters on numerous workplace topics including policy development and implementation; employee discipline/ workplace investigations; the prevention of workplace claims for discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and/or wrongful termination; wage and hour compliance; the crossover issues related to workers‘ compensation and the Fair Employment and Housing Act/Americans with Disabilities Act; leave of absence policies; pregnancy; privacy rights; social media policies; unemployment insurance claims; and, employee handbook development. Ms.O‘Brien also conducts management/human resource training and compliance sessions throughout California, both private-on-site, and open for the public. Prior to Ms. O‘Brien‘s association with Floyd, Skeren & Kelly, LLP she practiced civil litigation representing both plaintiffs and defendants in numerous areas of law including personal injury, business and employment. Ms. O‘Brien is author of the popular LexisNexis publication Labor and Employment in California: A Guide to Employment Laws, Regulations and Practices, which has been in publication since 1992. The treatise is an easy-to-understand overview of key topics in labor and employment as governed by both federal and Californialaw.

Ms. O‘Brien is also co-author of California Unemployment Insurance and Disability CompensationPrograms, which is a helpful treatise on California unemployment insurance and disability laws. Ms.O‘Brien is a frequent contributor to, and reporter for, the LexisNexis employment law newsletter <i<Bender‘s California Labor & Employment Bulletin and she is editor and developer of Floyd, Skeren & Kelly‘s employment related websites www.employmentlawweekly.com, www.worklawreport,www.employmentlawacademy.com, and www.fskhrtraining.com, which cover the latest court cases andlegislation related to employment law. She has been a speaker on a variety of employment law topics fornumerous organizations including CalPelra, CWC, PIHRA, Ag-Safe, EAC, Northern CaliforniaWorkers‘ Comp Forum, Intercare, National Interstate Insurance, CASBO, Strafford Webinars and theEmployer‘s Fraud Task Force. You can reach Bernadette M. O‘Brien at bernadette.obrien@fsklaw.com, (818) 206-9222, or (916) 838-3332.

Lizbeth (“Beth”) West is a Shareholder with Weintraub Tobin Chediak Coleman Grodin and practices in the firm’s Labor and Employment Group. She is admitted to practice law in the states of California and Washington.

Beth assists employers in all aspects of their employment relationship with their employees and defends employers in employment disputes. Her practice focuses on counseling employers, HR, and management staff on matters such as recruiting and hiring; employment agreements and compensation plans; protection of trade secrets; wage and hour laws; independent contractor status; performance standards and disciplinary actions; privacy; accommodations and leaves of absence; preventing discrimination, harassment and retaliation; preventing and responding to theft and embezzlement; reductions in force, terminations, and layoffs; and compliance with other state and federal employment laws. Beth has extensive experience counseling and representing employers in governmental audits with agencies like the DOL, DLSE, EDD, DFEH, EEOC, OFCCP, and others.

Beth is also a regular employment-law trainer on many workplace subjects, including AB 1825 sexual harassment prevention training. Additionally, she is a charter and sustaining member of the Association of Workplace Investigators (AOWI) and conducts independent workplace investigations for both public and private employers. In addition to her counseling, training, and investigation practice, Beth has years of experience defending employers in various forms of employment-related litigation in state and federal court, and in administrative actions before a number of state and federal agencies. She has successfully defended and settled multi-million dollar wage and hour class actions, and has also defended and won complex breach of contract, discrimination, whistleblowing, and retaliation claims on summary judgment. Finally, based on her years of experience as an employment litigator and her specialized training and certification from Cornell University’s ILR School in employment mediation, Beth also serves as a mediator and provides trusted and effective mediation services exclusively in the area of employment disputes pre and post litigation. Beth was selected for inclusion in Northern California Super Lawyers for 2009, 2010, 2012–2016; Top 25 Sacramento Super Lawyers for 2013, 2015, and 2016; Top 50 Northern California Women Super Lawyers for 2014–2016; and Top 100 Northern California Super Lawyers for 2015–2016. She also was selected as a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America in 2015; an honor bestowed on less than one half of one percent of American lawyers.

In addition to her busy law practice, Beth is active in supporting the education of employers and attorneys in the field of employment law. She is a contributing editor for The Rutter Group’s California Practice Guide: Employment Litigation, and writes regularly for Weintraub Tobin’s Labor and Employment Law Blog. She also served as the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Sacramento Employer Advisory council (SEAC) from 2011 through 2013. Beth has previously been an adjunct professor of law at UOP, McGeorge School of Law, and continues to teach the Elimination of Bias in the Practice of Law course at UOP McGeorge’s annual CLE conference. She is also a regular speaker for various commercial and continuing education programs on employment issues facing employers in California.

Beth is also involved in charitable work in the local community and globally. She belongs to the Sacramento Advocates for Girl Empowerment (SAGE), an outreach organization to underprivileged children, and is a sponsor for the SPCA in Sacramento and Yolo Counties. She previously led Weintraub Tobin’s “Champions for Adoption” Team with Sierra Adoption Services (now Sierra Forever Families) to raise money to place foster children in loving adoptive homes. She is also a member of the Habitat for Humanity Global Village Mekong Big Build Team that built a village of homes for poor and displaced families in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in 2013, and volunteers for Special Spaces, a non-profit that performs bedroom makeovers for terminally or chronically ill children.

Beth graduated from UOP McGeorge School of Law with top honors and is a member of The Order of the Coif. As a student she attended classes taught by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy in Salzburg, Austria and received a Certificate in International Legal Studies. She was also awarded the Top Oral Advocate Award in the 1997 International Appellate Advocacy Competition and was the recipient of the Emil Gumpert Award for Excellence in Trial Advocacy and the Outstanding Graduate Award in 1999.