San Francisco Employment Defense Attorneys

Sophisticated Representation in the Bay Area

Conflicts between employers and employees are sometimes inevitable. If you run a business, you will likely at some point experience a serious disagreement with one or more of your workers. As an employee, there may come a time when you feel you need to stand up for your rights. Many disputes can be resolved internally, while others may warrant legal action. 

Our San Francisco employment lawyers offer comprehensive and aggressive legal representation to individual employees and employers throughout the Bay Area. We have decades of collective legal experience and know how to navigate the nuances of employment law, including government agency investigations. Our team at Wood Litigation, APC is extensively familiar with all forms of dispute resolution, and we are committed to helping California workers and companies assert and enforce their rights. No matter the complexity or nature of your situation, we will fight on your behalf and do everything possible to deliver the results you deserve.

When you come to us with an employment dispute, we take the time to understand your role, your industry, and your business or career objectives before recommending a course of action. In many matters, we can advise on practical steps to resolve a problem early, such as adjusting internal policies, documenting performance concerns, or preserving evidence of discrimination or retaliation so that you are better positioned if litigation becomes necessary. Because we routinely appear in San Francisco and Bay Area courts on employment cases, we also understand how local judges and mediators tend to approach these disputes, which allows us to calibrate strategy to the realities of the forum.

For employers, we can evaluate whether your policies, handbooks, and classification decisions are likely to withstand scrutiny under California and federal law and advise on targeted changes that may reduce future risk. For employees, we can help you assess the strength of potential claims, the likely timelines before agencies such as the California Civil Rights Department or the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the types of remedies that may realistically be available. By combining this strategic overview with candid advice, we aim to help you make informed decisions about whether to negotiate, mediate, or proceed to trial in your San Francisco employment matter.

Request a case evaluation and start exploring your legal options with a San Francisco employment lawyer. Contact us online or call (415) 936-0300 to get started.

Our Employment Law Services in San Francisco

We are ready to serve the legal needs of individual employees and businesses throughout the state of California. Our team has a deep understanding of state and federal employment law as well as many years of relevant legal experience. When you come to our firm for help, we will walk you through all available legal remedies and will give you the tools and resources you need to make an informed decision. 

In many cases, an early, realistic assessment of risk can help prevent a dispute from escalating into a lawsuit filed in San Francisco Superior Court or federal court. We regularly advise on demand letters, internal investigations, and responses to complaints so that employers and employees understand the potential consequences of each step. By carefully analyzing contracts, offer letters, severance agreements, and policies, we can often identify leverage points that may support a negotiated resolution before parties become entrenched.

Our San Francisco employment lawyers can also guide you through the procedural stages of a case if litigation does become necessary, from filing or responding to a complaint, through discovery and motion practice, to mediation, arbitration, or trial. We work closely with clients to prepare them for key events such as depositions or agency interviews, and we explain how decisions made early in a matter—like preserving electronic records or documenting performance issues—can affect the outcome. Throughout the process, we remain focused on aligning our strategy with your business needs or personal goals, whether that means pursuing damages, seeking injunctive relief, or protecting your reputation in the Bay Area professional community.

Our San Francisco employment lawyers can assist you with cases involving:

• Embezzlement. When running a business, you will likely put someone in charge of handling company funds and resources. This employee or group of employees has a fiduciary duty not to mismanage or steal those funds. Embezzlement occurs when an employee charged with handling company assets abuses that responsibility. Embezzlement can be difficult to initially detect in larger companies with many moving parts, and perpetrators will sometimes use sophisticated techniques to avoid being discovered. No level of employee theft is acceptable, and our team has a long history of holding embezzlers accountable for their misconduct. We have secured multi-million-dollar settlements in embezzlement cases and can help your business recover what was stolen. Our firm also represents individual employees accused of embezzlement.
• Trade Secrets. Intellectual property and other forms of proprietary information are what make a company unique and competitive. They allow the business to stand out in a crowded field, and company leaders will generally rely on various legal mechanisms to protect these assets. Patents, trademarks, and copyrights can offer robust protection to many forms of intellectual property, but trade secrets can be more challenging to adequately safeguard. Unscrupulous employees will sometimes leverage their access to proprietary information and inappropriately share trade secrets with competitors for personal gain. This type of intellectual property breach can cause incalculable long-term damage to a business’s ability to compete, and any case of trade secret misappropriation must be taken seriously. Our team can assist you with pursuing legal action against employees who have misappropriated trade secrets or abused intellectual property. We can also help departing employees who suspect they will be sued by their former employer on these grounds.
• Discrimination and Wrongful Termination. Every employee has the right to a workplace free of discrimination, and the vast majority of companies are committed to fostering these environments. Employees are protected from many forms of workplace discrimination under state and federal law, while applicants are protected from discriminatory hiring practices. California has some of the most robust state-level protections and forbids discrimination based on race, national origin, color, ancestry, physical disability, medical disability, mental condition, genetic information, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, military status, or veteran status. Some employees will nonetheless still experience workplace discrimination and may even be wrongfully terminated for reporting it. We can help individual employees explore their legal options and file claims with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) or the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH). Our team also represents businesses facing government agency investigations involving allegations of workplace discrimination or wrongful termination. 
• Workplace Harassment. No one should have to endure sexual harassment or other types of unwanted contact. Examples of sexual harassment include unwanted and unsolicited physical contact, sexually explicit and inappropriate conversations or comments, digitally sending unwanted images or advances, and quid pro quos. When this type of misconduct occurs in the workplace, the perpetrator and their employer may be liable for damages if the harassment resulted in a hostile work environment. Your workplace may be considered hostile if you are constantly subject to name-calling, offensive “jokes,” inappropriate propositioning, or other forms of routine harassment. In addition to making you feel understandably uncomfortable and unsafe, a hostile work environment can also cause unfair damage to your career. We can help you pursue a claim and work to recover compensation if you have been subject to sexual harassment and a hostile work environment. Our firm can also assist companies with defending against these types of claims.
• Wage and Hour Disputes. All employees and contractors must be fairly compensated for their work. Wage theft is unfortunately pervasive, and you must be diligent to ensure you are appropriately paid. In some situations, dishonest companies may attempt to misclassify employees as independent contractors to avoid having to pay benefits and follow other employment laws. They may also claim a non-exempt employee is “exempt” to avoid having to pay overtime. Understanding whether you are an employee and whether you are exempt or non-exempt can sometimes be challenging, but you deserve clarity when these classifications directly impact your compensation. We regularly litigate misclassification issues and can also assist with wage and hour disputes involving unpaid overtime, late paychecks, breaches of contract, and denied meal or rest breaks. Our team also helps employers navigate these disputes.

Take the first step toward resolving your case with our skilled San Francisco employment lawyers. Reach out or call (415) 936-0300 now to set up your consultation.