Cases of Interest

• ADA Accessibility Compliance
• Alternative Dispute Resolution
• Appellate
• Business
• Construction
• Education Law
• Employment
• Employment Practices & Liability Insurance
• Environmental Law & Property Rights
• Healthcare
• Personal Injury
• Plaintiff Representation
• Premises Liability
• Products Liability
• Professional Liability
• Public Entities
• Real Estate

Employment

• Obtained summary judgment for an employer on race and retaliation claims arising from a reduction in force at a major university.
  
• Won a motion for summary adjudication on a case involving claims of wrongful termination, pregnancy discrimination, retaliation and breach of an employee housing contract. The federal court ruled in favor of the employer on all federal law based claims and remanded the remaining claims to state court. Obtained a defense verdict on all counts for the employer on the remaining claims.
  
• Successfully disposed of claims asserted against a public entity employee through use of the Anti-SLAPP provision of the California Code of Civil Procedure resulting in an award of attorney's fees to the public entity client.
  
• Obtained a favorable verdict at trial for a rural public entity client on a disability discrimination claim based upon Plaintiff's alleged life-threatening genetic condition.
  
• Prevailed in a motion for summary judgment in a case based on claims of religious discrimination and retaliatory discipline.
  
• Successfully defended Sheriff's Departments and their employees at trial in cases involving allegations of use of excessive force and race discrimination.
  
• Mediated to a mutually agreeable conclusion a complex and emotionally charged case based on allegations of sexual assault, sexual harassment and race discrimination.
  
• Porter Scott represented an employer who fired an accounting manager for good cause. After being fired, the employee stole private company financial records and mailed them to several of the employer's clients and employees with a cover letter that wrongfully accused the company of having financial difficulties and of stealing client money. Porter Scott was able to immediately have the Superior Court issue a temporary restraining order on the fired employee to prevent her from doing more damage to the company's reputation. Later Porter Scott had a judgment entered against the fired employee to permanently have her not contact the company's clients or employees. She was also compelled to return the stolen computer files.
  
• Obtained summary judgment for school district on claims of defamation arising out of termination of the employee for fraud.
  
• Obtained summary judgment for a University and one of its employee's claims of gender discrimination and gender harassment. Affirmed on appeal.
  
• Obtained summary judgment for school district after a teacher sued claiming that he was harassed by his third grade students. The teacher also claimed his termination for poor performance was retaliatory.
  
• Successfully consulted with Bay Area non-profit organization on a series of multi-employee terminations for misconduct, and later a large reduction in force based on California budget cuts.  Minimized risk and avoided employment claims from both.
  
• Successfully represented a healthcare employer in alleged disability discrimination case.  Case was resolved at mediation for a nominal amount after Plaintiff had initially demanded over $1.5 million dollars.
  
• Obtained a favorable outcome at mediation for the employer in a case involving allegations of race discrimination and retaliation.  Plaintiff had multiple outstanding workers’ compensation claims in addition to the civil suit.  A global agreement was reached at mediation which resolved both the civil and workers’ compensation claims.
  
• Successfully represented individually named defendant in harassment and hostile work environment action brought against the employer and several of its employees.  Obtained a complete dismissal with prejudice for the defendant at outset of case.
  
• Summary judgment granted on behalf of a county employer in a race discrimination, retaliation, and defamation case.  The plaintiff social worker was terminated for performance reasons following her involvement in a highly publicized case involving the death of a toddler.  The court disposed of all of her claims, finding that the county employer had demonstrated legitimate, non-discriminatory and non-retaliatory reasons for its decision to terminate her. 
  
• Represented state agency in high-profile employment matter involving termination of former executive director.  Through summary judgment, obtained dismissal of all civil rights claims against the individual board members of state agency, affirming principle that public employees are not protected by the First Amendment when they speak as part of their official duties, even when testifying in an unrelated criminal matter. Successfully obtained summary judgment in favor of agency on plaintiff’s fair employment and housing claim, wrongful termination claim, and pay-discrimination claim.
  
• Won two motions for summary adjudication for an employer on race, national origin, and retaliation claims arising out of a researcher’s denial of a promotion at a major university.  The plaintiff brought claims for both disparate treatment-type and disparate impact-type discrimination.  In ruling on the first motion for summary adjudication, the court found no evidence of intentional discrimination or retaliation.  After consulting with and retaining a statistical expert, Porter Scott won the second motion for summary adjudication which addressed the disparate impact-type discrimination claim.  Combined, these motions resolved the entire case in the university’s favor.