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Tony Oncidi

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Anthony J. Oncidi is the Co-Chair Emeritus of the Labor & Employment Law Department and heads the West Coast Labor & Employment group in the firm’s Los Angeles office.

Tony represents employers and management in all aspects of labor relations and employment law, including litigation and preventive counseling, wage and hour matters, including class actions, wrongful termination, employee discipline, Title VII and the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, executive employment contract disputes, sexual harassment training and investigations, workplace violence, drug testing and privacy issues, Sarbanes-Oxley claims and employee raiding and trade secret protection. A substantial portion of Tony’s practice involves the defense of employers in large class actions, employment discrimination, harassment and wrongful termination litigation in state and federal court as well as arbitration proceedings, including FINRA matters.

Tony is recognized as a leading lawyer by such highly respected publications and organizations as the Los Angeles Daily Journal, The Hollywood Reporter, and Chambers USA, which gives him the highest possible rating (“Band 1”) for Labor & Employment.  According to Chambers USA, clients say Tony is "brilliant at what he does… He is even keeled, has a high emotional IQ, is a great legal writer and orator, and never gives up." Other clients report:  “Tony has an outstanding reputation” and he is “smart, cost effective and appropriately aggressive.” Tony is hailed as "outstanding,” particularly for his “ability to merge top-shelf lawyerly advice with pragmatic business acumen.” He is highly respected in the industry, with other commentators lauding him as a "phenomenal strategist" and "one of the top employment litigators in the country."

“Tony is the author of the treatise titled Employment Discrimination Depositions (Juris Pub’g 2020; www.jurispub.com), co-author of Proskauer on Privacy (PLI 2020), and, since 1990, has been a regular columnist for the official publication of the Labor and Employment Law Section of the State Bar of California and the Los Angeles Daily Journal.

Tony has been a featured guest on Fox 11 News and CBS News in Los Angeles. He has been interviewed and quoted by leading national media outlets such as The National Law Journal, Bloomberg News, The New York Times, and Newsweek and Time magazines. Tony is a frequent speaker on employment law topics for large and small groups of employers and their counsel, including the Society for Human Resource Management ("SHRM"), PIHRA, the National CLE Conference, National Business Institute, the Employment Round Table of Southern California (Board Member), the Council on Education in Management, the Institute for Corporate Counsel, the State Bar of California, the California Continuing Education of the Bar Program and the Los Angeles and Beverly Hills Bar Associations. He has testified as an expert witness regarding wage and hour issues as well as the California Fair Employment and Housing Act and has served as a faculty member of the National Employment Law Institute. He has served as an arbitrator in an employment discrimination matter.

Tony is an appointed Hearing Examiner for the Los Angeles Police Commission Board of Rights and has served as an Adjunct Professor of Law and a guest lecturer at USC Law School and a guest lecturer at UCLA Law School.

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Atlanta Falcons v. WCAB, 114 Cal. App. 5th 1268 (2025)

Wayne Gandy spent 15 years as a professional football player with the NFL. He played with the Los Angeles Rams during the 1994 season before the team moved to St. Louis, but never again played for a California team. Six years after his retirement from the Atlanta Falcons in 2009, Gandy filed a…

Galarsa v. Dolgen Cal., LLC, 115 Cal. App. 5th 1 (2025)

This case involves the (much-litigated) issue currently pending before the California Supreme Court in Leeper v. Shipt, Inc., 107 Cal. App. 5th 1001, rev. granted (2025): Does the version of PAGA in effect from 2016 to mid-2024 authorize an aggrieved employee to bring a PAGA action that seeks recovery of…

Gurganus v. IGS Solutions LLC, 2025 WL 2944090 (Cal. Ct. App. 2025)

Sarah Gurganus sued her former employer (IGS Solutions) for violation of the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), including disability discrimination, wrongful termination and related claims. In response, IGS filed a motion to compel arbitration based upon an arbitration agreement that Gurganus electronically signed approximately five months into her employment with the…

Caldrone v. Circle K Stores, Inc., 2025 WL 2811320 (9th Cir. 2025)

Three former employees of Circle K Stores sued, alleging age discrimination based upon Circle K’s denial of a promotion. The employees alleged that despite their “impressive track records” and indications on their part of interest in promotion, they were not given a chance to apply for the position of West Coast…

Detwiler v. Mid-Columbia Med. Ctr., 2025 WL 2700000 (9th Cir. 2025)

Sherry M. Detwiler worked as a privacy officer and the Director of Health Information for a hospital (Mid-Columbia Medical Center) from September 2020, until her employment was terminated in December 2021. Detwiler is a practicing Christian who believes her body is a “temple of the Holy Spirit” and sincerely believes she has a “religious…

McDoniel v. Kavry Mgmt., LLC, 114 Cal. App. 5th 949 (2025)

Steven McDoniel was employed by Kavry Management as an “assistant grower” at its licensed marijuana growing facility in Adelanto, California. After $70,000 in cash and marijuana were stolen from the storage room, employees were told, “Y’all need to go take a polygraph test.” The polygrapher, Rachel Levy, claimed she would not have…

In recent years, it has become increasingly common for plaintiffs to sue anonymously—while at the same time identifying the defendant(s) by name as well as their alleged acts often in lurid and excruciating detail.  A lawsuit, of course, is nothing more than a series of allegations and is not in and of itself proof of wrongdoing. But that fact offers cold comfort to those defendants…

Just as the deciduous trees turn autumn orange and the pumpkin lattes start sloshing about, our busy-bee lawmakers in Sacramento have unveiled a whole new slate of rules and regulations to further finetune the workplaces of California!  (Perhaps this year, they’ll finally get it “just right”!)

Here’s their latest handiwork:

Summary & Impact on EmployersLaw
Workplace Know Your Rights Act. By February 1, 2026
…

Ah, California: land of Hollywood, high-tech, empty ocean roads, and—all too often these days—eye-popping jury verdicts. Employment litigation in California now rivals the state lottery as a source of multimillion-dollar payouts. We’ve previously reported on some of the more astonishing numbers (see here, here, and here), but they are only the tip of the iceberg.

Recent cases have led to single-plaintiff jury…