Photo of Tony Oncidi

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 JournalThe 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 JournalBloomberg 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.

United Parcel Serv., Inc. v. Superior Court, 192 Cal. App. 4th 1043 (2011)

Pursuant to Labor Code § 226.7(b), “[i]f an employer fails to provide an employee a meal period or rest period… the employer shall pay the employee one additional hour of pay at the employee’s regular rate of compensation for each work day that the meal or rest period is not provided.”

Collins v. Gee West Seattle LLC, 631 F.3d 1001 (9th Cir. 2011)

On September 26, 2007, Gee West informed its 150 employees that although it was actively pursuing the sale of the business, it would be closing its doors and would terminate all but a few business office employees on October 7, 2007 if a buyer was not found by then. Between the time

Lopez v. Pacific Maritime Ass’n, 636 F.3d 1197 (2011)

When Santiago Lopez first applied to be a longshoreman in 1997, his application was rejected because he tested positive for marijuana. The PMA, which represents the shipping lines, stevedore companies and terminal operators that run the ports along the west coast, follows a “one-strike rule,” which eliminates from consideration for employment any applicant who tests

Dawson v. Entek Int’l, 630 F.3d 928 (9th Cir. 2011)

Shane Dawson, a former temporary production line worker for Entek, ran a production line that rolled up battery separators. Dawson, who is gay, worked with 24 other male employees. Dawson’s employment was terminated two days after he had complained to human resources that he was being called “a homo and a fag and a

Angelotti v. The Walt Disney Co., 192 Cal. App. 4th 1394 (2011)

Anthony Angelotti was injured while rehearsing a stunt for a film that was being produced by Second Mate Productions, Inc. Angelotti sued Second Mate as well as The Walt Disney Company, which provided the financing for the film. Angelotti alleged that Disney had assumed a duty to ensure that the production complied

Trovato v. Beckman Coulter, Inc., 192 Cal. App. 4th 319 (2011)

Irene Trovato, who was employed as a sales representative for Beckman Coulter, submitted a letter of resignation on May 14, 2007, with an effective date of May 25, 2007. On May 8, 2008, Trovato filed an administrative complaint against Beckman and her former supervisor, Michael Allyn. On May 22, 2008, Trovato sued Beckman

Staub v. Proctor Hosp., 562 U.S. ___, 131 S. Ct. 1186 (2011)

Vincent Staub, a former angiography technician for Proctor Hospital, was a member of the United States Army Reserve. Staub alleged that his employment was terminated in violation of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (“USERRA”) because his supervisor (Janice Mulally) and her supervisor (Michael Korenchuk) were hostile to

Thompson v. North Am. Stainless, LP, 562 U.S. ___, 131 S. Ct. 863 (2011)

Eric Thompson and his fiancée, Miriam Regalado, were both employees of North American Stainless (“NAS”). Three weeks after Regalado filed a charge with the EEOC against NAS, alleging sex discrimination, NAS fired Thompson. Thompson subsequently filed a lawsuit against NAS, claiming the company had fired him in order to retaliate

Holmes v. Petrovich Dev. Co., 191 Cal. App. 4th 1047 (2011)

Gina Holmes sued her employer for harassment based on pregnancy, retaliation, constructive discharge, violation of the right to privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The trial court granted summary adjudication to the defendants with respect to the claims for harassment, retaliation and constructive discharge, and a jury decided against Holmes with respect

NASA v. Nelson, 562 U.S. ___, 131 S. Ct. 746 (2011)

Twenty-eight contract employees of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (“JPL”), which is owned by NASA but operated by Cal Tech, had never been subjected to a government background investigation. In 2004, a recommendation of the 9/11 Commission prompted the President to order new, uniform identification standards for federal employees, including contractor employees. The Department of