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.

Golden Gate Restaurant Ass’n v. City & County of San Francisco, 512 F.3d 1112 (9th Cir. 2008)

In 2006, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed and the mayor signed into law the San Francisco Health Care Security Ordinance which, among other things, requires employers with more than 20 employees to make healthcare expenditures on behalf of their employees. The ordinance was scheduled to go

Ross v. Ragingwire Telecommunications, Inc., 42 Cal. 4th 920 (2008)

In accordance with the Compassionate Use Act of 1996 (Proposition 215), Gary Ross had a physician’s recommendation to use marijuana for his chronic back pain. Ragingwire offered Ross a job as a lead systems administrator subject to his passing a drug test, which he failed when he tested positive for THC (the active chemical

Mokler v. County of Orange, 157 Cal. App. 4th 121 (2007)

Pamela Mokler was employed as the executive director of the County’s Office on Aging (“OoA”). Following her termination, she sued the County for breach of contract, wrongful termination, hostile work environment and unlawful retaliation under Labor Code § 1102.5 (the “whistleblower statute”). The jury awarded Mokler $14,089.60 in past economic damages and $1,681,823

Wysinger v. Automobile Club of S. Cal., 157 Cal. App. 4th 413 (2007)

Guy Wysinger, a former district manager for ACSC’s Santa Barbara office, filed a complaint with the EEOC in 1999 in which he alleged that ACSC had discriminated against him on the basis of his age. Thereafter, Wysinger’s work environment changed – he was no longer invited to be on management committees

Gattuso v. Harte-Hanks Shoppers, Inc., 42 Cal. 4th 554 (2007)

Frank Gattuso is an outside sales representative for Harte-Hanks, a California corporation that prepares and distributes advertising booklets and leaflets, including the PennySaver and the California Shopper. Rather than separately reimburse outside sales representatives for their automobile expenses, Harte-Hanks paid them higher salaries and commissions than it paid its inside sales representatives. Gattuso and

Gonzalez v. Beck, 158 Cal. App. 4th 598 (2007)

Josepha Gonzalez worked as a caregiver and housekeeper for the Beck Family. Upon the termination of her employment, she filed a claim for unpaid wages with the California Labor Commissioner. When the Becks failed to answer or appear at the administrative hearing, Gonzalez obtained an award of $70,238.54 (including interest and penalties) from the Commissioner

Bell v. Superior Court, 158 Cal. App. 4th 147 (2007)

Four employees of H.F. Cox Inc. d/b/a Cox Petroleum Transport filed this wage and hour class action challenging their employer’s failure to pay overtime; its requirement of off-the-clock work; its failure to provide meal and rest periods; its incorrect calculation of vacation pay; and its failure to pay pro rata vacation pay upon termination.

Golden Gate Restaurant Ass’n v. City and County of San Francisco, 535 F. Supp. 2d 968 (N.D. Cal. 2007)

In 2006, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed and the Mayor signed into law the San Francisco Health Care Security Ordinance which, among other things, would have required employers with more than 20 employees to make health care expenditures on behalf of their employees.

Vaught v. State, 157 Cal. App. 4th 1538 (2007)

Marck Vaught was employed as a resource ranger for the State. His position required him to be on call “all the time.” As an inducement to accept the position, the State offered Vaught and his wife the use of a residence located in the district in which Vaught worked. Vaught subsequently slipped and fell in

Soremekun v. Thrifty Payless, Inc., 509 F.3d 978 (9th Cir. 2007)

Adediji Adesola Soremekun, who was employed as a pharmacist at Thrifty Payless d/b/a Rite Aid, was subject to a collective bargaining agreement that existed between Rite Aid and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. After resigning his employment, Soremekun filed a lawsuit in which he alleged claims for breach of contract, failure