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.

VL Systems, Inc. v. Unisen, Inc., 2007 WL 1807001 (Cal. Ct. App. 2007)

VL Systems (VLS) entered into a computer consulting agreement with Star Trac Strength (a dba of Unisen) whereby Star Trac agreed not to hire any VLS employee for 12 months after the contract’s termination, the breach of which triggered liquidated damages payable to VLS. Within the 12-month period, Star Trac hired

Noyes v. Kelly Services, 2007 WL 1531824 (9th Cir. 2007)

Lynn Noyes alleged that her supervisor, who was a member of a small religious group called the “Fellowship of Friends,” had engaged in “reverse” religious discrimination when he selected another member of the Fellowship instead of Noyes for a promotion. The trial court granted summary judgment to the employer, but the Ninth Circuit Court

King v. United Parcel Serv., 2007 WL 1493316 (Cal. Ct. App. 2007)

Richard King, a supervisorial employee who had worked for UPS for almost 30 years, was terminated for an “integrity violation” involving the falsification of a driver’s timecard. In his lawsuit, King alleged that UPS had terminated him because he was diagnosed with a blood disorder that necessitated his taking a medical leave

Loggins v. Kaiser Permanente Int’l, 2007 WL 1395393 (Cal. Ct. App. 2007)

During her employment with Kaiser, Dianne M. Loggins filed at least four claims alleging race discrimination or retaliation with the EEOC and the DFEH. She also complained to the Human Resources Director that her performance review contained criticisms that had “racial overtones.” Despite her claims of discrimination, Loggins received substantial salary increases

Polone v. CIR, 473 F.3d 1019 (9th Cir. 2007)

Gavin Polone sued his former employer, United Talent Agency, alleging, among other things, wrongful termination and defamation. In settlement of the defamation claim, Polone agreed to accept $4 million in four equal, six-month installments, beginning on May 3, 1996. Congress amended Section 104 of the Internal Revenue Code in August 1996 (after the first but

Parker v. Wolters Kluwer U.S., Inc., 2007 WL 969436 (Cal. Ct. App. 2007)

Leonard O. Parker sued his former employer (WKUS) and three of its employees for various employment-related torts and breaches of contract. WKUS served Parker (who was in pro per throughout the proceedings) with a set of form interrogatories and a set of special interrogatories. Parker served late and inadequate responses then

Reyes v. Van Elk, Ltd., 148 Cal. App. 4th 604 (2007)

Plaintiffs were employed by Van Elk on allegedly public works projects that were subject to California’s prevailing wage law. Van Elk filed a motion for summary judgment on the ground that plaintiffs did not have standing to sue because they were undocumented workers. Plaintiffs’ discovery responses affirmed that they were not born in

Berg v. Traylor, 148 Cal. App. 4th 809 (2007)

Meshiel Cooper Traylor and her minor son Craig Lamar Traylor appealed the judgment confirming an arbitration award in favor of Craig’s former personal manager, Sharyn Berg, for unpaid commissions under an “Artist’s Manager’s Agreement” among Berg, Meshiel and Craig. Meshiel and Berg signed the agreement; Craig, who was 10 years old at the time, did

Andersen v. WCAB, 2007 WL 1153010 (Cal. Ct. App. 2007)

John Andersen, an employee of the City of Santa Barbara, sustained industrial injuries as a result of which he filed a workers’ compensation claim. When the City required Andersen to use his accrued vacation benefits rather than sick leave to obtain medical care for these injuries, he alleged discrimination in violation of Labor Code

CRST Van Expedited v. Werner Enterprises, 479 F.3d 1099 (9th Cir. 2007)

CRST sued Werner Enterprises, claiming Werner had interfered with the employment contracts CRST had with two of its truck drivers whom CRST had trained at its expense. The Ninth Circuit reversed the dismissal of CRST’s contractual interference claim on the ground that CRST had properly alleged the necessary elements of such a