Cole Lewis
Associate
Cole Lewis is an associate in the Labor & Employment Department.
Cole graduated from UCLA School of Law, where he worked as a law clerk for Public Counsel of Los Angeles and advocated for benefit recipients in the Department of Public Social Services. He has also previously worked as a summer associate in Proskauer’s Labor & Employment Department.
Prior to law school, Cole received his Bachelor’s degree in Journalism at Indiana University, where he graduated cum laude.
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Five In-Home Supportive Service (“IHSS”) providers filed a class-action lawsuit last month challenging their union’s practice of deducting union dues despite their quitting the union. The workers allege their First Amendment rights are being violated by the union deducting dues from their paychecks and using it to subsidize union speech. Just one year ago, the United … Continue Reading
Earlier this week, three taxpayers sued California Secretary of State Alex Padilla to prevent enforcement of Senate Bill 826. Senate Bill 826, signed into law last year by former Governor Jerry Brown, requires that by the end of 2019, all publicly held foreign or domestic corporations whose principal executive offices are in California shall have … Continue Reading
What used to be a routine request – asking the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for an extension of time when responding to a charge of discrimination or harassment and assuming extra time would be granted – apparently is no longer such an automatic thing. In what may signal a broader shift in policy, the … Continue Reading
We’re delighted to report that we secured two summary judgments in two separate alleged discrimination cases on behalf of a large Southern California hospital in matters that were pending in the Los Angeles Superior Court. In one case, decided on July 12, 2019, the Court agreed with our client that the former employee had failed … Continue Reading
As we have reported before, California is set to become the first state to prohibit employers from discriminating based upon hairstyle. Last week, Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law the “CROWN Act” (Create a Respectful and Open Workplace for Natural Hair). The CROWN Act amends the state’s Education Code and Government Code to define “race … Continue Reading
The 9th Circuit court of appeals has enforced the City of Everett, Washington’s Dress Code Ordinance and amendments to the Lewd Conduct Ordinances. These ordinances require employees of “Quick-Service” facilities to cover “minimum body areas” (the dress code ordinance specifically stated that it was targeting an apparent influx of “bikini barista stands”). The owner of … Continue Reading
In a decision unsurprising to anyone familiar with what California juries have been up to lately (see our reporting here), fast-food titan Jack in the Box was ordered to pay $15.4 million (including a staggering $10 million in punitive damages) last week in a lawsuit involving age and disability discrimination claims, as well as alleged … Continue Reading
It’s springtime in California! Even as the swallows return to San Juan Capistrano, the California legislature is busy, busy, busy passing 100s of new laws because, after all, you can never get too much of a good thing! Yes, it’s Bill Passing Season in Sacramento again, and the California legislature seems as determined as ever … Continue Reading
A new California bill aims to make it illegal for employers to discriminate against employees based upon their hairstyles. SB 188, also known as the “CROWN Act” (Create a Respectful and Open Workplace for Natural hair), proposes amending the Education Code and Government Code to define “race or ethnicity” as “inclusive of traits historically associated … Continue Reading
Last year, we questioned whether California’s new restrictions on independent contractors would apply retroactively. Yesterday, the Ninth Circuit decided in Vazquez v. Jan-Pro Franchising Int’l, 2019 WL 1945001 (9th Cir. 2019), that the landmark ruling in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court should be applied retroactively. The new test established in Dynamex upended the Borello test, … Continue Reading
For the second time this calendar year, a Los Angeles jury ordered an employer to pay $11 million to an employee who claimed to have been sexually harassed. And, once again, the amount of punitive damages ($8 million) dwarfed the amount of compensatory damages ($3.1 million) by a margin of more than two-to-one. On Friday, … Continue Reading
On Tuesday, April 16, 1-2 pm PDT, Tony Oncidi will be joining the Employment Roundtable of Southern California (ERTSC) and presenting the webinar, A Quick Legal Update of New Employment Laws and Cases. The New Year rang in nearly twenty new employment laws. 2018 and 2019 have produced dozens and dozens of significant employment cases. … Continue Reading
Just another day in paradise in Los Angeles… Unless you happen to be an employer. Continuing the recent spate of multi-million dollar verdicts, an LA jury awarded a former police officer $7 million on her sex discrimination claim. Lili Hadsell, a former police chief for the City of Baldwin Park, alleged that she was subjected … Continue Reading
There they go again! As we predicted last November, the California legislature is once again trying to outlaw arbitration agreements between employers and employees. Former Gov. Jerry Brown routinely vetoed similar bills that sought to prohibit arbitration of employment disputes on the anodyne ground that such legislation unquestionably conflicts with and is preempted by federal … Continue Reading
The current landscape in the #MeToo Era has heightened the need for leaders at every business organization to ensure that sound and strategically aligned practices for preventing, receiving, and responding to harassment, discrimination and other workplace related claims are in place. Proskauer has just released its findings from a broad-based survey of employers around the … Continue Reading
The Los Angeles Times published a piece addressing the recent and abrupt change in the rules for determining who is and who is not an independent contractor in California. As is so often the case, there are many unanticipated consequences associated with these new rules. Read the full piece here: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-dynamex-contractors-20190223-story.html… Continue Reading
Proving it still is possible to obtain a favorable jury verdict in California (see contrary evidence), a federal jury sided with Chipotle Mexican Grill last Wednesday in a case involving disability discrimination claims by former assistant store manager, Lucia Cortez. Cortez alleged she suffered a miscarriage at work after years of trying to get pregnant, … Continue Reading
We have reported before about the huge jury verdicts that get handed out in California with alarming regularity and California’s sustained #1 ranking as the “Top Judicial Hellhole” in the nation. A corollary problem continues unabated: The prevalence of class actions and lawsuits under the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA). Though California accounts for 12% … Continue Reading
The California Court of Appeal affirmed dismissal of a former freelancer’s defamation and employment-related claims against the Times. Frederick Theodore Rall III, a political cartoonist and blogger for the paper, brought claims for defamation, wrongful termination, intentional infliction of emotion distress, and retaliation, among others, stemming from the Times’ decision to disassociate itself with Rall … Continue Reading
A Los Angeles jury awarded more than $11 million to two former employees who claimed they were sexually harassed and retaliated against for complaining about the harassment. Megan Meadowcroft and Amber Brown, who worked at the Keyways Vineyard and Winery in Temecula, California, alleged they had been harassed by the general manager, Carlos Pineiro. Meadowcroft … Continue Reading
The American Tort Reform Foundation has just released its annual report on “Judicial Hellholes.” The Report claims that in California, the legislature and courts “extend liability at almost every given opportunity,” including fostering “no-injury” litigation in the form of class action and PAGA (Private Attorneys General Act) lawsuits in the workplace. California takes the number … Continue Reading
A small business owner wrote an op-ed piece for the Los Angeles Times, explaining how the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) hurts employees as well as employers – and primarily benefits lawyers. He uses his own experience defending such a case to demonstrate how PAGA is forcing him to operate his business in a way … Continue Reading
If you haven’t ridden one yet, it’s likely you’ve had one fly by you on the sidewalk. Electric scooters – or e-scooters – have quickly descended upon most major cities in America. These app-based scooters let a user ride across the city at up to 15 m.p.h. and then discard the scooter wherever the rider happens … Continue Reading
After Jerry Brown’s second set of 8 years in office (1975-83 and 2011-19), employers now look to Governor-Elect Gavin Newsom for what’s in store for them in the Golden State. (Although Jerry Brown wasn’t a particularly good friend of employers, he often was the only friend they had in Sacramento, vetoing some of the more … Continue Reading
Public Employee Union Members Sue Over Forced Dues Payments
By Tony Oncidi and Cole Lewis on Posted in California Labor & Employment Law, Union Issues
California Law Requiring Female Board Members Challenged In Court
By Tony Oncidi and Cole Lewis on Posted in California Labor & Employment Law
EEOC Has Begun Denying Employers’ Requests For Extensions Of Time To Respond To Discrimination Charges
By Tony Oncidi and Cole Lewis on Posted in EEOC
Proskauer Scores Two Summary Judgments for Large Southern California Hospital Within 48 Hours
By Tony Oncidi and Cole Lewis on Posted in California Labor & Employment Law, Discrimination, Retaliation
California Enacts Law Prohibiting Hairstyle Discrimination … with New York and New Jersey Close Behind
By Tony Oncidi, Laura Fant and Cole Lewis on Posted in Discrimination, Harassment, Retaliation
“Bikini Baristas” Ordered to Cover-Up
By Tony Oncidi and Cole Lewis on Posted in California Labor & Employment Law
California Jury Awards $15.4 Million to Former Jack in the Box Employee
By Tony Oncidi and Cole Lewis on Posted in California Labor & Employment Law, Jury verdicts
Ah, It’s Bill Passing Season in California – and No Employer is Safe!
By Tony Oncidi and Cole Lewis on Posted in California Labor & Employment Law, New and Proposed Laws and Legislation
California Bill Aims to Prohibit Employers from Discriminating on Basis of Hairstyle
By Tony Oncidi and Cole Lewis on Posted in Discrimination, New and Proposed Laws and Legislation
9th Circuit Applies Strict Independent Contractor Test, Dynamex, Retroactively
By Tony Oncidi and Cole Lewis on Posted in California Labor & Employment Law, Independent Contractors
California Jury Awards $11 Million In Latest Blockbuster Sexual Harassment Verdict
By Tony Oncidi and Cole Lewis on Posted in #MeToo, Jury verdicts, Sexual Harassment
Tune in to the Webinar Today: Employment Roundtable of Southern California
By Tony Oncidi and Cole Lewis on Posted in California Labor & Employment Law
City of Baldwin Park Hit with $7 Million Sex Discrimination Verdict
By Tony Oncidi and Cole Lewis on Posted in Discrimination, Verdict
California Legislature Tries Yet Again to Outlaw Arbitration Agreements…
By Tony Oncidi and Cole Lewis on Posted in Arbitration Agreements
Proskauer Releases New Survey of Workplace Issues in the #MeToo Era
By Tony Oncidi and Cole Lewis on Posted in #MeToo, Discrimination, Sexual Harassment
Are You an Employee or a Contractor? Carpenters, Strippers and Dog Walkers Now Face that Question (Los Angeles Times Piece)
By Tony Oncidi and Cole Lewis on Posted in California Labor & Employment Law, Independent Contractors, Wage and Hour
California Jury Rejects Employee’s Discrimination Claims Against Chipotle
By Tony Oncidi and Cole Lewis on Posted in CFRA, Jury verdicts
California Class Actions and PAGA (“Prettymuch All is Going to the Attorneys”) Claims Continue to Overwhelm the State
By Tony Oncidi and Cole Lewis on Posted in PAGA
LA Times Wins Lawsuit Against Former Freelancer
By Tony Oncidi and Cole Lewis on Posted in Anti-SLAPP, Defamation, Wrongful Termination
A California Jury Strikes Again – Hands Out $11 Million Verdict
By Tony Oncidi and Cole Lewis on Posted in FEHA, Jury verdicts
We’re #1 Again! California Tops “Judicial Hellhole” List!
By Tony Oncidi and Cole Lewis on Posted in Class Actions, PAGA
The Cost of PAGA to Small Businesses (Los Angeles Times op-ed)
By Tony Oncidi and Cole Lewis on Posted in PAGA
The Electric Scooter Craze: What Can Employers Do to Protect Themselves from Potential Liability?
By Tony Oncidi and Cole Lewis on Posted in Employee Handbooks, Employment Policies, Workplace Safety
California Has a New Governor – Will it Make Much Difference for Employers?
By Tony Oncidi and Cole Lewis on Posted in Arbitration Agreements, Sexual Harassment
