Jennifer serves as managing partner of the Los Angeles office and is a member of Reed Smith’s Labor & Employment group. She also leads the restaurant and food services subgroup for Reed Smith’s Retail Industry group. She provides management side counselling and litigation defense to employers of all sizes, especially those in with a particular focus on retail, food and beverage, transportation and logistics, life sciences, consumer products and tech sectors.
Jennifer has extensive experience as a litigator, seeing cases through verdict, defeating class claims, and achieving summary judgment and is routinely highly effective at mediation. She defends employers in class and PAGA claims alleging failure to pay overtime, report time pay, provide meal and rest breaks, and pay waiting time penalties, among others. She also defends single plaintiff cases involving sexual harassment, discrimination, retaliation, and wrongful termination.
Jennifer counsels in the areas of wage-hour compliance, fair pay, leave laws, reasonable accommodations and the interactive process, and termination. She prepares handbooks and writes policies for employers. Jennifer works closely with her clients in pre-litigation and post-filing investigations of employment-related complaints. She offers an extensive range of best practices trainings to human resources professionals, with a particular emphasis on sexual harassment, the administration of leave laws, reasonable accommodations, gender bias, and diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
Jennifer is a Spanish speaker and can provide investigation and presentation services in both English and Spanish.
