McPharlin Sprinkles & Thomas LLP

McPharlin Sprinkles & Thomas LLP provides experienced employment law specialists to counsel clients facing a wide variety of workplace legal issues. Advice regarding legal compliance and rights, contracts, employee manuals, handbooks, training and investigations is readily available. When litigation, arbitration or mediation is necessary, our trial attorneys provide aggressive, practical representation.

We pride ourselves on our ability to combine the quality found in the major business law firms (where our attorneys have practiced) with the personal service and economy of a smaller, specialized practice. In an independent survey of 4000 Bay Area executives and investors, McPharlin Sprinkles & Thomas was voted the best provider of employment law services in the Bay Area, outdistancing the largest Silicon Valley law firms.

Employer/Employee Relations

• Hiring, discipline, and termination
• Employee handbooks
• Negotiation and drafting of employment contracts and severance / settlement agreements
• Proprietary information protection
• Customized training programs (sexual harassment, hiring and firing, leaves of absence, etc.)
• Wage and hour law compliance
• State and federal discrimination law compliance
• Layoffs and plant closings
• Investigations in sexual harassment and other matters
• Workplace violence control and protective orders

Employment Law Counseling (representation of employers and individual employees)

• Advice on legal rights and strategy, pre-litigation
• Negotiation of employment contracts, independent contractor agreements, releases, and other contracts
• Negotiation of settlement agreements

Litigation: in state and federal courts and administrative agencies (representation of employers and/or individual employees; we do not provide services on a contingency fee basis.)

• Discrimination, sexual harassment and retaliation claims
• Employee raiding, unfair competition, customer list and trade secret misappropriation
• Wrongful discharge, public policy, and whistle-blower claims
• Commission, stock option, and other contract claims
• Privacy, emotional distress, employee defalcation, and defamation claims
• Wage and hour claims, including class actions

Examples of Recent Litigation Successes

• Obtained defense jury verdict in sexual harassment retaliation lawsuit brought against a local hospital
• Obtained judgment in favor of client employer in a national origin discrimination, harassment and retaliation lawsuit
• Successfully defended on appeal a favorable jury verdict denying punitive damages against a construction company in a race discrimination lawsuit
• Obtained arbitration decision in favor of client on medical partnership termination and contract claims
• Obtained favorable mediation result for law firm clients in dispute involving distribution of profits and in sexual harassment lawsuit by law firm employee

Publications

• Enhancement of FEHA Attorney's Fees Based on Contingency Risk; Is the Contingency Fee Alone Ever Enough? California Labor & Employment Law Annual Meeting paper, November 2002
• Choosing the Right Mediator, California Labor & Employment Law Quarterly, May 2003
• Layoffs, Terminations & Other Employment Issues Created by the Economic Downturn, California Labor & Employment Law Quarterly, October 2001
• Employment Law Compliance For New Business, Continuing Education of the Bar, 1997; consulting editor
• Defending Sexual Harassment Cases by Controlling Invasive Discovery, Civil Litigation Reporter, Continuing Education of the Bar, 1994
• What Employers Ask Their Lawyers, regular column in the San Jose Mercury News, Business Monday section, 1990's

Clients

McPharlin Sprinkles & Thomas' employment clients are in a range of fields, including high technology, construction, private schooling, restaurant franchising, banking, automobile and other retail sales, and non-profit services.