Bishop, Paul C.

EXPERTISE

Brenda F. Biren specializes in employment and discrimination law. She has represented both plaintiffs and defendants in employment litigation and has given broad based employment advice and consultation to the firm's individual, corporate and business clients. She has provided personalized attention to these clients, guiding them through all phases of the employment relationship as well as litigation when that has been the result. She has drafted policies and procedures, handled hiring, discipline and termination of employees, negotiation and drafting of severance agreements, executive and other employment contracts, independent contractor agreements and proprietary information agreements. She has advised companies regarding compliance with wage and hour laws and anti-discrimination laws, including compliance with disability laws and state and federal family and medical leave acts. Ms. Biren has also represented individual employees in these areas and in both litigation and pre-litigation settings.

Ms. Biren's litigation experience has been extensive. She has represented both employees and employers in cases involving wrongful termination, discrimination based on age, race, sex, national origin, disability, sexual harassment, retaliation, violation of public policy and related claims. She has provided representation in mediations, arbitrations, and trials, and has tried administrative claims before the California Labor Commissioner, the Department of Fair Employment and Housing and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In 1996, she was co-counsel in a wrongful termination and age discrimination trial in Alameda County Superior Court, Whiting v. Hunter Engineering Co., and received a large jury verdict.

Ms. Biren's clients have included individual employees, including executive and professional employees as well as small and large businesses and corporations.

Ms. Biren is a member of the State Bar of California and the United States District Courts for the Northern and Eastern Districts of California. She is also a member of the National Employment Lawyer's Association. She has served as a Director on the Board of Directors of Mount Zion Health Systems and as a Delegate to the State Bar Convention.

Ms. Biren has chaired symposiums involving legal issues, has spoken on legal issues in the community, including "Hiring and Firing in California. How to do it Right!" for Sterling Education Services (April 2003) and has written articles on employment law, including  "The Fashionable New Torts: Defamation, Invasion of Privacy, and Fraud" in Personnel Law Update (November 1999). She is co-author of Employment Damages and Remedies, Chapter 4, "Remedies Under Antidiscrimination and Other Employee Rights Statutes," Continuing Education of the Bar, May 2012. She was featured on ABC's The View from the Bay, in a segment "Laid off Know your rights. What you need to know if you've been laid off or may be soon," July 2009.  

Ms. Biren received an A.B. degree in Economics (With Highest Honors) from the University of California at Berkeley in 1980 and a J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of Law in 1983. She was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and served as a Judicial Extern to Justice Sidney Feinberg of the California Court of Appeals in 1983.

Ms. Biren has received an AV rating from Martindale-Hubbell and is listed in the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers.