Jackson, Matthew T.

Kristin A. Smith has more than eight years of litigation experience. She has handled employment matters from wage and hour cases to discrimination and wrongful termination issues. She has litigated in state and federal employment actions, including claims involving misappropriation of trade secrets, discrimination claims under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, the Family Medical Leave Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, Title VII, and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. Ms. Smith's practice has also included class and collective actions as well as single-plaintiff wage and hour claims under the California Fair Labor Standards Act and the California Labor Code. She has spent considerable time working with electronic discovery and drafting motions for litigation. Ms. Smith has also worked with contract disputes, case negotiation and mediation, drafting employee handbooks, and teaching client courses on workplace sexual harassment. Ms. Smith has been working with Patton ♦ Wolan ♦ Carlise, LLP for less than one year and is dedicated to providing exceptional legal services to the County.

Class and Collective Action Experience:

Ms. Smith has worked on nationwide and state class and collective actions for both large and small clients. She has drafted motions in class actions including an opposition to a motion to compel discovery responses in an overtime class action, a motion for sanctions in a class action regarding paychecks allegedly non-negotiable without discount within the state, and a reply to an opposition to demurrer and a motion to strike plaintiffs' claims in a wage and hour class action litigation. She has assisted in finalizing oppositions to class certification in several state wage and hour class actions.

Representative Experience and Accomplishments:

• Develop and instruct sexual harassment prevention training program and courses.
• Advise clients on issues such as California's sexual harassment training requirements, I-9 employment verification, paid vacations for California exempt employees, the California WARN Act, and out-of-state employment law matters for new business.
• Handle Equal Employment Opportunity Commission administrative charges.
• Litigate non-competition issues.
• Prepare employee handbooks; review, revise, and draft policies for workplace governance.
• Investigate facts and draft declarations in state class and federal collective actions.
• Handle insurance claims and work with insurance carriers in navigating claims and litigation.
• Prepare and respond to numerous discovery requests and draft related motions.
• Work with local counsel in handling national matters.
• Legal research for use in class and collective action proceedings.
• Prepared mediation brief leading to favorable settlement of employee's wage claim.

Pro Bono:

Ms. Smith is extremely committed to pro bono work. She has represented and advised clients on matters such as employee handbooks, student expulsion, bankruptcy, criminal, and family law issues. Ms. Smith also volunteered her time for the Lawyers in the Library and numerous other programs.