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EXPERTISE
Ms. Sayad has over thirty five years of legal experience in government service and private practice. She is a former Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, with extensive civil and criminal trial experience in state and federal courts in California, the District of Columbia and Massachusetts. She is the senior and founding partner of Sayad & Biren in San Francisco. Her extensive legal experience includes representation of employees and employers in a wide variety of employment, discrimination, harassment and compliance matters, including white-collar criminal defense representation, in California, Massachusettes, & the District of Columbia. She is an experienced mediator and highly regarded as an effective mediator in the employment arena. Ms. Sayad lectures widely in the area of employment and discrimination law both to legal and law audiences and has appeared on television talk shows and radio.
In 1987, in a case that was widely reported in the local and national press, Ms. Sayad obtained the highest jury verdict at that time in San Francisco Superior Court, in a single plaintiff wrongful termination case on behalf of her client in Carolyn Gardner v. Charles Schwab & Co.
Ms. Sayad was the individual responsible for opening the Olympic Club to women, being the first woman to apply for membership and then actively being involved in the litigation that eventually resulted in the Club admitting women as full voting members.
Besides her broad-based employment, discrimination and white-collar criminal defense litigation practice, Ms. Sayad also counsels and advises employees, corporations and start ups on wage and hour issues, discrimination, wrongful termination, privacy and unfair competition issues, discipline and termination, drafts employment contracts, independent contractor agreements and severance agreements, conducts harassment and misconduct investigations, for example.
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
Ms. Sayad is admitted to practice in the state and federal courts of California, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia and before the United States Supreme Court. She is a member of the State Bar of California, Labor & Employment Law Section, the Bar Association of San Francisco and the National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA).
Ms. Sayad is the co-author of a newly published CEB treatise on Employment Damages and Remedies, May 2012.
SELECTED SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
"Avoiding and Defending Disability Discrimination Claims Under Federal and State Law," Association of Defense Counsel of Northern California & Nevada Annual Conference, Speaker, December 6, 2012.
"Legal Considerations in Reductions in Force," Nonprofits' Insurance Alliance of California, Annual Conference, Panel Member, May 14, 2009
Interview on MarketWatch.com/WSJ.com on COBRA Health Care Benefits for Terminated Employees under the 2009 Stimulus Package (March 30, 2009)
"Sex Discrimination and Law: The Role of Women in the Workplace," and "Sex, Law and the Workplace," Yale University, Guest Speaker, February 19-20, 2007
"How to Protect Yourself as an Employee if Your Company Is Facing an Impending Merger or Acquisition" Healthcare Business Woman's Association Panel Member, September 27, 2006.
"The Most Common Mistakes Lawyers Make in Mediation" Marin County Bar Association, Employment and Labor Law Section Speaker, September 21, 2006.
"Racial Diversity in the Legal Profession" Continuing Education of the Bar, Panel Member, August 21, 2000.
"Development in Employment Law as We Approach the Millennium: What Attorneys Need to Know in Advising Their Clients: What Employers Need to Do: What Employees Need to Know" September 23, 1999. San Mateo County Bar Association Luncheon Speaker.
"Sexual Harassment 101: A Primer On How to Work Comfortably in the Workspace." Coalition of Adequate School Housing Conference, Speaker, Sacramento, CA; February 25, 1997.
"Elimination of Bias," Panel Member, Practicing Law Institute, December, 1995
"Discrimination in the Workplace" and "Private Club Discrimination." Frequent Guest Speaker. "Nightbeat," KCBS (Radio), 1987-1994.
"Power: Women in the Workplace:" Keynote Speaker, University Club, November 1994.
"Does Workers Compensation Insurance Cover Wrongful Termination Suits" Panel Member, The Bar Association of San Francisco, November 1993.
"Private Club Discrimination." Guest, "People Are Talking" KPIX (Television), 1990.
SELECTED PRESS REFERENCES
"Clinton Golfed at Exclusive Bay Club," San Francisco Chronicle, March 14, 1996.
"Sexual Harassment Message Often Unheeded, Many Women Contend," Los Angeles Times, September 12, 1996.
Marcia Chamber, The Unplayable Lie, The Untold Story of Women and Discrimination in American Golf, NYT Special Services, Inc. 1995.
"You Can Bank On It," California Lawyer, March 1994.
"Poster Girl for the Club," San Francisco Daily Journal, July 19, 1994.
"The New Frontier," California Business Law, May 17, 1993.
"Women Praise Olympic Club," San Francisco Examiner Sports Section, October 24, 1993.
"Profile of a Woman Who Wants to Join an All-Male Bastion." San Francisco Examiner, December 13, 1990.
"Ex Schwab Employee Wins," The Recorder, September 14, 1987 and related articles in the San Francisco Chronicle (Herb Caen), San Francisco Examiner, Investor's Daily on the largest single jury verdict in a wrongful termination case (tried by Ms. Sayad).
EDUCATION
Ms. Sayad received an A.B. degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1970 in political science and a J.D. from the University of Notre Dame School of Law in 1973, where she was a Director of the Notre Dame Legal Aid Association.
Ms. Sayad has received an AV rating from Martindale-Hubbell and is listed in the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers.
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