CELA VOICE is a project of the California Employment Lawyers Association. Our goal is nothing short of changing the discussion about issues of importance to California employees. Our method is simple. We will amplify the voice of worker advocates on issues that are vital to our economy, our way of life, even our health.
The contributors to the CELA VOICE bring a unique perspective to understanding what is working and, too often, what isn’t working in California workplaces. Because we are attorneys who represent employees in lawsuits, we spend our professional time probing how employment practices and management decisions can go so far awry that loyal employees feel they have no recourse short of the courtroom. Working up our cases often takes us to the top levels of management and always requires us to learn about industry practices. Over time (and many of us have been practicing for decades), we cannot help but recognize the trends.
Why is this perspective needed when plenty of bloggers are already out there ready to offer their opinion on controversies in the workplace? After all, almost anyone who blogs or writes opinion pieces is a worker. The answer is this — very few journalists or bloggers have the depth of access to information and the insider view that we gain every time we take a case on behalf of an employee. (And, let’s face it, journalists can’t put their sources under oath.) That being said, we share the journalists’ fealty to facts. In trial, lawyers are forced to focus on the evidence and drop the speculation. We have tasked our contributors to do the same, so that our readers can count on solid information and evidence-based opinions that should stand the test of cross-examination. Indeed, not all of our contributors share the same perspective on all issues, so what you are reading is not any sort of “party line.”
Which are the industries where sexual harassment is commonplace? How are employers using the “exempt” designation to force their employees regularly to work 80 hours a week without overtime? What is being done to protect farmworkers from exposure to pesticides? When whistleblowers step forward to report illegal practices, what really happens to them? If you want to know the answer to these questions, just ask the lawyers who represented the workers. Or, better yet, subscribe to the CELA VOICE!
About Jean Hyams
Jean K. Hyams is a founding partner of Levy Vinick Burrell Hyams LLP, a Bay Area boutique law firm focused on representing employees in employment disputes. She left a career as a manager in high-tech companies to pursue her dream of becoming a civil rights lawyer. She has been named by Northern California Super Lawyers as one of the Top 50 Women Lawyers in Northern California for the past five years and her firm has been rated one of the Best Law Firms (Tier 1 – Employment Law) by U.S. News and World Report. After almost a quarter-century in practice, she now also serves as a court-appointed and private mediator of employment disputes. Jean is Co-Chair of the CELA VOICE.