Maria C. Rodriguez advises US and international corporations with regard to employment law compliance and mergers and acquisitions; and defends employment cases and class action litigation. She is a trusted advisor to clients helping them avoid or resolve disputes and protect resources through proactive and strategic planning. She is experienced working with clients in the sports, media and entertainment, technology, food and restaurant, airline, transportation and distribution, health care and fashion industries.
She advises on and defends against class, collective, representative and individual claims arising under state and federal employment laws such as the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), the California Family Rights Act (CFRA), and the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA). Her litigation experience includes wage-and-hour, harassment, discrimination, wrongful termination, retaliation, breach of employment contract, unlawful business practices, non-solicitation, trade secrets and other employment-related cases. She has successfully litigated dismissals by way of, early motions to dismiss, summary judgment and leveraging cases early to produce nuisance value resolutions. At trial, she has produced wins in multiple-plaintiff wage-and-hour, retaliation, discrimination, and wrongful termination cases and achieved a defense verdict in a high-profile, eight-week jury trial involving UNRUH civil rights claims brought by 26 plaintiffs against eight defendants.
Maria has extensive knowledge in the complexities involved in doing business in California, across the United States, and abroad, and her fluency in Spanish supports her work with Spanish and Latin America based clients. She defends employers in proceedings before governmental agencies, such as the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, the California Labor Commissioner, the US Department of Labor, the Department of Justice, and city and state government agencies that enforce employment.
More Legal and Business Bylines From Maria C. Rodriguez
- What California’s DOJ Said at the 2024 Antitrust Law Section Spring Meeting - (Posted On Monday, April 29, 2024)
- California Imposes New Workplace Violence Prevention Mandate - (Posted On Tuesday, April 02, 2024)
- Estrada is Not a Death Knell to PAGA Defenses - (Posted On Friday, February 02, 2024)
- A Win for Employers: Ninth Circuit Holds That California AB 51 Prohibiting Mandatory Arbitration Is Pre-empted by the Federal Arbitration Act - (Posted On Tuesday, March 28, 2023)
- California Employers: Your Online Job Advertisements Could Get Your Business in Hot Water - (Posted On Wednesday, October 27, 2021)
- California Employers Must Pay Meal and Rest Break Premiums at a Higher Rate Than the Base Hourly Rate - (Posted On Friday, July 16, 2021)
- New March 2021 Reporting Deadline for California Employers - (Posted On Monday, March 08, 2021)
- President Releases Executive Order Prohibiting Training for Contractors and Federal Grant Recipients - (Posted On Wednesday, September 30, 2020)
- Preparing Your Responses: How to Tackle Opening Day Obstacles - (Posted On Saturday, May 30, 2020)