Anthony J. Oncidi

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Partner

Los Angeles +1.310.284.5690

Anthony J. Oncidi is the Co-Chair Emeritus of the Labor & Employment Law Department and heads the West Coast Labor & Employment group in the firm’s Los Angeles office.

Tony represents employers and management in all aspects of labor relations and employment law, including litigation and preventive counseling, wage and hour matters, including class actions, wrongful termination, employee discipline, Title VII and the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, executive employment contract disputes, sexual harassment training and investigations, workplace violence, drug testing and privacy issues, Sarbanes-Oxley claims and employee raiding and trade secret protection. A substantial portion of Tony’s practice involves the defense of employers in large class actions, employment discrimination, harassment and wrongful termination litigation in state and federal court as well as arbitration proceedings, including FINRA matters.

Tony is recognized as a leading lawyer by such highly respected publications and organizations as the Los Angeles Daily Journal, The Hollywood Reporter, and Chambers USA, which gives him the highest possible rating (“Band 1”) for Labor & Employment. According to Chambers USA, clients say Tony is "brilliant at what he does… He is even keeled, has a high emotional IQ, is a great legal writer and orator, and never gives up." Other clients report: “Tony has an outstanding reputation” and he is “smart, cost effective and appropriately aggressive.” Tony is hailed as "outstanding,” particularly for his “ability to merge top-shelf lawyerly advice with pragmatic business acumen.” He is highly respected in the industry, with other commentators lauding him as a "phenomenal strategist" and "one of the top employment litigators in the country."

Tony is the author of the treatise titled Employment Discrimination Depositions (Juris Pub’g 2020; www.jurispub.com), co-author of Proskauer on Privacy (PLI 2023), and, since 1990, has been a regular columnist for the official publication of the Labor and Employment Law Section of the State Bar of California and the Los Angeles Daily Journal.

Tony has been a featured guest on Fox 11 News and CBS News in Los Angeles. He has been interviewed and quoted by leading national media outlets such as The National Law Journal, Bloomberg News, The New York Times, and Newsweek and Time magazines. Tony is a frequent speaker on employment law topics for large and small groups of employers and their counsel, including the Society for Human Resource Management ("SHRM"), PIHRA, the National CLE Conference, National Business Institute, the Employment Round Table of Southern California (Board Member), the Council on Education in Management, the Institute for Corporate Counsel, the State Bar of California, the California Continuing Education of the Bar Program and the Los Angeles and Beverly Hills Bar Associations. He has testified as an expert witness regarding wage and hour issues as well as the California Fair Employment and Housing Act and has served as a faculty member of the National Employment Law Institute. He has served as an arbitrator in an employment discrimination matter.

Tony is an appointed Hearing Examiner for the Los Angeles Police Commission Board of Rights and has served as an Adjunct Professor of Law and a guest lecturer at USC Law School and a guest lecturer at UCLA Law School.

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Matters

Tony has represented employers in many important trial court and appellate cases, including:

National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences v. Dugan (The Recording Academy is also known as the GRAMMY Organization) (an ongoing high-profile dispute between the GRAMMY Organization and its former President/CEO Deborah Dugan)
A client in challenging a digital streaming platform for interfering with high-level executive employment contracts
Ben Dogra v. Creative Artists Agency (CAA) (in an ongoing arbitration proceeding against Ben Dogra (a former high-profile NFL agent) related to Dogra’s termination)
Dana J. Tomarken v. National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (aka the GRAMMY Organization), Los Angeles Superior Court (in a now satisfactorily-resolved lawsuit filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court by the former Vice President of MusiCares, Dana Tomarken who claimed that she was fired in retaliation for raising concerns about financial decisions that The Recording Academy’s President and CEO made with respect to the 2018 Grammy Awards.)
Gloria Hernandez v. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center; Helene G. Sakellis v. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, et al. (obtained summary judgment in two separate lawsuits that were pending against CSMC, filed by plaintiffs who asserted various forms of discrimination and retaliation. Obtaining summary judgment in the Los Angeles Superior Court is a very rare occurrence – especially when it is achieved from two separate courts in two different cases filed against the same client.)
Michael Bravo v. NBCUniversal and Fandango Media, LLC, Los Angeles Superior Court (in a discrimination and harassment case that was filed by a former employee. This matter was recently successfully resolved).
Angela Yarbrough v. Paramount Pictures Corp., Los Angeles Superior Court (summary judgment granted on behalf of Paramount Pictures Corporation, resulting in the dismissal of claims for discrimination, constructive discharge and wrongful termination on the basis of race, in their entirety)
Mintz/Creative Artists Agency LLC v. Mark Bartelstein & Assocs., Inc., 906 F. Supp. 2d 1017 (C.D. Cal.) (summary judgment granted as to client’s affirmative claims for invasion of privacy and violation of Cal. Penal Code § 502 as well as to counterclaims for violation of the Uniform Trade Secrets Act, breach of contract, conversion, defamation and related tort claims)
Ruben v. Creative Artists Agency LLC, Los Angeles Superior Court (age discrimination class action dismissed in exchange for our client’s relatively small donation to a non-profit organization – while 22 related class actions against other entertainment industry entities (non-clients) settled for more than $74 million)
Thommeny v. Paramount Pictures Corp., 2011 WL 2899340 (C.D. Cal.) (summary judgment granted in case alleging breach of contract, discrimination and fraud)
Elgin Baylor v. National Basketball Ass'n, Los Angeles Clippers, et al., Los Angeles Superior Court (dismissal at trial obtained in favor of NBA)
Alch v. Superior Court, 165 Cal. App. 4th 1412 (age discrimination class action)
Wynn v. NBC, Inc., 234 F. Supp. 2d 1067 (C.D. Cal.) (age discrimination class action)
Aw v. San Gabriel Valley Med. Group, 2001 WL 1515662 (Cal. Ct. App.)
Merrill Lynch v. Chung, 17 I.E.R. Cases (BNA) 912 (C.D. Cal.)
Merrill Lynch v. Garcia, 127 F. Supp. 2d 1305 (C.D. Cal.)
O'Neill v. MCI WorldCom, Inc., 16 I.E.R. Cases (BNA) 800 (C.D. Cal.)
Pearce v. Downey Savings and Loan Ass’n, 7 A.D. Cases (BNA) 992 (S.D. Cal.)
Jenkins v. MCI Telecommunications Corp., 973 F. Supp. 1133 (C.D. Cal.)
Friend v. Sanwa Bank of Cal., 35 F.3d 466 (9th Cir.)
Ohrbach's, Inc. v. California Ins. Guarantee Ass'n, 204 Cal. App. 3d 1089

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Anthony J. Oncidi

Partner

Los Angeles +1.310.284.5690

Matters

Tony has represented employers in many important trial court and appellate cases, including:

Employer Best Practices in the #MeToo Era

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