Anthony J. Oncidi

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Los Angeles +1.310.284.5690

Anthony J. Oncidi heads the Labor & Employment Law Group in the 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. Chambers USA reports, “Tony has an outstanding reputation,” and that clients say Tony is “smart, cost effective, appropriately aggressive and generally fabulous.” 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 commentators lauding him as a "phenomenal strategist" and "one of the top employment litigators in the country." He is renowned for his representation of Fortune 500 companies in significant litigation.

Tony is the author of the treatise titled Employment Discrimination Depositions (Juris Pub’g 2013; www.jurispub.com), co-author of Proskauer on Privacy (PLI 2012), 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 also is a regular commentator on employment-related issues for public radio station KALW-FM in San Francisco and has been a featured guest on Fox 11 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, CBS News, 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 Western League of Savings Institutions, 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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Tony has represented employers in many important trial court and appellate cases, including:

Angela Yarbrough v. Paramount Pictures Corporation, 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 v. Mark Bartelstein & Assocs., Inc., 906 F. Supp. 2d 1017 (C.D. Cal 2012) (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 (2012) (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. 2011) (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 (2008) (age discrimination class action)
Alch v. Superior Court, 122 Cal. App. 4th 339 (2004) (age discrimination class action)
Wynn v. NBC, Inc., 234 F. Supp. 2d 1067 (C.D. Cal. 2002) (age discrimination class action)
Aw v. San Gabriel Valley Med. Group, 2001 WL 1515662 (Cal. Ct. App. 2001)
Merrill Lynch v. Chung, 17 I.E.R. Cases (BNA) 912 (C.D. Cal. 2001)
Merrill Lynch v. Garcia, 127 F. Supp. 2d 1305 (C.D. Cal. 2000)
O'Neill v. MCI WorldCom, Inc., 16 I.E.R. Cases (BNA) 800 (C.D. Cal. 2000)
Pearce v. Downey Savings and Loan Ass’n, 7 A.D. Cases (BNA) 992 (S.D. Cal. 1997)
Jenkins v. MCI Telecommunications Corp., 973 F. Supp. 1133 (C.D. Cal. 1997)
Friend v. Sanwa Bank of Cal., 35 F.3d 466 (9th Cir. 1994)
Ohrbach's, Inc. v. California Ins. Guarantee Ass'n, 204 Cal. App. 3d 1089 (1989)

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California Employment Law Update Blog

Stay up to date on California employment law

Edited by Tony Oncidi