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Vanessa C. Krumbein focuses her practice on providing compliance-related and strategic advice to corporate clients of all sizes on all aspects of employment law. Vanessa is a go-to point of contact for advice on a wide range of workplace issues, including employee performance and discipline, mitigating risk associated with employee terminations, compliance with wage and hour and disability accommodation laws, reorganizations and reductions in force, pay transparency, background checks, paid time off issues, workplace complaints, and a variety of other employment matters. Vanessa also works closely with clients to draft and implement employee handbooks and other personnel policies with the goal of making them easy to understand by employees, provides training on maintaining discrimination and harassment-free workplaces, and conducts investigations to address employee complaints of unfair treatment. Vanessa also has experience working on employment issues unique to clients in the media and entertainment sector.

Vanessa is also a go-to source for creating employment documents of all types (such as employment and independent contractor agreements, arbitration agreements, non-competes, confidential information, and IP protection agreements, commission and bonus agreements, and severance packages), and is regularly engaged to conduct audits of workplace wage and hour practices. Vanessa also handles employment-related issues and diligence in M&A transactions and counsels on post-merger employee integration matters. Vanessa regularly partners with clients and colleagues across the globe.

Vanessa has a considerable litigation background which gives her a unique perspective when counseling clients on employment best practices. Vanessa has experience litigating class actions, single-plaintiff, and multi-party civil cases, representing employers in state and federal court on a wide range of labor and employment matters, including, for example, claims of discrimination, retaliation, harassment, wrongful termination, violations of privacy, violations of leave laws, wage and hour disputes, and in responding to and negotiating resolution of charges filed with administrative agencies.

Last week, San Francisco, Santa Clara and Marin Counties joined several other northern California counties in the less restrictive Orange Tier under California’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy Tier System. Effective March 31, 2021, several other counties, including Alameda, Santa Cruz and the Southern California counties of Los Angeles and Orange, joined them. With this…

Beginning January 1, 2021, California private employers with at least 100 hundred employees and who are required to file annual, federal EEO-1 information will now be required to file a pay data report with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (“DFEH”) on or before March 31, 2021 and each year thereafter. These new…

With the November 3rd election day right around the corner, California employers are reminded that despite the availability of mail-in and early voting options, employers must still comply with California law in providing time off to vote on election day.

California Elections Code section 14000 requires employers to provide employees with sufficient time off…

By now, most California employers have heard of AB 5, which, along with the California Supreme Court decision, Dynamex Operations W. Inc. v. Superior Court, 4 Cal. 5th 903 (2018), has significantly affected the way many companies do business in California. While AB 5 was disruptive, it was also short-lived.

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On August 18, 2020, Sonoma County joined the ranks of ten other California cities and counties that have enacted local supplemental paid sick leave ordinances related to COVID-19.1 The Board of Supervisors voted to approve the Ordinance2 as an urgency ordinance, meaning it became effective immediately and shall sunset on December 31, 2020.…

As employers continue to address the COVID-19 pandemic, they now face a new set of workforce challenges related to extreme weather and wildfires. Both are creating a challenging remote work environment due to: (1) recent evacuations; and (2) heat exposure risks linked to employees now forced to work in their homes with closed windows (and lack of proper air ventilation). Employers should consider preparing themselves for a further reduced workforce caused by such complications.
Continue Reading California Wildfires Increase Employer Concerns

With remote work for adults and online distance learning for students here to stay, it is natural for parents with already demanding workloads to seek the help of others to keep their children busy and focused on learning during an already difficult situation. Many parents are searching for options, including engaging the services of…

Just one week after its release on July 24, California has already issued an updated version of its COVID-19 Employer Playbook for a Safe Reopening, which is intended to offer employers clear and practical guidance on how to safely reopen their businesses during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In the latest update, employers…

Mayor Eric Garcetti signed the City of Los Angeles COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave Ordinance (the Ordinance) into law on April 7. Originally passed by the Los Angeles City Council on March 27, the new Ordinance applies to employers who have at least 500 employees nationwide (i.e., those businesses that had been excluded from the…