The Employment Law Summit: Palo Alto

Connie Sardo is Associate General Counsel, Head of Employment and Community at Yelp Inc. Connie began her career at Yelp in 2014 as a litigator. She transitioned to the world of employment law in 2017 and since then has enjoyed partnering closely with Yelp’s executive and People teams to support the company’s global employee base, strategize on company policy, navigate complex and highly sensitive employee relations issues and oversee employment litigation with Yelp’s litigation team, among other responsibilities. She has also supported Yelp’s global Community team throughout her tenure at Yelp, where she advises on issues related to event execution, commercial contracts, privacy, intellectual property and social media best practices.

Prior to joining Yelp, Connie was a litigator at Latham & Watkins. During her time at Latham, she represented numerous technology companies, litigated several multi-billion-dollar cases and served on the firm’s Global Equal Employment Opportunity Review Board and Global Recruiting Committee.

When she’s not lawyering, Connie loves spending time with her husband and young kiddos, visiting wine country and scoping out new restaurants and other local businesses.

Angela brings more than 25 years of transactional, litigation, operations, and compliance experience in a wide range of highly regulated industries. As General Counsel at Wing, she focuses on launching drone delivery in communities around the globe. She has been described as a business-first, collaborative strategist with a track record of leading through complexity and driving transformational agendas.  Prior to Wing, Angela was an Associate General Counsel at Tesla, responsible for global compliance. Angela’s extensive experience also includes serving as the interim General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Atlanta Housing, senior commercial attorney at MCI WorldCom (acquired by Verizon), and senior director of business and legal affairs at Motown Records.

Angela earned a JD from Harvard Law School, MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where she’s now an instructor in the Wharton Communications Program. She has a BS in business from the University of North Carolina, where she was awarded a John Motley Morehead Scholarship, UNC’s most prestigious academic and leadership scholarship.

Elaisha Nandrajog represents employers in a wide range of matters in state and federal court as well as before administrative agencies, providing preventative counsel that helps successfully resolve litigious matters. She has experience defending companies in single-plaintiff and multi-plaintiff cases against claims of wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and failure to accommodate. Her work involves complex wage and hour class actions as well as representative actions brought under California’s Private Attorneys General Act.

In addition to her litigation practice, Elaisha advises employers and managers on hiring, screening, retention, and termination practices as well as various wage and hour compliance issues. She is also involved in the development and review of company policies to identify risk and ensure compliance.

Elaisha also provides due diligence review of target companies in mergers and acquisitions and has conducted internal employment investigations for public and private employers throughout the Bay Area. Her commercial litigation experience includes work on breach of contract, fraud, and unfair competition and interference claims.

Rogers Joseph O’Donnell shareholder Dennis Huie represents and advises employers in connection with wage and hour claims in addition to a wide range of other employment and labor issues impacting his clients and the industries they serve including hospitality, retail and service. He defends employers against lawsuits filed by single and multiple plaintiffs as well as in class actions and other types of representative actions including actions filed under the Private Attorney General Act of 2004. Mr. Huie represents employers in state and federal court and before administrative agencies, such as the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement and the Department of Labor, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Civil Rights Department (fka Department of Fair Employment and Housing). He speaks on these issues at conferences for attorneys, business owners, human resource professionals and risk managers.

Andrew Shalauta is a partner with over 15 years of experience in practicing employment law and specializes in labor and employment litigation, and advice and counsel, for private employers, public entities, and educational institutions. Andrew focuses his practice on providing legal counsel to all levels of company management, board of directors, and training for supervisors relating to compliance with state and federal laws concerning employment, advising on company policies to reduce the risk of litigation, providing solutions for best employment practices in the workplace, and representing employers in all aspects of employment litigation. Andrew defends employers against individual lawsuits, multi-party and collective actions, as well as numerous class actions involving complex employment law claims.

Vincent R. Fisher serves as Co-Leader of the Class and Collective Action Practice Group in O’Hagan Meyer’s San Francisco office. Mr. Fisher is considered a thought leader and a masterful litigator in the wage-and-hour litigation sphere. His experience includes “bet the business” nationwide collective actions and class actions presenting novel issues of first impression. He has shaped and executed successful trial strategies across a broad range of industries and settings, including complex litigation featuring unionized workforces as well as sensitive litigation implicating national security. Before law school, Mr. Fisher served in the United States Marine Corps. He is a veteran of the Iraq campaign. Outside the law, he enjoys Crossfit as well as spending time with his wife and three sons.

Rina Wang advises on a broad portfolio of legal matters as Senior Counsel at Peet’s Coffee. Since 2019, she has also trained companies on best practices for managing within the law and respectful workplaces. She previously worked as general counsel of a global software company, where she settled a federal misappropriation of trade secrets case against a former employee.

Jennifer Coleman is a trial lawyer with an active practice in intellectual property, labor and employment, and complex litigation cases. Her experience includes patent damages, trade secret misappropriation, remediation, single plaintiff and class action wage and hour controversies, unfair competition and employee mobility matters.

Jen also handles employment disputes involving claims of wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, and retaliation; leaves of absences; employment policies and procedures; employee discipline; hiring practices; workplace violence; and fraud relating to complex financial transactions. She regularly advises and counsels employers of all sizes on various day-to-day legal issues.

Morgan Taylor is a Partner in the San Francisco office and heads the Mintz Group’s Executive Diligence practice. She specializes in managing cross-border investigations into potential partners, transaction targets and executive or board placements to support pre-deal and pre-hire due diligence. She also oversees investigations for law firms and employers related to issues such as employment disputes, fraud investigations and allegations of workplace misconduct.

Prior to joining the Mintz Group in 2014, Morgan worked for a start-up due diligence firm, where she conducted investigations for private and public sector clients in dispute-related cases, including international asset tracing and link analysis to uncover fraud. She is also an experienced researcher, with a focus on financial crimes, anti-money laundering, counterterrorism and Middle East history and politics.

Morgan has an M.A. in Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies and a B.A. from the University of Colorado at Boulder in International Affairs.

Jennifer Coleman is a trial lawyer with an active practice in intellectual property, labor and employment, and complex litigation cases. Her experience includes patent damages, trade secret misappropriation, remediation, single plaintiff and class action wage and hour controversies, unfair competition and employee mobility matters.

Jen also handles employment disputes involving claims of wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, and retaliation; leaves of absences; employment policies and procedures; employee discipline; hiring practices; workplace violence; and fraud relating to complex financial transactions. She regularly advises and counsels employers of all sizes on various day-to-day legal issues.

Elaisha Nandrajog represents employers in a wide range of matters in state and federal court as well as before administrative agencies, providing preventative counsel that helps successfully resolve litigious matters. She has experience defending companies in single-plaintiff and multi-plaintiff cases against claims of wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and failure to accommodate. Her work involves complex wage and hour class actions as well as representative actions brought under California’s Private Attorneys General Act.

In addition to her litigation practice, Elaisha advises employers and managers on hiring, screening, retention, and termination practices as well as various wage and hour compliance issues. She is also involved in the development and review of company policies to identify risk and ensure compliance.

Elaisha also provides due diligence review of target companies in mergers and acquisitions and has conducted internal employment investigations for public and private employers throughout the Bay Area. Her commercial litigation experience includes work on breach of contract, fraud, and unfair competition and interference claims.

Rogers Joseph O’Donnell shareholder Dennis Huie represents and advises employers in connection with wage and hour claims in addition to a wide range of other employment and labor issues impacting his clients and the industries they serve including hospitality, retail and service. He defends employers against lawsuits filed by single and multiple plaintiffs as well as in class actions and other types of representative actions including actions filed under the Private Attorney General Act of 2004. Mr. Huie represents employers in state and federal court and before administrative agencies, such as the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement and the Department of Labor, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Civil Rights Department (fka Department of Fair Employment and Housing). He speaks on these issues at conferences for attorneys, business owners, human resource professionals and risk managers.

Vincent R. Fisher serves as Co-Leader of the Class and Collective Action Practice Group in O’Hagan Meyer’s San Francisco office. Mr. Fisher is considered a thought leader and a masterful litigator in the wage-and-hour litigation sphere. His experience includes “bet the business” nationwide collective actions and class actions presenting novel issues of first impression. He has shaped and executed successful trial strategies across a broad range of industries and settings, including complex litigation featuring unionized workforces as well as sensitive litigation implicating national security. Before law school, Mr. Fisher served in the United States Marine Corps. He is a veteran of the Iraq campaign. Outside the law, he enjoys Crossfit as well as spending time with his wife and three sons.

Andrew Shalauta is a partner with over 15 years of experience in practicing employment law and specializes in labor and employment litigation, and advice and counsel, for private employers, public entities, and educational institutions. Andrew focuses his practice on providing legal counsel to all levels of company management, board of directors, and training for supervisors relating to compliance with state and federal laws concerning employment, advising on company policies to reduce the risk of litigation, providing solutions for best employment practices in the workplace, and representing employers in all aspects of employment litigation. Andrew defends employers against individual lawsuits, multi-party and collective actions, as well as numerous class actions involving complex employment law claims.