Photo of Charles O. Thompson

Charles Thompson serves as the Co-Chair of the firm’s Labor & Employment Wage & Hour Class and Collective Action Litigation group. He focuses his practice on employment litigation and counseling representing clients through all phases of Class Actions and Single Plaintiff cases. Charles has wide-ranging experience litigating employment-related issues for public and private companies, having handled over 1,000 employment matters for clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to Silicon Valley startups. He has tried employment, commercial, and professional liability cases to verdict and directed verdict, has litigated and appealed cases from California State Courts to the United States Supreme Court, and is a Fellow of the prestigious College of Labor and Employment Lawyers.

Charles represents employers in wage and hour cases, as well as EEOC class actions, in state and federal courts across the United States and has broad experience appearing before the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, the Employment Development Department, and the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Department of Labor.

In addition to his trial and counseling work, Charles serves as a private and judicial mediator and arbitrator, and has acted as a pro-tem judge upon request of the court. He has broad experience in binding arbitrations and trial. He has taught trial advocacy, diversity, employment and substance abuse to clients and industry organizations.

Throughout his career, Charles has been a champion for diversity and has served on the Executive Committee of the board of Directors for the Justice & Diversity Center of The Bar Association of San Francisco. He actively supports and promotes diversity efforts and collaborates with clients on diversity issues.

On Thursday, October 22, 2020, the California Court of Appeal denied Uber and Lyft’s request to overturn a recent California Superior Court’s preliminary injunction ordering the companies to reclassify their
Continue Reading Driven To The Edge: Saga Of Uber And Lyft Litigation Continues As Court Of Appeal Affirms Order Forcing Driver Reclassification

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


Continue Reading Move Over AB 5, There’s a New Kid on the Block

With California employers now grappling with remote workforces, all the time and effort spent ensuring compliance with sick leave legislation – particularly at the local level – should be re-visited.
Continue Reading Red Sky at Morning: Employers Take Warning; Today’s Forecast: Changing State and Local Sick Leave Mandates in California

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
Continue Reading California Wine Country Pours Out Another Round of Paid Sick Leave Benefits

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