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Watanabe Employment Law Firm, PLLC
Founding Partner Laura A. Watanabe is a tenacious advocate for her clients. She has more than 25 years of employment litigation and counseling experience, representing and advising companies as well as executives in all aspects of employment law throughout the US and internationally.
A significant portion of her practice focuses on representing high-level professionals in connection with their employment, including negotiation of employment, compensation, and severance agreements. She also regularly counsels executives and companies on all employment law matters, including discrimination, harassment and retaliation claims, disability, FMLA and other leaves of absence, whistleblower claims, unfair business practices, wage and hour issues, restrictive covenants, disciplinary actions, employment and severance agreements, terminations, reductions in force, internal investigations, employee handbooks, and other personnel policies and procedures.
Ms. Watanbe also has an impressive amount of litigation experience, having tried more than fifty jury trials and handled hundreds of arbitrations and administrative matters before city, state and federal agencies and other tribunals. She has been called on to lead numerous complex internal investigations, and also conducts training workshops on matters concerning sexual harassment, employment discrimination, issues facing start-up and emerging growth companies, and compliance with wage and hour laws.
Prior to founding her own law firm, Ms. Watanabe practiced employment law at international and national law firms including Withersworldwide, Morrison & Foerster, and Jackson Lewis. She began her legal career as an Assistant District Attorney. As a Deputy Bureau Chief in the Kings County District Attorney's Office in Brooklyn, New York, she ran a trial bureau and taught trial practice after having prosecuted high-profile homicide and sex crime cases.
Ms. Watanabe is a member of the New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and California State Bars, and is admitted to practice before the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, the United States District Courts for the Northern and Central Districts of California, and before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Ms. Watanbe also has an impressive amount of litigation experience, having tried more than fifty jury trials and handled hundreds of arbitrations and administrative matters before city, state and federal agencies and other tribunals. She has been called on to lead numerous complex internal investigations, and also conducts training workshops on matters concerning sexual harassment, employment discrimination, issues facing start-up and emerging growth companies, and compliance with wage and hour laws.
Prior to founding her own law firm, Ms. Watanabe practiced employment law at international and national law firms including Withersworldwide, Morrison & Foerster, and Jackson Lewis. She began her legal career as an Assistant District Attorney. As a Deputy Bureau Chief in the Kings County District Attorney's Office in Brooklyn, New York, she ran a trial bureau and taught trial practice after having prosecuted high-profile homicide and sex crime cases.
Ms. Watanabe is a member of the New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and California State Bars, and is admitted to practice before the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, the United States District Courts for the Northern and Central Districts of California, and before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.