Curtis A. Graham has extensive experience managing the litigation and resolution of employment disputes and advising clients on a broad spectrum of employment issues.
As a litigator, Curt strategically directs the defense of complex wage and hour class actions, representative actions under the Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA), and single plaintiff cases from their inception through completion via settlement, trial, or appeal. He works collaboratively with clients to accomplish their desired outcomes, and while doing so, Curt has prevailed in jury trials, court trials, and administrative hearings.
As an experienced mediator and trained negotiator, Curt guides pre-litigation conflicts and litigated disputes to resolution in accordance with clients’ goals, in an efficient, pragmatic, and proactive manner.
As an advisor, Curt regularly counsels a diverse group of clients on all aspects of the employment relationship from recruiting to termination and all areas of legal compliance and performance management in between.
Selected Matters
Highlights of Curt’s litigation results include:
- Defeated class certification for a leading global packaging company and utilized motion practice to narrow the case valued at over $10 million down to only two causes of action for one plaintiff for trial.
- Prevailed at trial for a national long-term health care provider in a PAGA case Curt narrowed down prior to trial, at which the Court concluded plaintiff had not established herself as an “aggrieved employee.”
- Defeated class certification for a Fortune 500 company in the title insurance and escrow services industry in a combination of cases with claims valued at over $100 million, for which Curt thereafter obtained an order heavily sanctioning plaintiffs’ multiple law firms and disqualifying them from representation of former and current employees of the companies involved.
- Succeeded with a defense verdict in a federal jury trial for a leading national escrow services provider after Curt was able to narrow the case down to only individual claims from class and PAGA claims.
- Prevailed at jury trial for a regional home health care provider involving claims of retaliation, discrimination, and wrongful termination.
Highlights of Curt’s experience include:
- Defended a leading global warehouse and logistics company against more than 10 overlapping statewide class and PAGA actions involving thousands of employees filed by different counsel over the course of several years by efficiently obtaining a full resolution.
- Defended and successfully resolved two separate massive statewide class actions, each with over 10,000 class members, one against a Fortune 500 company in the insurance industry and the other against a national health care provider.
- Defended five overlapping statewide class and PAGA actions for a leading global transportation and logistics company and guided them to an early combined resolution with all of the plaintiffs’ numerous law firms.
- Defended and resolved various statewide class actions and PAGA actions for national companies in many other industries, including transportation, health care, security services, hospitality, food services, food production, retail, and manufacturing.
- Defended, successfully obtained summary judgment, or resolved with highly favorable results several dozens of single-plaintiff cases involving claims ranging from pre-hire conduct to termination, including failure to hire, disability accommodation, leave of absence and return to work issues, whistleblower protection, employment contracts, commission plans and equity arrangements, reductions in force, and harassment, retaliation, and discrimination allegations of all varieties.