Bruce J. Sarchet has focused his entire legal career on the representation of management in labor and employment law matters.
With energy, enthusiasm, and intense focus, Bruce provides clients with superior quality work and exceptional client service and has earned a reputation as a hands-on problem solver. He crafts practical, real world solutions to workplace problems -- balancing business realities with the need to minimize exposure to litigation.
Bruce has a wide-ranging practice representing private, public and nonprofit entities in all aspects of labor and employment law, including claims of workplace discrimination and harassment, wage and hour compliance, and the National Labor Relations Act.
For unionized employers, Bruce frequently serves as chief spokesperson in collective bargaining negotiations and provides representation in grievances and arbitration hearings. He also represents employers during union organizing drives and unfair labor practice charges under the National Labor Relations Act.
He also serves as the California coordinator and liaison for Littler’s Workplace Policy Institute (WPI). In this capacity, Bruce focuses on California state legislative and regulatory developments in employment and labor law, as well as municipal ordinances and regulation of the workplace. He assists the employer community in understanding and impacting California legislation before it becomes law.
The knowledge which Bruce gains as a bill is working its way through the legislative process then translates into experience which can be used to provide compliance advice to clients once the law becomes effective. In this vein, Bruce has gained extensive experience assisting employers in California with several new laws, adopted in just the past few years, including:
- AB 5 – California’s independent contractor law
- AB 701 – California’s warehouse quota notification law
- SB 93 – California’s “right to recall” law for hospitality industry employees laid off due to COVID
- AB 1963 – California’s “mandated reporter” law for private businesses – requiring reporting of child abuse of minor employees
- California’s “me too” laws limiting confidentiality clauses in employment separation and severance agreements
As a member of WPI, Bruce represents trade associations in bringing constitutional law challenges to overbroad state laws, including a challenge to AB 51 which limits the use of employment arbitration agreements, and a challenge to AB 2455, which provides labor unions access to contact information for home care workers.
Bruce also has provided advice and counsel to businesses in addressing the complex employment law issues presented by the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
From 2005 to 2013, Bruce served on the firm's five-attorney Management Committee, which handles the firm's operations. In this capacity, he oversaw thirteen Littler offices in seven states. Prior to his selection to the Management Committee, he served as the office-managing shareholder for the firm's Sacramento office and served several terms as a member of the firm's Board of Directors.
Prior to attending law school, Bruce was a high school social studies teacher and basketball coach for three years.
