Cheryl D. Orr

Orr is the elected managing partner of Drinker Biddle’s San Francisco office and chair of the firm’s national labor and employment practice group. “My practice is heavily concentrated in retail, with a great breadth and diversity of clients,” said the 29-year veteran of labor and employment law. “Retailers tend to have a large hourly workforce, so they face large and complex classification issues.”

The issues include off-the-clock claims, suitable seating concerns and bag checks. “Many wage and hour issues hit them very hard, and they can be particularly challenging because with so many retail outlets, you are dealing with many different managers over a wide area,” she said. “That makes it important to conduct extra training and compliance efforts.” Orr does some training herself and guides other clients to perform the work in-house.

Among her clients are CorePower Yoga LLC, BMW of North America LLC, Primanti Corp., Buy Buy Baby Inc., Intellisource LLC, Kaplan Inc., Market Connect Group Inc., Hobby Lobby Stores Inc., Urban Outfitters Inc. and St. Vincent Medical Center.

For a national financial services client, Orr fended off class action claims by current and former client advisers in Nevada for federal and state law fair labor standards statutes regarding overtime pay and failure to timely pay all wages due upon separation of employment. “Our goal is always to get in and get out fast,” Orr said. The plaintiffs filed their case in late 2016. Just weeks later, Orr had filed a motion to dismiss the state law claims, based on arguments they were improperly pleaded. U.S. District Judge Jennifer A. Dorsey of Las Vegas granted the motion in its entirety in March. “Nevada’s statutory scheme does not afford the right to bring a civil suit for violations of these labor laws,” the judge wrote, agreeing with Orr’s analysis.

Orr then negotiated a settlement on the individual claims of the named plaintiff and one other individual subject to the plaintiffs’ agreement to dismiss the entire action. “We now have a fully formed settlement,” Orr said in late June.

“The client was pleased,” Orr said. “It does feel good to get a good result in wage and hour class actions. No in-house lawyer wants to see those come across the desk.”

Orr said she resolves up to a quarter of potential class actions “sooner rather than later.” She credits what she describes as excellent colleagues and clients. “It’s fascinating to work with a great team,” she said.

— John Roemer