Drew E. Pomerance

Pomerance secured the biggest win of his career this year with a $110 million settlement that stemmed from a precedent-setting state Supreme Court decision.

The co-founding partner at Roxborough, Pomerance, Nye & Adreani LLP represented nearly 14,700 current and former security guards in a class action against employer ABM Security Services. The 12-year-old case culminated in a 5-2 state Supreme Court opinion in December that reversed a 2nd District Court of Appeal decision and held that employers cannot interrupt workers’ rest breaks.

“We always knew that we weren’t going to give up. We had put too much time and effort into it, and we thought we were right. We always thought we were right,” Pomerance said.

The vindicated trial court judge, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge John S. Wiley Jr., approved the freshly brokered $110 settlement in June. He’d awarded $89.7 million when he granted summary judgment in 2012. Augustus et al. v. American Commercial Security Services, BC336416 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed July 12, 2005).

“I think this is about as good as it gets. We are very, very pleased,” Pomerance said, crediting special appellate counsel Jeffrey I. Ehrlich, firm partner Michael B. Adreani and associate Marina N. Vitek.

Pomerance partnered with his UC Berkeley roommate Nick P. Roxborough in 1996. The firm now has four name partners and nine associates. It’s a general business litigation firm that grew up on the employment defense side and now includes plaintiffs’ work.

“We’ve been on both sides of it. That’s why I think we have a pretty good understanding,” he said.

Pomerance plans to continue choosing clients whom he feels have righteous cases.

“I’m at a stage in my career where I feel that I’m fortunate enough I can pick and choose cases that I care about and are interesting to me,” Pomerance said. “I’m going to keep doing that.”

— Meghann M. Cuniff