Lynne C. Hermle

When it comes to class-action certification, Hermle keeps battling for her corporate clients in cases in which the results can be hard to predict.

Last month, Hermle secured what she considers to be "a very major victory" when U.S. Magistrate Judge Jennifer L. Thurston of the Eastern District of California recommended that class certification be denied in an employment case involving more than 750 assistant store managers at 80 Sears stores throughout California.

They allege that Sears misclassified them as exempt employees and therefore made them unentitled to overtime pay. Casida v. Sears Holdings Corp.,11-CV-01052 (E.D. Cal.).

"We proved that the circumstances were so different that the plaintiff didn't meet the burden to show commonality," Hermle said.

On Aug. 28, Chief Judge Anthony W. Ishii affirmed Thurston's recommendation.

Given the large size of the class and the salaries at issue, Hermle said, "There is a lot of money at stake."

This year, the class certification on another of Hermle's employment cases initially did not go her way.

Computer technicians are alleging violations of wage and hour laws on behalf of a class of several hundred. Schulz v. Qualxserv LLC, 09-17, consolidated with 09-CV-2081 (S.D. Cal.).

"The judge certified all claims," she said. "In my view, it is clearly an abuse of the court's discretion, given the circumstances of the case."Hermle, who is representing co-defendant Worldwide Techservices LLC, won an interim order in April from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to proceed with an appeal of the class certification order.

She said that she was gratified by the order because of the difficult standard she had to meet to allow the interim appeal.

"In these circumstances, the appellate court may agree to accept review either where there is a 'death-knell situation' for the defendant, independent of the merits of the claims, or where the district court's class certification decision is questionable or 'manifestly erroneous,'" she said.

Hermle said that she was impressed that the interim order was signed by Judges Alex Kozinski and Sidney Thomas, who, she noted, "are not always aligned on issues, but who clearly agreed there was a problem with the certification order here."

- PAT BRODERICK