Glenn Danas

When the U.S. Supreme Court handed down the landmark Concepcion opinion in April 2011, the prospect of bucking mandatory arbitration clauses in employment contracts tended to be viewed as an uphill battle.

"A lot of plaintiff attorneys seemed to be throwing in the towel," Danas said. "It looked bleak." AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, 131 S. Ct. 1740.

Yet Danas managed to secure a victory three months later when the 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled that workers can't be forced to give up their right to enforce wage-and-hour laws under the Private Attorney General's Act, or PAGA. Brown v. Ralphs Grocery Co., 197 Cal. App. 4th 197 (2011).

The ruling, Danas said, was the first post-Concepcion appellate case to place limitations on the Supreme Court's ruling, which allowed businesses to avoid class and representative actions through the use of mandatory arbitration clauses and collective action waivers.

Danas successfully argued that PAGA involves law enforcement actions, not private lawsuits in the normal sense.

"The state of California was not a party to my client's arbitration agreement," Danas said. "So it's unfair to force them into something they had nothing to do with."

Especially gratifying for Danas was that both the state Supreme Court and the nation's high court chose not to review the decision.

"It was a pleasant surprise," he said. "By not granting cert or otherwise interfering, the courts were saying, 'We agree. There is something fundamentally different about public rights.'"

Enforcing the PAGA waiver would have caused his client's PAGA claims "to go up in a cloud of smoke" as a mandatory condition for working at Ralphs," Danas said.

Now, in light of the ruling, he added, "Substantive rights won't be eviscerated. We think it's been very influential."

Another of Danas' significant matters is a closely watched wage and hour class action and PAGA suit originally filed in 2006. Iskanian v. CLS Transportation Los Angeles LLC 206 Cal.App.4th 949 (2012); S204032 (review granted Sept. 19, 2012).

The state Supreme Court has granted review of the case and will be considering several issues that Danas said he believes are the most significant regarding the enforceability of mandatory arbitration provisions in employment class actions.

"Whether employers can simply write themselves out of liability for labor code violations will be decided there," Danas said.

- PAT BRODERICK