Apalla U. Chopra

Chopra, who chairs her firm's nationwide labor and employment practice, says that while she has handled a wide variety of lawsuits, negotiations and internal investigations for her clients, one of her favorite jobs is consulting with them on their employment policies.

"Correctly designing a workforce that is legally compliant but also ensures a company's ability to efficiently achieve their business goals is both challenging and exciting," she said.

Yet one of her best-known consulting roles nothing to do with "business goals," but instead involves helping colleges and universities deal with sexual assault accusations.

Chopra's work in that field began in November 2014, after an article in Rolling Stone blasted the University of Virginia for allegedly mishandling allegations of a gang rape at a fraternity party.

It soon became clear that both the rape story and charges of university indifference were false. In the meantime, however, Virginia's attorney general hired Chopra as an independent counsel to evaluate UVA's response to sexual assault allegations.

Just a month after Rolling Stone ran the article, Chopra outlined for UVA's board what the university was legally required to do, what it was not allowed to do and areas where "law and guidance is in a state of flux" and where the university could exercise its own discretion.

Within three months, UVA produced a new, including a website where students could anonymously report sexual harassment or assault. Since then, Chopra has consulted with other institutions about handling such charges, including Harvard University, Claremont McKenna College and Occidental College.

In June 2016, the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights closed a three-year investigation at Occidental with the conclusion that the college was "actively engaged in important work" to meet its legal responsibilities for all students. "It was gratifying to work with the college to defend its practices and help them further improve upon their response to sexual assault on campus," Chopra said.

Meanwhile, Chopra continues to defend businesses against wage and hour claims.

Last summer, she blocked a class action that classified sales agents at Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC as employees rather than independent contractors, "which would have had ramifications for the entire industry," she said. In an innovative move after the suit began, she helped the firm issue new independent contractor agreements to its sales workers, including arbitration clauses, which were upheld by the judge. The remaining items in the lawsuit were recently resolved through mediation.

Chopra has also been whittling down a nationwide wave of employment class action cases against DirecTV, winning the dismissal of 299 out of the 300 class action plaintiffs in one group of cases.

Chopra splits her duties as a litigator, negotiator and consultant with her administrative role of running the labor and employment practice, including drumming up new business opportunities. But she says that her leadership and business roles "make me a more well-rounded lawyer and a better litigator."

— Dean Calbreath