Maria Z. Stearns

As an employment defense attorney, Stearns sees her role as more than firefighting through litigation. She's a teacher, too, and prides herself on turning lawsuits into learning experiences.

"California's a really hard place to be an employer," Stearns said. "I like the teaching part of my job and trying to help the employer proactively manage this really difficult landscape."

Stearns helps companies facing wage-and-hour audits, and she works to help her clients avoid lawsuits before they're filed. She also boasts a long resume of defensive wins, including the dismissal of a wage-and-hour class action involving security guards at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival and a settlement on behalf of El Pollo Loco Inc. that paid restaurant vouchers instead of cash to the plaintiff class of more than 3,400 employees at 52 franchises.

She secured individual settlement agreements this year in a class action against Lazy Dog Restaurant & Bar, using the so-called Pick-Up Stix strategy established in Chindarah v. Pick-Up Stix Inc., 171 Cal. App.4th 796 (2009) to draft offers that have been accepted by at least 150 of the 179 class members. Opposing counsel sought emergency relief from the court "to stop what we were doing," Stearns said, which a judge denied.

Stearns has used the strategy in other cases, including in securing settlements in a case with more than 500 class members.

"If you're going to spend money defending a case, maybe there's a creative way to make something good out of it and invest back in employees instead of attorneys," Stearns said.

She's finalizing a settlement on behalf of SWH Mimi's Cafe LLC in three wage-and-hour class actions that will cost the company $1.08 million for a 21,000-employee class, about half of that cash.

"Litigation and sometime frivolous lawsuits are just part of the framework here," Stearns said. "What I try to do with my clients is use the lawsuits as an opportunity for them to learn how to be better."

— Meghann M. Cuniff