Emily J. Henn

Henn is chair of her firm's class action litigation practice group. She said the high-profile 2013 High-Tech Employee Antitrust Litigation over allegations of a Silicon Valley anti-poaching conspiracy has led to significant follow-on claims. "Now come the animators," she said of contentions by animation workers at major Hollywood studios that they too have been victimized by their boss' unlawful bilateral agreements not to solicit each other's employees for potential jobs. Nitsch v. Dreamworks Animation SKG Inc., 5:14-cv-04062 (N.D. Cal., filed Sept. 8, 2014)

Several similar claims are consolidated against other defendants. Henn represents The Walt Disney Co., Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC, Pixar Animation Studios and others. She and a group of prominent colleagues are fighting a grant of class certification by U.S. District Judge Lucy H. Koh with an appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals filed last month.

The suit accuses the defendants to agree in secret not to "cold call" each other's workers and to notify each other when one of their employees applied to the other for a job. According to the complaint, the agreement was established in the 1980s by George Lucas, then of Lucasfilm, and the late Steve Jobs, then head of Pixar. It allegedly deprived thousands of workers, particularly animators and graphic artists, of better wages and opportunities to advance their careers.

The appeal, drafted by Henn, John W. Keker and Robert A. Van Nest of Keker & Van Nest LLP and Theodore J. Boutrous Jr. of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, make it clear the stakes are high. "This closely watched case raises an important question on a recurring issue impacting a wide range of class actions," it begins. "Under what circumstances is class certification appropriate where, as here, all class members' claims are time-barred unless they can establish tolling through fraudulent concealment?" Many of the class members had actual knowledge of their claims years before the complaint was filed, the defense argued.

"These issues do involve the intersection of antitrust and employment law," Henn said. "I've developed a unique expertise in antitrust as it bumps up against other legal disciplines." She said a similar case has arisen in North Carolina involving claims over how universities hire professors from other schools. "I'm behind the scenes in that one. It's very interesting."

— John Roemer