Cheryl D. Orr

Orr forges long relationships with clients that trust her perspective on preventing litigation when possible and fighting it when necessary. In recent years she has handled putative class actions against CorePower Yoga LLC, Kaplan International North America LLC, Postmates Inc. and Urban Outfitters Inc.

Obviously those are cases that made their way into the courtroom but Orr has even more work behind the scenes advising undisclosed clients on internal policies and rapidly evolving areas of the law, such as helping gig economy companies predict how agencies like the California Economic Development Department will define independent contractors in the context of new business models.

She’s also been helping companies adjust to an increase in focus on sexual harassment due to the #MeToo movement.

Orr said industries are seeing more sexual harassment cases across the board.

“There’s a much higher focus on the area and it isn’t a reflection of whether or not a company has been a good citizen or not, it’s just a higher consciousness in our culture,” she said. “Companies of all sizes want to make sure that they are approaching anti-harassment and gender parity correctly.”

Orr audits the human resources processes companies use for responding to internal complaints to limit the ability for those systems to be circumvented.

“We help them take preventative measures so they’re confident they’re doing everything they can.”

The litigator prides herself on the close relationship between her retail industry class action team and their clients but she also knows her opponents well.

When Kaplan International was sued on allegations of underpaying instructors, Orr noticed that plaintiff’s attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan had resolved some similar cases recently.

Orr contended that class certification would be difficult for the plaintiff and the pair were able to reach a settlement before any discovery work had been undertaken. Ridley v. Kaplan International North American LLC, 16-CB02536 (N.D. Cal., filed May 11, 2016).

— Joshua Sebold