Apalla U. Chopra

In addition to litigating wage and hour class actions for companies and leading internal investigations at colleges and universities, Chopra sits on O'Melveny & Myers' policy committee, helping to lead and shape its business interests.

"It's part of what I very much enjoy about my practice," Chopra said of her 27-year career at O'Melveny. "Every day, I come into work and I'm excited about what the day holds. And I don't think a lot of people have that."

That enthusiasm and drive is one of the reasons USC tapped Chopra to lead its high-profile investigation into alleged sexual abuses by former school gynecologist George Tyndall.

The investigation is looking into what the university knew about Tyndall's conduct before his firing in 2017. That could go back decades, according to USC records unsealed by a federal judge in May. .

Meanwhile, a $215 million settlement of two class actions brought on behalf of several alleged victims is pending approval.

"The investigative work is always challenging and meaningful," Chopra said. "It's an opportunity to work closely with an institution and its board to identify issues and make improvement and help them move forward."

On the litigation side, Chopra is handling two wage and hour class actions, one national and one in California, alleging workers were misclassified. In the national case, insurance underwriters working for Chubb Group Holdings Inc. allege the company misclassified them as exempt from state and federal overtime laws. Sandbergen v. ACE American Insurance Co., 18-CV04567 (N.D. Cal., filed Jul. 27, 2018).

In the state case, real estate agents allege Century 21 Real Estate LLC misclassified them as independent contractors. Whitlach v. Premier Valley Inc., RG18933060 (Alameda Super. Ct., filed Dec. 20, 2018).

With both cases, the onus is on the plaintiffs to demonstrate commonality throughout the group, Chopra said.

"Whether or not someone is misclassified depends on how much they're paid and what it is that they do day in and day out," she said. "You may take two insurance underwriters or two different real estate sales agents and, on a day-to-day basis, what they do, how they do it and the percentage of time that they take will differ. Those differences will impact a judge's decision to determine if a class is appropriate."

Then it comes down to the cases' merits, which have very wide-ranging implications, particularly in Whitlach, Chopra said. Because Century 21 is a franchise company, its business model depends on setting up agents as independent business owners under the company's brand.

"They determine what they're going to do, when they're going to do, and how they're going to do it," Chopra said of the real estate agents. "They have ample opportunity to make more money or less money dependent on their activities. One would argue that that's the classic example of an independent contractor, right?"

-- Glenn Jeffers