Tao Leung

As head of Hogan Lovells' California labor and employment practice, Leung typically aids employers as they navigate the state's constantly changing legal landscape. He has successfully represented employers in wage and hour class actions, discrimination, wrongful termination, retaliation, harassment, misappropriation of trade secrets and breach of contract matters.

And he does deal work. As lead employment counsel, Leung advised software maker Adobe Inc. in its $4.75 billion acquisition of marketing automation platform Marketo Inc. He advised corporate service provider Edenred SA in its $600 million acquisition of Corporate Spending Innovations, which makes automated corporate payment software.

So it was a bit of a "Through the Looking Glass" moment when Leung switched roles to take on as a client a former Los Angeles fire marshal suing Mayor Eric Garcetti and the firefighters' union in a whistleblower retaliation suit claiming the defendants conspired to remove him from his job.

"It was interesting putting on a plaintiff's hat for a change," Leung said. His fire marshal client, John N. Vidovich, saw his 35-year career with the city end when he was publicly removed from his position after reporting illegal and fraudulent conduct perpetrated by inspectors in the Los Angeles Fire Department's fire prevention bureau, his suit asserted. Vidovich v. City of Los Angeles, BC646217 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Jan. 9, 2017).

The L.A. City Council voted to settle the matter for $800,000 in February 2019 after Leung and Hogan Lovells colleagues successfully defeated the city's summary judgment motion.

In opposing the motion, Leung and his team leveled explosive charges that Garcetti and his staff retaliated against Vidovich "to curry favor with the city's powerful firefighters' union" and its then-president, Frank Lima. The union allegedly resented Vidovich for holding them accountable in their job performance, according to the complaint. Leung developed evidence that Lima threatened to run a $250,000 "gangster campaign" against Vidovich if the city did not remove him from his job. "The city tarnished his name," Leung said.

"We said in our motion there were triable issues of fact that precluded summary judgment," Leung noted. "I remember thinking I had seen this case law before, but from the other side."

Another of Leung's duties is explaining and analyzing at seminars for company executives the latest employment law developments, including so-called "Weinstein clauses" resulting from the #MeToo movement, social due diligence in mergers and acquisitions and the ramifications of the state Supreme Court's Dynamex ruling.

Weinstein clauses, Leung explained, assure buyers key leaders of the target company have not been accused of misconduct. "This enables buyers to make a more informed decision when evaluating the acquired company's risk profile and work environment," he said.

-- John Roemer