Lynne C. Hermle

Every day, Hermle defends companies from workplace issues ranging from pay equity to gender discrimination. What sets her apart from her contemporaries are the names of those employers: Apple, Tesla, Microsoft, Twitter, SpaceX, and Morgan Stanley.

But even with the high-profile matters and the potential exposure in the billions, Hermle said it's not big names that concern her.

"These companies tend to be the industry leaders in many employment issues and practices," she said. "The tougher situations typically involve smaller and more emerging employers who may not yet have developed the HR organizations and practices which will serve them well, especially in the tough thicket of California employment laws. In those cases, we do our best to unravel mistakes."

It's in that thicket that Hermle finds joy in her work. She likes teaching clients how employment issues should fit into a company's strategy. And, yes, Hermle said, she likes to go to trial, not to mention her "long string of wins."

Last June, she defeated class certification in a national gender discrimination suit alleging bias in hiring, pay and promotions, whittling a class of 8,600-plus down to three. Moussouris v. Microsoft Corp., 15-CV01483 (W.D. Wash., filed Sept. 16, 2015).

The following July, she defeated a certification bid made by women engineers at Twitter alleging unfair promotion practices, convincing a judge the plaintiffs failed to establish commonality. Huang v. Twitter Inc., CGC-15-554813 (S.F. Super. Ct., filed Mar. 19, 2015).

"I especially enjoy the cross examinations in cases I consider to be meritless," she said.

The result is a reputation as a go-to defense attorney and advisor forged over a 32-year career at Orrick. Equally important to her, however, are the people she works with, from the young lawyers who develop trial skills under her tutelage to the partners and team she's built within Orrick's employment group.

"I'm proud of the very strategic approach Orrick has taken, especially under [Chairman and CEO Mitch Zuklie's] leadership, to become a great and balanced law firm," she said.

And she's not making a change anywhere soon, she said. Currently, she's preparing a defense for Netflix, Inc. against a claim the streaming service poached executives from 20th Century Fox. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation v. Netflix, Inc., SC126423 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Sept. 16, 2016). The trial is set for January.

Hermle described the moves as "pro-competitive hiring practices."

-- Glenn Jeffers