Camille Hamilton Pating

Pating is the chair of Meyers Nave Riback Silver & Wilson's state-wide labor and employment practice and its workplace investigations practice. She counsels employer clients and has conducted nearly 200 investigations including claims of harassment, hostile work environment, fraud, waste, abusive conduct, discrimination, retaliation, police internal affairs and others. And she is an experienced litigator who worked as a deputy city attorney in San Francisco and as a member of the city's ethics commission.

Of her counseling work, Pating said, "I've been practicing for 35 years and we used to call it preventive litigation practice. Now it's getting a lot more attention. My mentor, Louise Renne [a former San Francisco City Attorney], showed me how to think about using our work as lawyers in different ways. Now I do the work I love helping employers elevate their workplace cultures to avoid the kinds of problems that lead to litigation. You can do it via a compliance structure, but it's much better to have a vibrant and respectful workplace culture."

The Covid-19 impacts and the current social unrest are being felt by many of her clients. "A lot of employers face new difficulties including direct impacts to their budgets, forcing layoffs, and the difficulties of staying connected. I also observe fewer employee claims during shelter-in-place, maybe because people aren't interacting. I am also observing that from the racial justice and equality protests there has come a strong concern by employers to look closer at issues of disparities at work."

That has led to an emphasis in Pating's advice practice on diversity. "It's like the MeToo movement at the end of 2017," she said. "Then, cases that would have been seen as stale--people would ask why complainants waited so long to come forward, and it affected credibility--benefited from a greater understanding that retaliation fears and concerns about not being believed can take a long time to process. We see that now. Viewpoints have shifted towards understanding. Complaints now are seen differently and investigated differently. We are in a new moment now regarding issues of race discrimination. Systemic and structural inequality are much more widely understood."

Beyond individual cases, Pating said, "I'm getting inquiries from employers about workplace climate and culture issues. Some are eager to respond to employee concerns. A lot of employers want conversations about how to improve their workplace culture. When I see the demonstrations and protests in support of racial equality, I see that they are an opportunity for employers to raise awareness and improve things at work."

-- John Roemer