Apalla U. Chopra

Chopra is chair of O'Melveny & Myers's labor and employment practice, where she specializes in conducting independent investigations on behalf of companies, boards of directors and special committees into allegations of misconduct. Her focus puts her at the center of the national dialog over sexual harassment and the #MeToo movement; she is a go-to authority for Title IX investigations and follow-up litigation for colleges and universities.

Like most, she's been working remotely since mid-March. She's grateful to have ducked the coronavirus. "The week before everything closed down, I'd been to New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, New Jersey and San Francisco, and if there was anyone who should have gotten it, that would be me," she said. "But I took a serology test and I dodged it."

Transitioning to remote work went seamlessly. "I don't miss the commute, but I do miss the camaraderie," she said in late June. "The increase in the numbers again is disconcerting. We have a plan more than 100 pages long on reopening, but I don't know when we'll get to use it." Meanwhile she said she's been living like a hermit. "The world seems upside down right now."

Even so, work continues. "When I got to O'Melveny as a summer associate in 1991 we didn't even have individual computers," she recalled. "Then came email and BlackBerries; that put us on a 24-hour leash. Working remotely seems to reinforce that, you have to make time to stop." Conducting investigation interviews via Zoom works, though "I prefer face-to-face interviews, of course, because the human element tends to get lost. Part of what we do is determine credibility. But it hasn't stopped us. At some point you have just got to proceed."

In one case, Chopra represents the California State University system in a potential class action seeking administrative mandamus to invalidate all student suspensions and expulsions that arose out of sexual misconduct claims dating from 2015. Doe v. White, 19STCP02973 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed July 16, 2019).

The complaint seeks to capitalize on a 2019 state appellate ruling that students accused of sexual misconduct must be allowed to cross-examine witnesses against them as part of the school's disciplinary process. Doe v. Allee, 30 Cal.App.5th 1036 (2d DCA, op. filed Jan. 4, 2019).

Chopra succeeded with an initial motion to dismiss. The plaintiffs have filed a second complaint. "They're trying to take hundreds of trial court decisions and instead of appealing them one by one, they want to make a class of it. It's a creative argument but fatally flawed."

The larger issue of due process in the education setting is part of her work. "You can have notice and the opportunity to respond to charges without turning the classroom into a courtroom," she said.

-- John Roemer