Elena R. Baca

Baca is the global chair of the Paul Hastings employment law department, leading more than 100 lawyers in 14 offices around the world. Her clients include Dollar Tree Stores Inc., Flexera, Staffing Network LLC, American Apparel Inc., Lockheed Martin Corp., United Parcel Service Inc. and American International Group Inc.

When the coronavirus struck, her team put together guidance for clients. She is a principal member of Paul Hastings' Covid-19 Task Force, taking a multidisciplinary approach to the legal issues presented. "We reaffirmed what we knew--none of us practices in a vacuum," she said. "As soon as legislators started passing the PPP [the Paycheck Protection Program] and the Families First Act, we worked with our D.C. office to explore what was happening behind the scenes so we could give predictability to clients."

Baca's firm already had produced a 2019 event series called Future of Work to examine the transformation of employment litigation and the future of workplace legislation, among other topics. "We anticipated then talking about pandemic response through a program sponsored by the National Center for State Courts. We planned as part of our Future of Work series to discuss flexible workforce issues. But who knew the future of work would be working from home?"

A recent study showed that about a third of U.S. jobs can be done remotely, Baca said. "We're going to come out of this with a changed workplace." And given the current social unrest, "There will be more retaliation claims as people speak out at work on all sorts of issues."

By late April Baca and her colleagues had put together an inaugural Return to Work webinar, which the firm said drew more than 1,300 participants. "I didn't expect to see this pandemic now and its duration, but we had started to look at the different components we'll need to consider. Then came the relief overlay." The firm's online Covid-19 resource center features topics on EEOC guidance, cross-border compliance and enforcement risks facing European and U.S. companies, and a borrower's guide to PPP loans. "There are different cadences to the national re-openings," Baca said in late June. "We're keeping track of their timings and impacts."

-- John Roemer