Cheryl D. Orr

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Orr and her colleagues in the international labor and employment group she leads went into overdrive. They counseled their clients on workplace protocols, sheltering in place and the plethora of new rules and government guidance.

“Even people who were litigators like myself, we were just there for our clients, and that’s all we did 24/7,” Orr said.

Later on, came advising clients on contact tracing, employee furloughs and reimbursing expenses of people working from home.

Adding to those challenges, Orr had just moved up from leading 35 professionals at Drinker Biddle & Reath to overseeing 102 professionals when her firm merged with Faegre Baker Daniels. “We merged on Feb. 1 and started sheltering in place on March 13,” she said. “I’ve met most of the partners. I haven’t met all of the associates.”

The combined firm has 19 U.S. offices plus one in London and two in China. Orr leads the office in San Francisco.

Her clients include AT&T, Bed Bath & Beyond, Dyson, Electronic Arts, Hewlett Packard, Las Vegas Sands Corp., Postmates and Robert Half International.

Her labor and employment group contains teams specializing in immigration issues, labor law, pay equity, transactions and training, and Orr works with all of them. “While over 50 percent of my work is litigation, I still have clients that have needs in all of these other areas,” she said. “I have to say, it keeps it interesting.”

In one of her larger litigation matters, she is defending seven executives of a corporation who were individually named in 10,335 demands for arbitration filed by workers alleging the company misclassified them. In May, 100 of the cases were selected to go to arbitration first.

In another, she is representing a large, out-of-state hospital company in a potential class action over claims for unpaid overtime and other issues. “That case is really hotly litigated,” Orr said.

Both sides have summary judgment motions pending, and Orr briefed class certification twice, once for an opt-in class and once for an opt-out class.

Between the pandemic and a merger that nearly tripled the size of her employment group, the year has been unusual. But, she added, “there’s no better way to get to know your colleagues than to work with them, and we’ve certainly had a ton of work.”

— Don DeBenedictis