Lee R. Feldman

Founding attorney Feldman opened the doors to his plaintiff-side employment law boutique in 1998 to represent California workers. The pandemic failed to slow the pace, he said.

“A fascinating year. I settled one sexual harassment case for $20 million and a racial discrimination case for $16 million. Both are confidential. I found there was little difference in settlement values even when you’re doing it by Zoom.”

Of the cases he can discuss, one was stalled for two years not by Covid-19 but by an excursion to the Court of Appeal and the state Supreme Court. Feldman eventually settled the matter this year on a confidential basis. “I’m not even allowed to say whether any money was involved,” he said. Conyer v. Hula Media Services LLC, BC718750 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Aug. 22, 2018).

His client was a facility manager and senior engineer for Hula, a postproduction television technology corporation. The client alleged sexual harassment by Hula’s female CEO and was fired.

“It was a Basic Instinct-type situation,” Feldman said of his client’s alleged unwanted attention by the woman who outranked him.

Hula moved to compel arbitration, which the trial court denied. The plaintiff had received and signed a company handbook with no arbitration clause when he was hired; later, after he said he was harassed, he was given a revised handbook with an arbitration clause.

The judge accepted the plaintiff’s testimony that he was never informed that the revised handbook contained an arbitration clause and that it was reasonable for the plaintiff to assume the distribution of the new handbook was routine. Given that he had already complained about sexual harassment at the time he got the second handbook, the plaintiff said, he would not have agreed to an arbitration clause.

A Court of Appeal panel reversed the judge, finding the second handbook’s arbitration clause was enforceable. The panel also found that there although there was “some degree of procedural unconscionability in the agreement,” it did not invalidate the binding arbitration clause.

“We thought we had a slam dunk at the Court of Appeal, but to our shock they saw it the other way,” Feldman said. “That was astonishing. I very infrequently take cases to the high court, but I did this time.”

The state Supreme Court unanimously granted review in December 2020 and ordered the Court of Appeal’s opinion depublished, an implicit slap at the appellate panel’s ruling.

“As soon as that happened, we resolved the case,” Feldman said. “The speed with which they depublished was likely influential. Appellate courts are not allowed to find facts.”

— John Roemer