Lynne C. Hermle

Hermle is a prominent management-side employment lawyer who defends complex discrimination and wage-and-hour class actions for major clients in the retail and technology sectors including Gap Inc., Genentech Inc., Microsoft Corp., Sears, Roebuck and Co., Burlington Stores Inc., Gymboree Group Inc., Spencer’s Gifts LLC, Banana Republic LLC, Old Navy, Williams-Sonoma Inc. and its Pottery Barn Kids subsidiary and others. She is a member of Orrick’s management committee.

She’s been at Orrick since 1987, when Jeffrey S. White—now a senior U.S. district judge in Oakland, then the chair of Orrick’s litigation department—recruited her from her post as house counsel at AT&T. “He said I’d be a fit here,” Hermle said recently. “I said, ‘I’m not a match for that big ’ol white boy law firm.’ But then I came in and met everyone and I loved all of ’em. They turned me around.”

Hermle said that as the pandemic loosens its grip on the courts, she expects that pre-pandemic litigation that remained on ice for a year will explode as courts get back to business. “It’ll come sweeping back with a fury. I’ve already had three arbitrations this year already and I have trials set in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and it looks like the courts will be open for them.”

But she doubts that there’ll be a wave of significant cases emerging from conflicts over the pandemic itself. “I don’t think there will be a ton of pandemic cases because there was a ton of counseling as employers struggled to understand what was happening,” Hermle said. “Employment lawyers did a good job and management focused hard on what to do, and did it well.”

Trials upcoming on her docket include her representation of Winston & Strawn LLP in its defense of claims by former partner Constance F. Ramos, a patent attorney who claims gender discrimination and violations of California’s Equal Pay Act. Hermle won a motion at the trial court level to compel arbitration, only to have it reversed on appeal. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the firm’s cert petition.

Ramos alleged that although she was the highest billing income partner in Winston’s San Francisco office, her salary in 2016 was reduced by a third and she received no bonus.

The case now returns to Superior Court for trial. Ramos v. Winston & Strawn LLP, CGC-17-561025 (S.F. Super. Ct., filed Aug. 30, 2017).

“It’s a fascinating case about which I can say absolutely nothing at this point,” Hermle said.

Hermle added that those who do her kind of work are becoming scarce. “There is a decreasing number of employment lawyers trying cases,” she said. “Tech is so hot and the equity is so valuable. It’s challenging work, with long hours and a lot of adrenaline involved. We’re going to be extremely busy.”

— John Roemer