Paul S. Cowie

Cowie practices labor and employment law with an emphasis on developing strategies to defeat certification in class actions and to dispose of PAGA matters. He manages a Sheppard Mullin team of about 30 lawyers who defend cases across a broad range of industries, including transportation, retail, tech, manufacturing and media.

He moved from his native United Kingdom to the U.S. to practice law after meeting his American wife-to-be in Argentina. “She imported me,” he said. After having practiced employment law in both countries, he noted that although the laws are similar—in fact, he said, UK employment law is arguably more restrictive than California’s worker-friendly statutes—there is a major difference in penalties. “The risk is lower there; here it can be astronomical.”

Cowie took over the defense from another firm and obtained a reversal in favor of the defense in a wage and hour class action that reached the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on a remand issue that kept the case in federal court. Fritsch v. Swift Transportation Co. of Arizona LLC, 5:17-cv-02226 (C.D. Cal., filed Oct. 31, 2017); 18-55746 (9th Cir., op. filed Aug. 8, 2018).

After further litigation, the parties are now in settlement talks, Cowie said. “After the state court certified the class, and the case moved to federal court, I got brought in and we challenged the plaintiff’s effort to remand it back to state court on the basis that the amount in controversy was incorrect,” Cowie said. The circuit panel held, in an opinion frequently cited since, that attorney fees should be included in the amount in controversy. Back in federal court, Cowie persuaded the district judge that He then persuaded a district judge that a class certification issued earlier in the case by a state court was void.

“That changed the entire dynamic of the case and promoted resolution,” Cowie said.

In defense of client Smart & Final, Cowie was faced by a plaintiff lawyer’s try to avoid a common class action roadblock by filing a Fair Labor Standards Act complaint in both state and federal court.

Shahandeh v. Smart & Final Stores LLC, 8:19-cv-00949 (C.D. Cal., filed May 17, 2019); 30-2019-01087502 (Orange Co. Super. Ct., filed Aug. 1, 2019).

Cowie first successfully moved to compel arbitration in the federal matter. Then, when the plaintiff tried to continue with PAGA claims in state court, Cowie successfully demurred, citing a missed statute of limitations deadline.

“We found the plaintiff had blown the deadline by under a week, but it was enough,” Cowie said. “We sweat these details, and their try at finding a new wrinkle did not work.”

— John Roemer