Lynne C. Hermle

For employment litigators, last year presented "a tsunami" of trials, Hermle said, and the next couple of years will likely be the same. Last year alone, she tried two in-person jury trials and three remote arbitrations.

"I tell you, I worked harder last year than I have in the course of a 40-year career," said Hermle, who has long been considered one of California's top courtroom defenders of employers.

She attributes the crush of work to court closures and slowdowns. "I think most of us doing employment litigation would tell you that the past 15 months have been a blur of trials that sat dormant during the course of the pandemic," Hermle said.

But the litigation "is alive and well now in a way that it wasn't even pre-pandemic."

Hermle won her three arbitrations on behalf of two large tech companies sued by senior executives and a small company in a dispute with a salesperson over commissions.

The two trials went against her clients and she is now busy attacking the verdicts. Hermle suspects part of the problem may masks. "Trying to voir dire a jury panel in which you can't read people's reactions to you and your questions is very challenging, in my opinion," she said.

For the opposite reason, she enjoyed her three remote proceedings because witnesses didn't wear masks and looked directly into the camera. "That's a huge benefit to those of us who are cross-examining witnesses and trying to show that credibility isn't there."

Though she discovered a small downside, too. She no longer could make moves toward witnesses she wanted to challenge.

A couple of her matters were brought by senior executives unhappy about the stock options or other equity they lost when they were let go.

"We're going to see more of those because so many companies had equity increases," during the pandemic, she said. "With executive terminations, there's often a lot of money left on the table that's going to be fought over afterwards."

- Don DeBenedictis