Alfonso Estrada

Alfonso Estrada

LOS ANGELES - Alfonso Estrada represents public and private sector clients in matters involving discrimination, harassment, retaliation, First Amendment violations, and more. He has extensive experience in litigation, labor and employment law, regulatory enforcement and white-collar defense.

Previously, Estrada worked for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. It was a natural transition, he said, to go from working with law enforcement as a prosecutor to then working for them at a labor union and law enforcement defense firm. From there, he moved to the management side and began handling all aspects of labor and employment law. Those experiences, he said, give him perspective.

“Having been on both the union side and the management side helps me have a better read and understanding of what a case is worth,” Estrada said. “Because I’ve been on the union side, I’ve made all those arguments; I’ve represented folks in those positions. Now that I’m on the management side, I know where they’re coming from, and I know where they’re going. It advises what I do now in limiting liability for employers, and letting them know when they have a serious issue on hand.”

Estrada has counseled the Los Angeles Equestrian Center since 2016 in all labor and employment matters. He has conducted onsite, bilingual (English and Spanish) anti-harassment and discrimination training programs for employees and managers, drafted arbitration agreements and updated policies and employee handbooks.

In 2020, a former employee of the equestrian center brought a wage and hour class action and PAGA action against the center. At the outset of the litigation, the equestrian center’s liability and financial exposure totaled more than $3 million.

“When the class action came around, it caught the employer off-guard, but fortunately, the work we had done enabled us to be aggressive in the litigation,” Estrada said. “The arbitration agreements that had been put in place–which back then were still entirely enforceable in the state of California–really helped us whittle that [financial exposure] down, get rid of the class allocation, and limited it specifically to just the PAGA claim.”

Estrada litigated the remaining PAGA claims to mediation in October 2021. The mediation resulted in the settlement and dismissal of the action outright for nuisance value.

“I like that case because it shows a holistic approach,” he said. “The advice and counsel, the training–all of that ended up paying off down the road in the litigation. That’s what our task is as labor employment attorneys.”

--Jennifer Chung Klam