David P. Zins

David P. Zins

LOS ANGELES - David P. Zins advises and defends employers in wage and hour matters, focusing on defeating California class actions and PAGA representative actions. His practice spans various industries across California, including retail, financial services, manufacturing, distribution and restaurant operations, among others. He is also a seasoned human resources professional who previously spent a decade in people management and human resources.

Zins and the firm have a longstanding partnership with Staples, and he has represented the office supply retailer in a number of wage and hour matters, both in its retail business and its supply chain B2B business in California.

Most recently, he and the MoFo team obtained a sweeping victory for Staples in a PAGA action. Wesson v. Staples the Office Superstore, LLC, BC593889, (L.A. Sup. Ct., filed Sept. 4, 2015); Wesson v. Staples the Office Superstore, LLC, B302988 (Cal. App. 2nd Dist., filed Sept. 9, 2021). Plaintiff sought $36 million in civil penalties for Labor Code violations related to an alleged misclassification of its store general managers. Staples moved to strike the PAGA claim, arguing that the PAGA action was "unmanageable" and would violate Staples' due process rights.

"We argued successfully that because of the individual nature of that [store manager] role, a trial on a group-wide basis would necessitate some 346 individualized mini-trials, which would take the court more than four years to complete, is not manageable and should not go forward," Zins said.

The trial court granted Staples' motion to strike the PAGA claim on manageability grounds. In a landmark published decision in September, the Court of Appeal affirmed that trial courts have the authority to limit and even strike PAGA claims if they cannot be manageably tried.

PAGA claims, Zins said, are the "elephant in the room" in his practice. In recent years, he's seen a surge of such actions against employers.

"Our work is focused intently on developing the case law in a way that is friendly to employers and provides defenses to these very broad types of actions. At the same time, we are tracking ongoing potential developments in the law," he said, citing potential voter initiatives and legislative activity, as well as a pending U.S. Supreme Court opinion addressing whether arbitration agreements may effectively waive representative PAGA actions under the Federal Arbitration Act.

"All of these issues are of pressing importance to California employers as they seek to limit exposure to these sorts of overbroad and too often abusive lawsuits," he said.

--Jennifer Chung Klam