Timothy J. Long

Timothy J. Long

SACRAMENTO, LOS ANGELES - Timothy J. Long is the co-managing shareholder of his firm’s Sacramento office and also leads the office’s labor and employment practice group. Experienced in a broad array of employment law issues, he has for 20 years been a co-editor of Practising Law Institute’s Employment Law Yearbook, and he also is one of the editors for a pair of employment law treatises from the ABA.

These days, he said, his practice, his clients and the courts are still dealing with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Courts and lawyers are struggling to clear backlogs. Currently, Long is working on a case so impacted by shifting deadlines and unavailable hearing dates that he is preparing for trial while simultaneously briefing and arguing his motion for summary judgment, he said.

Except for that case, however, he has been able to resolve many either with settlements or motions.

For example, last year he and plaintiffs’ counsel rather quickly resolved a putative class action against an interstate trucking company over truckers’ rest break pay. The dispute centered on whether federal law preempts state meal and rest break requirements.

Long said he knows and has tried cases against the plaintiffs’ attorney for years. “We were able to efficiently advocate on behalf of our clients and reach a mutually beneficial outcome without any sort of lack of civility,” he said. Wood v. Gemini Motor Transport LP, 20-2-06433-1 (Pierce County, Wash., Supr. Ct., filed June 8, 2020).

Another lawsuit about suitable seating for CVS employees took a little longer, but he settled it last year as well. This case dealt not with whether the company had to provide seats at all, but whether it was providing enough good seats in its in-store pharmacies. Thomas v. CVS Pharmacy Inc., 18AVCV00120 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Nov. 26, 2018).

Long also has been counseling clients uncertain about bringing employees back into the office. One business whose leaders value the synergy of people working together was faced with employees not ready to return. It chose to ask them to come back a couple of days a week at first.

Another was fine with everyone working remotely, but then had to deal with employees who did come back and felt they deserved some recognition.

Long said he has been helping clients determine what they can or can’t do under the law. “This has been a reminder that one of our principal roles as lawyers is to listen to the clients,” he said.

-Don DeBenedictis