Elena R. Baca

Employment Law

Los Angeles

Elena Baca has dedicated a quarter century to specializing in employment law and was inspired by her mother and her legal colleagues.

"She and several of her female law school classmates joined together to start their own firm," Beca explained. "Their firm was in Phoenix, Arizona. During high school, I would work in their office after school. It was there I learned certain fundamental requirements to serving a client well. Excellent legal work is only the baseline."

Future mentors included the late Judge William Matthew Byrne, Jr. of the U.S. Central District, for whom Baca externed and her clerkship with the Chief Judge Consuelo Marshall (now senior judge) of the same district.

She said a highlight of her career includes leading the Paul Hastings team in representing Activision Blizzard in a high-profile case involving overlapping government investigations and litigation.

The government litigation included gender discrimination claims related to pay and promotions, harassment, and related retaliation claims, spanning more than a decade

After two years of intense litigation, Baca's team achieved a favorable settlement.

"This settlement included rare recitals from the government acknowledging a series of facts and confirming there was no basis to the state agency's allegation of systemic unlawful employment practices," Baca said.

She said that beyond the main complaint, her team also helped to coordinate, support and lead an array of both internal and external teams defending against enforcement and derivative lawsuits, an SEC ESG Taskforce investigation, shareholder proposals and investor demands.

"The trend we are seeing towards a 'Whole of Government' approach requires counsel that can assist companies in many different areas of regulatory enforcement -- as corollary investigations and complaints are becoming very common and can snowball easily," Baca said.

She said she has also been working with a confidential top technology client on a series of whistleblower allegations.

"These allegations are simultaneously framed by significant regulatory, Congressional, and media scrutiny of the company, allowing our team to provide value across a spectrum of legal, employment, and regulatory issues," she said.

Highlighting trends, Baca said there has no doubt been a noticeable increase in regulatory attention on employment, including the involvement of non-traditional state and federal regulators in the workplace relationship, particularly targeting large companies.

"This shift has been driven by various factors, like the evolving corporate governance and CSR expectations of shareholders and stakeholders, as well as the effect of technology on the workforce and employee classification," she explained.