Sahara Pynes

Labor & Employment

Los Angeles

Sahara G. Pynes is a partner at Fox Rothschild LLP who provides clients with litigation, training and counseling services in the labor and employment sector.

She graduated magna cum laude from New York Law School and joined Fox Rothschild in 2015 after founding her own employment law consulting company, SP HR Solutions Group.

Passionate about supporting other women and creative about finding platforms to reach them, Pynes has organized women-focused networking and panel discussions in the firm's Los Angeles office. She is leading a "Female Founders" series of events for women in business and is continuing to produce episodes of her podcast, "Legally EmpowHERed."

"My favorite movie is 'Legally Blonde,'" Pynes said, "so the name made sense to me. I focus on topics relevant to female business owners and attorneys. In our new season, we're doing Women's History Month, Latin America History Month and other things. It's non-billable work, but it's super fun. It allows me to connect with some wonderful lawyers."

Over the last year, Pynes helped many clients roll out revised policies that conform the California's new AB 1076 and SB 699, two statutes that codify restrictions on the use of non-compete agreements and requiring employers to notify current and former workers that such agreements are void.

"Courts have slowly chipped away at these restrictions, and, at the national level, the Federal Trade Commission recently passed a non-compete ban similar to California's," Pynes said.

Keeping clients in compliance with an ever-shifting employment law landscape, Pynes said, is like the moves made in a chess game. She works carefully to think several moves ahead, developing strategies to guide clients through employee relations matters to avoid or minimize potential future claims and to keep clients protected and in compliance with the labor laws.

She said she finds the work inspiring. "I'd tried real estate and found it pretty dry. Litigation wasn't for me. But with labor and employment -- the law was identifiable and there were real people with real issues to work through."

A new client is the Sloomoo Institute, an interactive experience centered on sensory play with vats of colored, scented slime. Founded in New York, the two women who began it -- one of them a friend of Pynes' -- are opening an outpost near Los Angeles' Original Farmers Market later this year.

"There'll be 50 to 100 employees, and I'm working in conjunction with their HR department to onboard everyone and make sure the place conforms to California employment laws," Pynes said. "I love the founders' story of finding an inspired use for slime for anxiety relief and therapy."

-- John Roemer