Candice T. Zee

Labor & Employment

Los Angeles

Candice T. Zee is a shareholder at Vedder Price, where she focuses on defense-side labor and employment cases involving collective bargaining, employment litigation, labor relations, union organizing response and NLRB investigations.

She joined the firm in 2018 after working as a partner at Seyfarth Shaw LLP for a dozen years. At Vedder Price, she is a member of WAVES: Women at Vedder Empowering Success, a group that promotes career development, and a member of the firm's diversity and inclusion committee as an Asian American and part of the LGBTQ+ community.

Clients for her labor and employment counseling and negotiation practice include several fast-food chains, the University of Southern California and Ametek Aerospace Inc.

The daughter of immigrants from Hong Kong, Zee said she's the first attorney in her family. "I met Rene Russo on a movie set when I was 16," she said. "A production assistant on the movie showed me around. He was a lawyer, and I came to see that a law career could be a good backup for whatever I ended up doing."

Zee was drawn to employment law as she watched a case unfold within her family. "My mom was the only female on the board of a medical devices company that was sued for sexual harassment and she was identified as a key witness in the case. I became interested in employment law and working with human resources matters."

The part of her job that involves clients' response to union organizing efforts has expanded as union clout has grown in recent years, Zee said. "As the media pays attention to unions in the auto industry and Starbucks and UPS, the possibility of organizing within their companies is on employers' minds. So, my counseling work has grown."

Zee prevailed by obtaining a summary motion grant for a community hospital after it was sued for wrongful termination by an employee. The plaintiff also alleged whistleblower retaliation. The court held that the hospital, Adventist Health Hanford, had a legitimate business reason for the termination after the employee testified that he had taken about 30 patient records without consent, a violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

In 2022, an appellate panel rejected the plaintiff's appeal. Randhawa v. Hanford Community Hospital, F081846 (5th DCA, op. filed Sept. 27, 2022).

"I handled both matters for the client," Zee said.

In another case for Adventist Health, a plaintiff alleged retaliation and discrimination for engaging in union activities. Zee took a writ and appealed the court's ruling on a motion for summary judgment on preemption grounds. The court of appeal granted the writ and directed the court to revise its ruling or indicate why it would not - the parties settled shortly thereafter. Hrones v. Rideout Memorial Hospital, CVCV29-00517 (Yuba Co. Sup. Ct., filed Feb 27, 2020).

"I'm certainly busy, which I'm very grateful for," Zee said.

-- John Roemer