Elena R. Baca

Paul Hastings • Los Angeles

Late last year, Elena Baca and her team, along with co-counsel from Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, finally resolved the state of California's high-profile sex discrimination litigation against Activision Blizzard. 


The key, she said, was getting the state Civil Rights Department to withdraw its allegations of rampant, systemic harassment within the videogame company. "Once the state agreed to dismiss the systemic harassment claim, which had spurred so much of the really salacious allegations and that the state had driven through the media, we were able to find a path to resolve," Baca said.


"The resolution with the state was really from our perspective a vindication for the client." California Civil Rights Department v. Activision Blizzard Inc., 21STCV26571 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed July 20, 2021).


Investigations into the company began back in 2018. Baca began representing it in 2020, she said. She also represented the company in similar litigation brought by the federal EEOC, derivative lawsuits, an SEC investigation, shareholder proposals, investor demands, and threatened action against the company board.


Other major clients have included ByteDance and TikTok, Creative Artists Agency, Dollar Tree Stores, Meta/Facebook, Family Dollar Stores, Gilead Sciences, Goldman Sachs, Live Nation, Mattel, Montage Resorts, Pacific Gas & Electric, Ticketmaster and Wells Fargo Bank.


Baca is representing PG&E in a pair of whistleblower retaliation lawsuits. She defeated all but one of the plaintiff's claims in a jury trial in late 2022. The $2.1 million verdict on the remaining claim, for defamation, is now on appeal. Hearn v. PG&E, A167991 (Cal. App. 1st Dist., filed June 5, 2023).


The second action is scheduled for trial next year. Frediani v. PG&E, CGC-22-600133 (S.F. Super. Ct., filed June 10, 2022).


For the Activision litigations, Baca oversaw teams of more than 100 lawyers, consultants and staff.


She is accustomed to leading large teams. Since 2019, Baca has been the chair of Paul Hastings global employment and labor practice group, with some 80 attorneys around the world. "Before the end of the year we're going to have additional growth," she said.


When working on a case with colleagues, Baca said she uses a collaborative approach.


"I'm no stranger to a whiteboard," she said. "Working through briefs or strategy or litigation issues or how motions are going to roll out, spending time on a whiteboard and having that collaborative process, I think is important."


"It provides the lawyers working with me ... an understanding of the overall arc of what we're doing and why they're doing it."


Rather than looking at steps in litigation simply as tasks, she considers them as process driven. That approach allows the lawyers working with her to apply the processes and skills to other cases later on.


"It allows them to have a fighting chance of reading my mind when I tell them what it is I want," she said. "They turn back something that's closer to what we've talked about, and it makes it a better process, I think."