Neal A. Fisher Jr.


Perkins Coie • Los Angeles


One of the clients Neal Fisher has represented for years in employment litigation is the U.S. branch of international IT management company Serco Inc. Last January, for example, he obtained a combined settlement resolving collective actions in both federal and state courts action against the company. Bernal v. Serco Inc., 30-02020-01150203 (O.C. Super. Ct., filed Aug. 27, 2020).


But Fisher said he doesn't defend the company against employee lawsuits as often as he used to do. That's because he's helped Serco improve how it handles personnel matters. "We hardly have any litigation because over the course of working with the client, I've actively helped them update policies [and] change procedures," he said. "And when we feel that there is the possibility of a lawsuit, we actively get on the phone [to opposing counsel] and see what we can do to avoid litigation."


Similarly, in November, he settled a PAGA and class-action matter against a large retailer potentially involving a class of 10,000 employees. But he also conducted a comprehensive wage-and-hour audit of the retailer's policies and procedures and overhauled its practices to protect against future lawsuits.


"Whenever I receive a complaint, whether it's a single plaintiff case or a complex wage-and-hour matter, I'm always asking myself throughout the litigation, what could the client have done differently to either keep the litigation at bay or to ensure that it had a defense against this claim?" Fisher said.


Similarly, he represented a registered broker-dealer company in a JAMS arbitration that resolved a dispute with a former employee who had threatened a FINRA action. Then, he advised the client on its employment and regulatory concerns.


Other cases require a great deal more work. After almost five years of litigation, he finally settled in May a state court PAGA action on behalf of an alleged joint employer. The case paralleled a federal case that had already settled, which had raised intricate legal issues about overlapping claims, estoppel and res judicata. Diaz v. Chevron Corp., MSC20-00192 (C.C. Super. Ct., filed Jan. 31, 2020).


But in general, the result of his work to improve clients' employment policies is that he can head off litigation he knows will be pointless. Two or three times in the last year, he has called attorneys who filed new cases against clients and convinced them they should drop their lawsuits, he said.


"Hey, I don't think you have a case here, and let me explain why," Fisher tells them. "A lot of times attorneys are receptive to that, and they appreciate the fact that you didn't have them take on a loser of a case."


Assisting clients to improve their policies and procedures "is definitely something that we all should be doing as practitioners," he said. "I'm being of little service [to clients] if all I do is just defend them in litigation."