Lisa M. Harris

Overview

Lisa Harris is a partner in the Labor and Employment Practice Group in the firm's Orange County and New York offices. Her practice focuses on Labor and Employment and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion counseling and compliance.

Areas of Practice

Ms. Harris counsels and represents management in both employment and traditional labor matters. She regularly conducts and advises on high-level investigations and trains HR professionals on how to conduct such investigations internally. She also advises on diversity, equity and inclusion best practices. As a member of the firm’s ESG and Sustainability Industry Team, Ms. Harris supports clients in addressing the social aspects of ESG through development and promotion of a healthy and equitable workplace. In addition to her experience as outside counsel, Ms. Harris has several years of experience as in-house counsel both on a full-time and seconded basis. This experience gives her specific insight into the challenges and issues faced by in-house employment counsel and DE&I teams.

Employment Counseling. Ms. Harris regularly counsels management in all aspects of California, New York and federal employment law, including employee hiring and discipline procedures, worker classification issues, leaves of absence, reasonable accommodations, wage and hour compliance, employee severance and termination procedures, and restrictive covenants. She has significant experience drafting all types of employment agreements and policies, including employee handbooks, sexual harassment policies, confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements, and severance agreements.

Investigations. Ms. Harris is an experienced investigator. She regularly assists employers with sensitive internal investigations. She has conducted several investigations into alleged misconduct by senior executives of sports teams, a publicly traded alternative investment advisor, a publicly traded utility, and a national communications firm.

Training. Ms. Harris conducts harassment prevention training for both supervisors and non-supervisors, which satisfies current state-mandated training requirements in both English and Spanish. She also conducts DE&I training for both employees and HR professionals addressing various topics, including implicit/unconscious bias, promoting an equitable workplace, bystander intervention, and allyship. Additionally, she trains HR professionals on wage and hour compliance, conducting internal investigations, managing leaves of absence and reasonable accommodations, and other employment matters.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. Ms. Harris assists clients with the development and roll-out of their employee resource groups, drafts DE&I policies, and advises on the implementation of DE&I initiatives within legal parameters.

Traditional Labor. Ms. Harris counsels and represents management in the negotiation of collective bargaining agreements and regularly advises on labor disputes. Ms. Harris frequently represents management in labor arbitrations involving both contract interpretation and employee discipline and termination matters. She also represents management before the National Labor Relations Board defending against unfair labor practice charges.

Employment Litigation. Ms. Harris represents employers in single and multi-plaintiff harassment and discrimination claims. She also has extensive experience representing employers before administrative agencies and responding to complaints filed with those agencies alleging violations of federal and state employment laws.