THE STATE BAR OF CALIFORNIA The Labor & Employment Law Section 21 st Annual Public Sector Program Session 7 Do s and Don ts of Filing and Responding to PERB Charges Friday, April 24, 2015 3:15 p.m. 4:45 p.m. Moderator: Erich Shiners Panelists: Laura Davis Adrianna Guzman Kerianne Steele The State Bar of California and the Office of Section Education and Meeting Services are approved State Bar of California MCLE providers. Points of view or opinions expressed in these pages are those of the speaker(s) and/or author(s). They have not been adopted or endorsed by the State Bar of California Board of Trustees and do not constitute the official position or policy of the State Bar of California. Nothing contained herein is intended to address any specific legal inquiry, nor is it a substitute for independent legal research to original sources or obtaining separate legal advice regarding specific legal situations. 2015 State Bar of California All Rights Reserved
BIO Laura Ziegler Davis has been with PERB since 2007 and currently serves as a Senior Regional Attorney for PERB s Office of the General Counsel, in the San Francisco Regional Office. Prior to coming to PERB, Laura was an Industrial Relations Counsel III with the Department of Industrial Relations, Office of the Director, Legal Unit. She previously was an Associate Attorney with the Law Offices of Robert Bezemek, and also practiced general civil litigation with a small insurance defense firm. Laura earned her J.D. from Golden Gate University Law School in 1997. Laura holds a double B.A. degree in Psychology and Interdisciplinary Legal Studies, with a minor in Theatre Arts, from the State University of New York, Center at Buffalo. Laura is a member of the California and New York bars.
Adrianna Guzman is Of Counsel at Liebert Cassidy Whitmore in Los Angeles, where she represents management clients in employment litigation, administrative proceedings, arbitrations and negotiations. She regularly advises and represents clients in all aspects of employment and labor issues, including disciplinary and grievance hearings, unfair practice charges, layoffs, and discrimination and harassment litigation. She has extensive experience in representing agencies before the Public Employment Relations Board on such issues as unfair practice charges, representation issues, requests for injunctive relief, and impasse procedures. She has drafted more than 55 responses to unfair practice charges, and has been very successful in having charges dismissed or withdrawn before a complaint is issued. Adrianna also represents agencies at the bargaining table. She handles all aspects of negotiations, including bargaining for a successor agreement, to impact bargaining associated with a layoff of personnel. Prior to joining Liebert Cassidy Whitmore, Adrianna represented public entities in employment litigation and disciplinary actions.
Kerianne R. Steele is a shareholder with Weinberg, Roger & Rosenfeld, a law firm which offers its skills and expertise to the labor movement by representing workers, unions, and employee benefit plans. She represents primarily public sector unions throughout California, focusing on internal union governance and management, contract negotiations and enforcement, administrative hearings, arbitration, litigation, and training of union leaders. She routinely handles numerous unfair practice, representation and factfinding cases, and has directly participated in PERB s rulemaking process. She coauthors the public sector case notes column of the California Labor and Employment Law Review, the official publication of the State Bar of California Labor and Employment Section. Prior to becoming an attorney, she was actively involved in innovative efforts to organize low-wage workers in the Los Angeles-area hospitality industry and served as a head steward of the union representing graduate student employees at the University of California campuses.
Erich W. Shiners practices in the areas of labor and employment law, with an emphasis on traditional labor law. His practice includes representing public and non-profit employers in appellate and trial court litigation, arbitration, unfair labor practice proceedings, and representation matters. From 2008 to 2011, Mr. Shiners served as a Legal Adviser to a member of the Public Employment Relations Board. Mr. Shiners is an advisor to the executive committee of the Labor & Employment Law Section of the State Bar of California, and a former Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Section s Labor & Employment Law Review. Mr. Shiners is an author and consultant for California Public Sector Labor Relations (LexisNexis) and an annual update author for Advising California Employers and Employees (CEB). During law school, Mr. Shiners clerked at the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, D.C., the Agricultural Labor Relations Board in Sacramento, and the Sacramento office of Weinberg, Roger & Rosenfeld. He also served as a judicial extern for the Honorable M. Kathleen Butz at the Third District Court of Appeal.
Office 2006-2007 2007-2008 2008-2009 2009-2010 2010-2011 2011-2012 2012-2013 Sacramento 41% 33% 37% 41% 35% 42% 56% San 32% 28% 31% 40% 39% 36% 45% Francisco Los Angeles 37% 24% 32% 30% 34% 35% 44% Total 37% 28% 34% 37% 36% 38% 47% Rise of Percentage of Complaints Issued by PERB 50 45 40 35 Percentage of Charges PERB Issues as Complaints 30 25
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