Howard M. Knee has more than 35 years of experience concentrating his practice in labor and employment law.
Mr. Knee advises employers in all aspects of employment relations, and represents management in a variety of labor and employment related matters in both the private and public sectors, including clients in the entertainment industry and small and medium sized companies.
His experience includes:
· defense of employment discrimination and wrongful termination lawsuits in federal and state courts; representation and unfair labor practice proceedings before the National Labor Relations Board and the Public Employment Relations Board;
· trade secret and unfair competition litigation;
· labor arbitrations;
· wage and hour audits; and
· ERISA litigation.
Mr. Knee has a broad range of trial and appellate court experience. He has had jury trials in sexual harassment, race discrimination, wage and hour, and unfair competition cases, and has handled cases before all California and federal appeals courts, including the U.S. and California Supreme Courts. He has represented labor organizations and was one of the attorneys in City of Los Angeles v. Manhart, a landmark sex discrimination case in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Mr. Knee also interned for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Los Angeles and The Center for Law and Social Policy in Washington, D.C., and served as a legislative assistant in the U.S. Congress.
Representative Matters
Mr. Knee has successfully defended cases at trial in actions involving wrongful termination, race discrimination and harassment, sex discrimination and harassment (with both male and female plaintiffs), unfair competition, wage and hour violations (single plaintiff and class action), and defamation.
U. S. Supreme Court
*Manhart v. City of Los Angeles, Dept. of Water and Power, 435 U.S. 702 (1978) (holding in class action sex discrimination lawsuit that Los Angeles Department of Water and Power violated Title VII by requiring female employees to contribute more to its pension plan than male employees, even though females as a class live longer than males as a class).
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
Hoffman v. Construction Protective Services, Inc., 541 F.3d 1175 (9 Cir. 2008) (in collective action brought pursuant to the FSLA, the district court did not abuse its discretion by granting defendant's motion in limine to exclude evidence of damages of 66 opt-in plaintiffs for failing to comply with the voluntary disclosure provisions of Rule 26).
Sanchez v. Minson Corp., 96 Fed. Appx. 492, 2004 WL 886908 (9 Cir. 2004) (denying employee's petition for writ of certiorari seeking to overturn trial court's dismissal of discrimination action for failure to complete service of process).
N.L.R.B. v. HMO Intern./California Medical Group Health Plan, Inc., 678 Fd.2d 806 (9 Cir. 1982) (employer's petition for review granted, and NLRB's petition to enforce order denied, on ground that it was serious administrative error by NLRB to decline to evaluate employer's non-proliferation argument in support of its request for joint licensed vocational nurse-registered nurse bargaining unit).
*Manhart v. City of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, 652 F.2d 904 (1981) (upholding award of $165,000 in attorney's fees for litigating U. S. Supreme Court case and for time spent litigating fee issue itself in district court and on appeal).
Hewlett-Packard Co. v. Barnes, 571 F.2d 502, 1 Employee Benefits Cas. 1471 (9 Cir. 1978) (holding that action by California Commissioner of Corporations requiring employee benefit plans to comply with state law was pre-empted by ERISA).
U. S. District Court
Moreno v. Los Angeles Child Care and Development Council, Inc., 963 F.Supp. 876 (C.D. Cal. 1997) (affirming summary judgment in favor of employer on employee's state law claims for wrongful discharge and breach of employment contract on ground that claims are pre-empted by Labor Management Relations Act because issues were substantially dependent on analysis of collective bargaining agreement).
Clopton v. Global Computer Associates, Inc., Not Reported in F.Supp. 1995 WL 419831, 4 A.D.Cases 360, 6 NDLR P 275, C.D. Cal., March 27, 1995 (No. Cv-94-4819 DT (AJWX) (granting employer's motion for summary judgment on ground that employer was not subject to Fair Employment and Housing Act because it did not regularly employ 5 or more persons in California, even though it employed 5 or more persons nationwide).
California Court of Appeal
Lockhart v. MVM, Inc., 175 Cal.App.4th 1452 (2009) (affirming summary judgment in favor of employer in action for discrimination and retaliation brought by former employee of federal contractor that provided staffing for Immigration and Naturalization Service on ground that barred by federal enclave doctrine).
Ross v. Wesco Aircraft, Not Reported in Cal.Rptr.2d, 2002 WL 31546497, Not Officially Published, Cal.App.2 Dist., November 18, 2002 (No. B154200) (Superior Ct.No. BC209480) (affirming summary judgment in favor of employer on race discrimination, racial harassment, and retaliation claims).
Labor Arbitration
In Royal Creations, Inc., and International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Salaried, Machine and Furniture Workers, Local 1010, Furniture Workers Division, 94 L.A. 48 (1989) (arbitration decision holding that union was stopped from challenging financially troubled employer's plan to lay off all but better workers in order to run plant more efficiently and avoid closing plant, where union was consulted about plan, employer would not have agreed to keep plant open absent union's agreement to the plan, and union's approval of employee retention and layoff list led employer to believe that it had accepted that layoffs on selected basis were preferable to closing plant).
*Represented Plaintiff Class
Memberships
· American Bar Association
· Los Angeles County Bar Association
· Valley Beth Shalom
Events
2012 HOT BUTTON ISSUES IN LABOR AND EMPLOYMENT LAW: PRACTICAL TIPS FOR THE CALIFORNIA EMPLOYER
[Event]
Hyatt Regency Century Plaza, 2025 Avenue of the Stars, Los Angeles, California
March 21, 2012
Howard M. Knee, Michael L. Ludwig, Colleen A. Carolan, Mary Pierce and Kathy PourSanae
HOT BUTTON ISSUES IN EMPLOYMENT LAW
[Event]
Hyatt Regency Century Plaz
2025 Avenue of the Stars, Los Angeles, California, 90067
March 30, 2011
Anthony B. Haller, Howard M. Knee, Michael L. Ludwig, Colleen A. Carolan and Mary Pierce
Publications
THE UNDOCUMENTED WORKER DEFENSE IN EMPLOYMENT CASES
[Article]
Daily Journal
March 23, 2012
Howard M. Knee and Michael L. Ludwig
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN EMPLOYEE BENEFITS AND EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION
[Alert]
Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Update
April 2010 (No. 3)
Arthur Bachman, Colleen A. Carolan, Michael J. Hanlon, Cory G. Jacobs, Barry L. Klein, Howard M. Knee, et al.
News
LAWYERS SEE LITIGATION THREAT IN UNEMPLOYMENT BILL
[Media Coverage]
March 26, 2012
Howard M. Knee
FIRM BOLSTERS WEST COAST PRESENCE WITH CORPORATE AND EMPLOYMENT LAW EXPERIENCE
[Press Release]
January 12, 2010
Dennis P.R. Codon, Howard M. Knee, Colleen A. Carolan, Michael L. Ludwig and Mary Pierce
Cases and Deals
ICAD ACQUIRES ELECTRONIC BRACHYTHERAPY SYSTEMS MAKER
[Deal]
December 30, 2010
Jennifer J. Daniels, Ethan M. Seer, Barry H. Genkin, Steven Dubow, Lisa Casey Spaniel, Howard M. Knee, et al.
iCAD in its $13 million acquisition of Xoft.
FIRST SOLAR INC. ACQUIRES NEXTLIGHT RENEWABLE POWER
[Deal]
July 12, 2010
Louis M. Rappaport and Howard M. Knee
NextLight Renewable Power in connection with its $297 million acquisition by Arizona-based alternative energy company First Solar Inc.
CP DOCUMENT TECHNOLOGIES ACQUIRES ASSETS OF COPYPAGE, INC.
[Deal]
June 29, 2010
Mark S. Greenfield, Howard M. Knee and Shaun Snitman
CP Document Technologies, LLC in its acquisition of assets of CopyPage, Inc. for an undisclosed amount.