Contact: Mark Fefer, Marketing Communications, 206.757.8583 or markfefer@dwt.com
JULY 18, 2018 – Emilio Gonzalez, a partner in the Los Angeles office of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, has been named to the 2018 list of Top Labor & Employment Lawyers by the Daily Journal, a leading legal newspaper in California.
Gonzalez is an experienced trial attorney who has won jury verdicts on behalf of employers in state and federal courts involving civil rights, discrimination and wrongful termination claims. He also represents clients in wage and hour disputes and has prosecuted and defended trade secret and unfair competition actions dealing with data breaches, employee raiding, and misappropriation of proprietary business records.
The Journal cited Gonzalez’s recent successes representing Walt Disney Company and Merrill Lynch in high-stakes matters.
On behalf of Disney, Gonzalez won dismissal of an age discrimination claim filed by the former director of the Story Department at Walt Disney Pictures. The district court granted our client’s summary judgment motion in 2016 and a unanimous 2nd Circuit panel recently affirmed that decision, finding that our client sufficiently established the nondiscriminatory reason for plaintiff’s termination.
Gonzalez defended Bank of America/Merrill Lynch after it was sued by a director-level employee who alleged he was discriminated against based on his religion. Our client won a favorable jury verdict which was recently affirmed by the California Court of Appeals.
The Journal noted Gonzalez’s focus on “posing the right questions.”
“My job is to do it without insulting [plaintiffs], without offending them,” Gonzalez told the Journal, “to get to the core of what actually happened and what was said…and to do so in a way that allows the truth to come out.”
Gonzalez has received many accolades for his work, including recognition by Law 360 as a “legal lion” after his trial team successfully obtained a post-trial order reversing a $7.1 million verdict in 2016. He was also named a “Litigation Trailblazer” by the National Law Journal in 2015 and one of California’s Top 75 Labor and Employment Lawyers by the Daily Journal in 2014.
Gonzalez serves on the Davis Wright Tremaine Executive Committee. He is also chair of the board of directors of Endeavor College Prep, a public charter school serving students in East Los Angeles.
About Davis Wright Tremaine
Davis Wright Tremaine LLP is an AmLaw 100 law firm with more than 550 lawyers representing clients based throughout the United States and around the world. The firm’s national Employment Services Group provides employment counseling, employment litigation, labor relations, employee benefits, and immigration services to employers and is one of the largest such practices in the country.