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JULY 16, 2014 – Two partners at Davis Wright Tremaine LLP have been named among the Top 75 labor and employment lawyers in California by The Daily Journal, a leading statewide legal newspaper.
Recognized in today’s edition of the paper were Camilo Echavarria and Emilio Gonzalez, both in our Los Angeles office.
“Camilo and Emilio have provided our clients with outstanding representation in numerous high-stakes claims,” said Henry Farber, chair of the firmwide employment practice at Davis Wright Tremaine. “We are very pleased to have their work recognized with inclusion in this very select list.”
The newspaper particularly highlighted the successful work of both attorneys on behalf of Bank of America Corp.
Echavarria represented the company in a widely publicized case involving allegations of wrongful termination and fraudulent hiring. After a month-long trial, the jury found for the defense on three of the four claims, and awarded only lost and future wages. “Noting the anti-bank sentiment that was prevalent at the time,” the Daily Journal reports, “Echavarria…decided to go for a complete reversal of the jury award rather than take his chances at a new trial.”
Echavarria argued before the appellate court and prevailed, the paper notes. The state Supreme Court denied plaintiff’s petition for review.
Also on behalf of Bank of America, Gonzalez was first-chair trial counsel in a wrongful termination and religious discrimination claim heard last year in Riverside County. It’s a venue where “automatically you are viewed with suspicion” when representing a bank, Gonzalez told the paper. “But when you have a plaintiff that says ‘Give me $10 million,’ you really don’t have a choice but to take the case to trial.”
The jury unanimously found in favor of Gonzalez’s client. “If the jury is inclined to see the company as Darth Vader,” Gonzalez told the paper, “my job is to have them see Luke Skywalker’s father—to see behind the mask.”
Echavarria came to Davis Wright Tremaine in 2006, after three years as in-house counsel for NBC Universal, where he developed firsthand knowledge of cost-effective ways to partner with clients and provide responsive, results-oriented counsel. His practice focuses on the defense of large corporations in single-plaintiff, multi-plaintiff, and class action cases involving wrongful termination, discrimination, retaliation, and wage and hour issues. He is on the board of trustees of the Mexican American Bar Foundation.
Gonzalez has been with Davis Wright Tremaine since 2001. He has won jury verdicts in state and federal courts in cases dealing with civil rights, discrimination, harassment, retaliation and wrongful discharge claims. He also represents employers in wage and hour disputes, including those brought as class action claims, and has prosecuted and defended trade secret and unfair competition actions dealing with data breaches, employee raiding, and misappropriation of business records. He is a board member of the Futuro Prep Charter School in the largely Mexican American neighborhood of Boyle Heights on the eastside of Los Angeles.
About Davis Wright Tremaine
Davis Wright Tremaine LLP is a national law firm with approximately 500 lawyers representing clients based throughout the United States and around the world. For more information, visit www.dwt.com.