(July 25, 2016) – Littler, the world’s largest employment and labor law practice representing management, has appointed new chairs to the Class Actions and the Unfair Competition and Trade Secrets Practice Groups. Shareholder Keith Jacoby (Los Angeles) will join Shareholder Allan King (Austin) to lead the firm’s Class Actions practice while Shareholder James Witz (Chicago) will serve with Shareholder Jackie Johnson (Dallas) as co-chair of the Unfair Competition and Trade Secrets practice.
“Keith and Jim are outstanding lawyers, and we are confident that they will further elevate the prominence of the Class Actions and Unfair Competition and Trade Secrets practice groups, respectively,” said Tom Bender and Jeremy Roth, co-managing directors of Littler, in a joint statement. “We look forward to their contributions as they take on these leadership roles.”
Attorneys in Littler’s Class Actions practice have extensive experience handling employment class actions as they defend clients in wage and hour matters, discrimination lawsuits and other workplace-related disputes. In the past five years alone, the firm has defended clients in more than 1,700 employment-related class and collective actions, experience that few labor and employment firms can match.
Jacoby will be instrumental in further advancing Littler’s prominence in this area of the law. As an experienced litigator, Jacoby represents management in all types of employment litigation, obtaining defense verdicts in both class action and single-plaintiff cases. Among his notable successes was the reversal of an $89 million summary judgment in a wage and hour class action, defense verdicts in a whistleblower/fraud jury trial, a class action bench trial challenging the employment status of 1,000 independent contractors and a fraud/breach of contract jury trial. In the legal community, Jacoby has consistently been recognized by Best Lawyers in America and the Daily Journal named him among its Top Labor and Employment Lawyers in California last year.
Littler attorneys in the Unfair Competition and Trade Secrets practice demonstrate a keen understanding of the legal and business needs of employers in a wide spectrum of intellectual capital and customer relationship matters. The firm works with national and multinational clients and is familiar with the nuances of state and federal laws, as well as key countries around the globe.
With deep experience in noncompetition and trade secret disputes, including cases requiring injunctive relief, Witz has obtained multiple seven-figure trial verdicts in high profile trade secret and restrictive covenant cases across several jurisdictions. The most recent involved a $2.1 million dollar jury verdict, one of the largest jury verdicts for a restrictive convent matter in Minnesota. In addition, he has successfully set trade secret precedents in the U.S. appellate courts and counsels companies, ranging from small to Fortune 500, with regards to employee hiring, termination and related matters. Witz is also a frequent speaker in this area and has authored and contributed commentary in a number of leading legal publications.
About Littler
Littler is the largest global employment and labor law practice, with more than 1,000 attorneys in over 70 offices worldwide. Littler represents management in all aspects of employment and labor law and serves as a single-source solution provider to the global employer community. Consistently recognized in the industry as a leading and innovative law practice, Littler has been litigating, mediating and negotiating some of the most influential employment law cases and labor contracts on record for over 70 years. Littler Global is the collective trade name for an international legal practice, the practicing entities of which are separate and distinct professional firms.
