Maria advises on and defends against class, collective, representative and individual claims arising under state and federal employment laws such as the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) and the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA). Her litigation experience includes wage-and-hour, harassment, discrimination, wrongful termination, retaliation, breach of employment contract, unlawful business practices, non-solicitation, trade secrets and other employment-related cases. She has successfully litigated dismissals by way of, early motions to dismiss, summary judgment and leveraging cases early to produce nuisance value resolutions. At trial, she has produced wins in multiple-plaintiff wage-and-hour, retaliation, discrimination, and wrongful termination cases and achieved a defense verdict in a high-profile, eight-week jury trial involving UNRUH civil rights claims brought by 26 plaintiffs against eight defendants.

Maria has extensive knowledge in the complexities involved in doing business in California, across the United States, and abroad, and her fluency in Spanish supports her work with Spanish and Latin America based clients. She defends employers in proceedings before governmental agencies, such as the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, the California Labor Commissioner, the US Department of Labor, the Department of Justice, and city and state government agencies that enforce employment.

Maria serves as the global co-head of McDermott’s Employment Practice Group.

Show Less

• National QSR company:
  alleged misclassification of supervisors in training. Exempt supervisors claimed that during their training period, they were not exempt; obtained a nearly five-figure settlement through legal argument and strong negotiation tactics; maintained legal fees under $50,000*
• National QSR:
  large class of non-exempt managers claim missed meal periods, business expense reimbursements, wage statement claims, labor code penalties and unfair competition. Pending Technology company (top 10 largest webhost): non-exempt tech support employees claimed missed meal and rest period violations, failure to itemize wage statements, California Labor Code penalties, and unfair competition. After preparing the legal briefs to defeat class certification, plaintiffs accepted a nuisance value settlement*
• Large media company and advertising subsidiary:
  two-class case involving account executives alleging misclassification, unpaid overtime, missed meal and rest periods, unfair competition and penalties and sales representatives alleging missed meal and rest periods, unfair competition and penalties. Negotiated settlement at less than one-fourteenth potential value, with favorable reversionary rights/claims made terms by developing leverage through factual due diligence and legal argument while holding fee expenditure to a minimum*
• Logistics company:
  large statewide employee class alleging WARN violations, seeking wages and penalties. Achieved competitive settlement by leveraging strategic defenses and evidence, while guiding plaintiffs away from defense weaknesses*
• Contractor:
  claims for prevailing wages, alleged immigration law violations, failure to properly pay wages, overtime, unfair competition and California Labor Code penalties. Defeated some claims through demurrer and motion to strike, negotiated incredibly low settlement with favorable reversionary rights/claims made terms*
• National full-service restaurant chain:
  restaurant employees allegedly misclassified, meal, and rest period violations, failure to itemize wage statements, CA Labor Code penalties. Nuisance value settlement achieved*
• National full-service, upscale restaurant chain: 
  restaurant employees allegedly misclassified, meal and rest period violations, failure to itemize wage statements, California Labor Code penalties and Unfair Competition. Low settlement value achieved*
• National QSR:
  plaintiffs claimed that multiple employers constituted single employer, wage and hour claims, including claims for wages, overtime, and numerous California Labor Code penalties, as well as traditional employment claims; penalty claims were complicated and heavily litigated. Convinced plaintiffs’ counsel that they could not certify a class and achieved competitive settlement after a three-day, complicated mediation*
• Technology / large health care provider/plan:
  systems analysts alleged misclassification. Obtained very competitive settlement by leveraging legal arguments and maintained fee expenditure to a minimum*
• Large health care provider/plan:
  underwriters alleged misclassification and claim unpaid overtime, California Labor Code penalties and unfair competition. Using creative legal argument and persuasive negotiation tactics, limited the case to one-quarter of the of the total class size and obtained a very low settlement*
• National full-service restaurant/steakhouse:
  Large statewide employee class; restaurant employees allegedly misclassified, missed meal and rest period violations, failure to itemize wage statements, California Labor Code penalties. Negotiated competitive settlement after leveraging legal arguments*
• National full-service restaurant/steakhouse:
  large statewide employment candidate class claimed violations of California Labor Code statute governing employment applications. Convinced plaintiffs’ counsel that they would not be able to certify a class and settled based on a single location for $10,000*
• National full-service restaurant/steakhouse:
  large statewide employee class; restaurant employees made unique claims about server banking. Defeated class certification and settled with the class representative plaintiff for under $5,000*
• Full-service, upscale restaurant:
  restaurant employees claimed tip pooling violations, meal and rest period violations, unpaid wages and California Labor Code penalties. Limited plaintiffs meal and rest period claims to one year’s worth of penalties and achieved extraordinarily low settlement with reversionary rights/claims made terms*
• National bank:
  multi-district class action; financial advisors allegedly misclassified; highly complex litigation involving 21 multi-district (national) cases coordinated as one in California. One of several partners on defense team*

*Matter handled prior to joining McDermott.

Show Less

• Los Angeles Business Journal, Leaders of Influence: Labor & Employment, 2023
• Daily Journal, Top Women Lawyers, 2019 to 2023
• Los Angeles Business Journal, Top 100 Lawyers, 2022
• The National Law Journal, Entertainment Law Trailblazer, 2022
• Daily Journal, Top Labor & Employment Lawyers, 2019 and 2020
• Super Lawyers, Employment Litigation, 2012 to 2018

Show Less

Languages
English
Spanish

Show Less