Employment
Judge Westerfield has been a full-time neutral with JAMS since 1993 and has settled or arbitrated over 600 employment matters, including class actions; wage and hour claims; race, gender, and age discrimination claims; wrongful termination claims; whistleblower claims; FEHA claims and American with Disabilities Act claims. She is known for her ability to handle complex cases with multiple parties involving unique situations such as insurance coverage, securities, intellectual property disputes, cross-cultural dynamics and sensitive topics.
Employment cases settled or arbitrated by Judge Westerfield have involved Fortune 500 companies, international businesses with US operations, professional sports teams, local and state governments, educational institutions, financial institutions, securities firms, and law enforcement agencies. Judge Westerfield is an effective mediator with an extremely high settlement rate.
Representative Matters
- Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Claims, including Class Actions:
- Multiple class actions and individual matters involving ADA claims and related insurance coverage issues
- Complex Business Disputes with Employment Claims:
- Multiple cases involving alleged breaches of contracts with high level executives and attendant securities issues
- Dissolution of closely held corporations and family businesses including complex valuation issues
- Discrimination Claims, including Class Actions:
- Multiple class actions and individual cases involving age, race, disability, and gender discrimination claims
- Disability discrimination cases involving issues such as failure to provide reasonable accommodations, and the relationship and discrepancies between payments under workers’ compensation, long-term disability, and SSDI
- Single case, one hundred and two individual claims for race, sex, and age discrimination brought after a massive reduction in force by a single defendant entity with multiple funding authorities, including governmental agencies
- Cases involving FEHA claims
- Cases with claims of discrimination related to pregnancy, involving the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
- ERISA:
- Cases involving breach of fiduciary duty in the management of trust fund assets
- Cases involving allegations of discrimination in order to avoid vesting of benefits and/or allegations of denial of long-term disability benefits
- Financial Markets Employment Cases:
- Executive termination cases involving the valuation of stock options
- Wide range of employment matters in the investment banking industry, including hedge funds, banks, and private equity and venture capital firms
- International Business Employment Claims:
- Multiple cases involving international businesses involved in disputes with their US-based employees, involving complex, cross-cultural issues
- Sexual Harassment Claims, including Class Actions:
- Multiple sexual harassment and battery cases with issues regarding appropriate investigation, significant psychological injury, and insurance coverage
- Case involving sexual harassment claims with underlying breach of contract claims causing consideration over insurance coverage issues
- Case involving sexual harassment claims against an international billionaire
- Trade Secret, Non-Compete, and Non-Solicitation Disputes:
- Employment disputes involving high-level executives accused of breaching non-compete and non-solicitation contracts, alongside theft of trade secret allegations as well
- Wage and Hour Claims, including Class Actions:
- Multiple class actions and individual cases involving wage and hour claims, including the alleged misclassification of employees as exempt, the failure to provide meal and rest periods, the failure to distribute tips and service charges, travel time, and off the clock work
- Whistleblower Cases:
- Whistleblower claims in health care industry
- Employment disputes involving Sarbanes Oxley whistleblower claims
- Wrongful Termination Claims:
- Wrongful termination matters where special considerations must be made for parties in bankruptcy
- Wrongful termination claims relating to accounting malpractice such as failure to follow GAAP or Sarbanes Oxley claims