Employer Defense Lawyers Near Long Beach
Strategy | Tenacity | Results
Has a current or former employee filed a claim against your Long Beach business, or threatened to? Our employment defense lawyers represent the employer side: hotels, restaurants, healthcare providers and other businesses facing harassment, retaliation, wage and termination claims.
Local
We are Employment Defense attorneys who represent employers in Long Beach and across Los Angeles County.
Experienced
Our law firm has been helping employers achieve their legal objectives since 1988.
Service
You get a candid assessment of risk, cost and options from the start, and direct communication with the attorneys on your matter.
Quick answer
Employers in Long Beach facing a retaliation, harassment, or wrongful termination accusation can turn to Novian & Novian for defense. Our attorneys answer the claim in whatever forum it lands, from an administrative hearing to arbitration or a courtroom, and review contracts when a worker alleges a breach. The aim is to limit disruption to the business while the case runs.
Full-Service Employment Defense
Employer Defense Legal Services in Long Beach
Workplace Retaliation
An employment retaliation allegation often follows a decision the business had good reason to make: a schedule change, a write-up or a termination that came after the employee complained. Our employment defense lawyers help Long Beach employers answer these complaints early, before they turn into costly and time-consuming litigation.
California makes these claims harder to defend than most. Under Labor Code section 1102.6, once a worker shows that a protected report was a contributing factor in the decision, the employer has to prove by clear and convincing evidence that it would have made the same decision anyway. Records written at the time, showing the real reason for the discipline or the firing, carry most of that weight.
Employment Contracts
When a former employee or executive says you broke an employment agreement, we start with the contract itself: the pay and bonus terms, the termination clause, and any arbitration or confidentiality provisions.
Wage & Hour Disputes
Pay practices in Long Beach answer to the California Labor Code, federal law and, for larger hotels, the city code. We defend overtime, meal and rest break, misclassification and final pay claims, including class actions.
Workplace Harassment Law
Our workplace harassment defense lawyers review the complaint, the investigation and the training on file, because California also holds employers liable for failing to take reasonable steps to prevent harassment.
Discrimination Allegations
Discrimination claims under FEHA turn on comparisons: how others in the same role were treated and whether the stated reason for the decision holds up. We collect that evidence before positions harden.
Wrongful Termination
We guide Long Beach employers to prevent and defend against wrongful termination claims, including claims that a firing broke an employment contract or violated public policy.
Unfair Labor Practices
We represent employers in agency hearings, arbitration and court when a worker or union alleges an unfair labor practice.
When an Employee Claim Reaches a Long Beach Business
Most employer cases start with paper: a demand letter from a worker’s lawyer, a notice from the California Civil Rights Department, a wage claim set for a conference at the Labor Commissioner, or a PAGA notice filed with the state. The weeks after that first letter shape the case. Our employer defense attorneys respond within the deadline, secure the records the claim will turn on, and help you decide early whether to settle the claim or defend it.
What to send us when a claim arrives
The claim and the service date
The letter, complaint or agency notice, plus the date and the way it reached you. The deadlines run from that date.
Personnel file and signed policies
Offer letter, handbook acknowledgments, performance reviews, write-ups and the termination notice, if there was one.
Time and pay records
Timecards, pay stubs and meal and rest break records for the whole period the claim covers.
Any arbitration agreement
A signed arbitration agreement can move individual claims out of court, so we need to read it early.
Harassment prevention training
Training records matter: Government Code section 12950.1 requires employers with five or more employees to train staff every two years.
Internal investigation notes
Interview notes, emails and the outcome of any investigation into the complaint before it became a claim.
Local Rules for Long Beach Hotels and Port Shippers
Long Beach’s municipal code adds duties for hotels that the rest of California does not have, and each rule lets workers sue in Superior Court. We advise hotel owners, operators and the contractors that staff them through our hospitality practice, and defend the claims when they come.
The hotel worker minimum wage
Municipal Code section 5.48.020 sets a separate minimum wage for workers at Long Beach hotels with 100 or more guest rooms, including people employed by contractors who provide services at the hotel. The rate is $26.50 an hour from July 1, 2026, and $28.00 from July 1, 2027.
The same section gives hotel workers five paid sick days a year, with unused days paid out at the end of the year, and requires service charges to go in full to the workers who did the job. Workers can bring individual or class actions and recover attorney fees if they win.
Room cleaner workload and safety
Chapter 5.49, adopted by voters as Measure WW in 2018, covers hotels with 50 or more guest rooms. Employees who work alone in guest rooms must have panic buttons. A room cleaner cannot be required to clean more than 4,000 square feet of floor space in an eight-hour day unless the hotel pays double the regular rate for the whole day, and no hotel employee may work more than 10 hours in a day without written consent.
Each day of a workload or overtime violation carries $50 in statutory damages per affected employee, so the two years of workload and consent records the chapter requires usually decide these cases.
Businesses that move freight through the Port of Long Beach carry a different risk. Since January 1, 2025, Labor Code section 2810.4 makes a customer that uses a port drayage trucking company share the civil liability when that carrier misclassifies its drivers as independent contractors, whether or not the carrier appears on the Labor Commissioner’s public list of offenders. The customer is protected when the carrier uses its own employee drivers or bona fide independent contractors with their own operating authority, so the contract and the carrier’s driver model are worth checking before the first load.
Where Long Beach Employment Disputes Are Decided
An employee in Long Beach has several places to bring a claim, and each one runs on its own rules and deadlines. Knowing which forum a claim is in tells us what the first response should be.
Superior Court
For ZIP 90802 in downtown Long Beach, the Los Angeles Superior Court filing court locator sends unlimited civil cases, the category most employment lawsuits fall in, to the Governor George Deukmejian Courthouse at 275 Magnolia Avenue.
Labor Commissioner
Unpaid wage and final pay claims usually start with the Labor Commissioner, which has a Long Beach office at 1500 Hughes Way. A claim there moves through a settlement conference and, if it does not resolve, a hearing before a hearing officer.
Civil Rights Department
Harassment, discrimination and retaliation claims under FEHA start with a complaint to the California Civil Rights Department, which can be filed up to three years after the conduct (Government Code section 12960). After a right-to-sue notice, the employee has one year to file in court.
Wage claims are also the most common route into a PAGA case. Since the 2024 reform, Labor Code section 2699 caps penalties at 15 percent for an employer that had taken all reasonable steps to comply before the notice, and at 30 percent for one that takes them within 60 days after it. An employer with fewer than 100 employees can also send the state a confidential proposal to cure within 33 days of the notice under section 2699.3. We look at the audits, policies and training already on file before we answer the notice.
Long Beach Employer Defense Consultants
Complaints from employees come with running a business. We help Long Beach owners and managers handle it without stalling the business: one point of contact, a clear plan for the response, and a defense built around what the company needs to keep operating.
Our Employer Defense Attorneys
Farhad Novian
Managing Partner
Farhad is the managing partner and leads the firm's litigation practice. He represents privately held companies in labor and employment, corporate and complex business disputes.
Read Farhad's profile
Nikku Khalifian
Attorney
Nikku defends employers against wage-and-hour, harassment, discrimination, retaliation and wrongful termination claims, including PAGA representative actions, and conducts workplace investigations. She studied at California State University, Long Beach.
Read Nikku's profile
Yasmin Khalifian
Attorney
Yasmin brings both small-firm and national-firm experience to whistleblower and workplace disputes. Her advisory work covers employee handbooks, sensitive employee-relations decisions and employment agreements.
Read Yasmin's profileEmployment Defense Law Firm Serving Long Beach
“I had a hard time finding a lawyer I could trust for a privacy issue. Farhad Novian and his team were beyond helpful, responsive and trustworthy. They gave me piece of mind and helped settle my case in a timely manner. I highly recommend Farhad Novian and his team.”
“I have been a client of Novian & Novian for over 10 years and consider Farhad Novian as a highly experienced business and corporate litigator. His extensive legal experience and considerable success allows him to apply the most effective legal strategy, resulting in a successful outcome on a wide spectrum of litigation matters.”
“I cannot offer a more resounding recommendation for Novian & Novian or be more grateful to Farhad Novian & his staff for their exemplary work on my behalf. I am forever grateful and unequivocally recommend this exceptional firm.”
Employer Defense FAQs for Long Beach Businesses
Questions Long Beach employers ask us most often once a claim is on the table.
How long does a Long Beach business have to respond to an employment lawsuit?
Thirty days after the summons is served, under Code of Civil Procedure section 412.20. If no response is filed, the employee can ask the court to enter a default. Call us as soon as the papers arrive, because some defenses, such as a motion to compel arbitration, should be raised before anything else is filed.
Does Long Beach have its own minimum wage for businesses other than hotels?
No. The city's higher rate applies only to hotel workers. Restaurants, retailers, warehouses and other Long Beach employers pay the California minimum wage, along with any industry rules that apply to them under state law.
A former employee won a wage award at the Labor Commissioner. Can we appeal?
Yes. Labor Code section 98.2 allows an appeal to Superior Court within 10 days after service of the award, and the court hears the case again from the start. The employer must first post an undertaking, a bond or cash deposit for the full amount of the award. If the court awards the employee anything above zero, the employer also pays the employee's attorney fees for the appeal.
Can a business be liable for harassment by a customer or a co-worker?
Yes. Under Government Code section 12940, harassment by a supervisor is the employer's responsibility outright. For co-workers, and for nonemployees such as hotel guests or customers, liability turns on whether the business knew or should have known and failed to take immediate and appropriate corrective action. How fast management responded to the first report is usually the center of the defense.
An employee says we fired them for taking family or medical leave. What does California require?
The California Family Rights Act, Government Code section 12945.2, applies to employers with five or more employees. Eligible employees (more than 12 months of service and 1,250 hours in the past year) can take up to 12 workweeks of leave with a guaranteed return to the same or a comparable job, and firing or disciplining someone for using it is unlawful.
What must a severance agreement include when we let someone go?
Under Government Code section 12964.5, an employer offering a separation agreement must tell the employee they have the right to consult an attorney and give them at least five business days to do so. A general release of claims is allowed if it is otherwise valid, but clauses that bar the employee from discussing unlawful acts in the workplace are unenforceable, so we draft releases with those limits in mind.
Contact Us
To discuss a claim against your Long Beach business with an employer defense lawyer, call us or send the form:
(310)-553-1222
1801 Century Park East, Suite 1201 Los Angeles, CA 90067
Service area
Nearby Cities We Also Serve
Employer defense pages for the five closest cities around Long Beach where we have one, measured between city centres.
Employer defense in Los AngelesEmployer defense across CaliforniaAll employment law services
Distances: straight line between the internal points of each city in the U.S. Census Bureau 2023 Gazetteer place file.