Jennifer A. Kearns

Jennifer Kearns is a business and employment law attorney with thirty years of experience in advising and defending the interests of business owners. Ms. Kearns advises employers in all aspects of employment law, including but not limited to defense of wage and hour class actions, worker classification issues, disability accommodation, prevention of unlawful harassment and discrimination, and best practices for protection of intellectual property, trade secrets and other confidential information.

Ms. Kearns works with companies to develop personnel policies, practices and handbooks, offers guidance in connection with individual employee terminations as well as mass layoffs, counsels employers in connection with their management of employee leaves of absence, and assist employers in recognizing disability accommodation situations and managing reasonable accommodations.

Ms. Kearns is a skilled investigator and has assisted clients by conducting investigations or in guiding client personnel in the conduct of employment-related investigations. In addition to her role as a valued advisor to her clients, Ms. Kearns is also an experienced trial lawyer.

Ms. Kearns has successfully defended employers in numerous employment cases that proceeded to jury verdict, and has litigated many more over the course of her career. Ms. Kearns has defended companies and their management in cases alleging wage and hour violations, sexual, racial, religious, gender and disability harassment and discrimination, “whistleblower” wrongful termination, retaliation, disability discrimination and failure to provide reasonable accommodation.

While Ms. Kearns is a skilled and tenacious advocate, she has also successfully settled numerous cases. Ms. Kearns has also handled numerous employment arbitration cases to conclusion.

Ms. Kearns works closely with members of the Firm’s Intellectual Property practice group and is a member of the Firm’s interdisciplinary Life Sciences Group. Ms. Kearns has developed a special focus on the protection of trade secret and other confidential information.

She has extensive experience in the area of restrictive covenants, including non-compete agreements and non-solicit agreements throughout the United States. Ms. Kearns’ work in this area includes advising clients on best practices, advising clients when hiring talent from a competitor or when terminating employees who are leaving to join competitors, identification and implementation of best practices to employ when theft of trade secrets is suspected or anticipated and preservation of electronic evidence.

Ms. Kearns has successfully negotiated modifications to non-compete and non-solicit agreements and when litigating disputes involving trade secrets, has successfully obtained injunctive relief and has successfully defended against the imposition of injunctive relief.

Ms. Kearns’ experience in the area of restrictive covenants is relied upon by individual executive clients who seek her assistance in negotiating their executive employment agreements, as well as by companies who are seeking to enforce restrictive covenants or who require an assessment of restrictive covenant obligations as part of due diligence when acquiring or selling companies.

Ms. Kearns’ undergraduate education was largely based in the life sciences and computer science, and in the early years of her career, Ms. Kearns defended pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers in product liability actions. She also defended for several years a major asbestos producer in injury and death cases, trying several such cases to verdict.

Representative Matters:

• Defended car wash business against wage and hour class action – defeated class certification three times [plaintiffs were allowed to appoint alternate putative class representative twice, after class certification denied].
• Defended manufacturing business against claims of disability discrimination, failure to accommodate and wrongful termination.
• Defended global temporary services employer against wage and hour class action/PAGA action. Case resolved after mediation and before any motion for class certification.
• Defended multinational drug company against salesperson’s claims including pregnancy discrimination. Defense verdict on all claims; court awarded drug company partial attorneys’ fees recovery from plaintiff.
• Defended defense contractor tech company against worker’s claims, including wrongful termination and whistleblowing. Defense verdict.
• Defended family-owned manufacturing business against daughter’s ownership claims.
• Defended biotechnology company against competitor’s claims of misappropriation of trade secrets.
• Defended breast implant manufacturer in multiple injury cases.

Admissions:

• California
• U.S. District Court for the Central District of California
• U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California
• U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

Board Memberships:

• Mama’s Kitchen, Member of Board of Directors, 2014 – present
• President of Board of Directors, Mama’s Kitchen, 2007
• Secretary of Board of Directors, Mama’s Kitchen, 2016 – present
• Mama’s Kitchen, Member of Board of Directors, 2004-2010