Robert Jon Hendricks

Partner

Robert Jon Hendricks is a partner in Morgan Lewis's Labor and Employment Practice, with specific experience with the travel, hospitality, food service, entertainment and retail industries. Mr. Hendricks represents employers and management employees in matters arising under California and federal law, such as federal and state wage and hour law, federal and state anti-discrimination laws, California Business and Professions Code Section 17200 et seq., the California Consumer Legal Remedies Act, California's Trade Secrets Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) (including Title III), as well as California's Unruh Civil Rights Act.

Mr. Hendricks has significant state, federal and administrative trial experience as lead counsel. Recent highlights include:

• Defense of one of the largest class actions ever filed against a retailer. Plaintiffs claimed that a national retailer misled Californians by promoting its standards requiring the foreign companies it does business with to obey local labor laws and treat workers fairly. Successfully moved to dismiss the case, which had been watched closely by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce because of its potential impact on American companies' liability related to their foreign operation of factories and other businesses.
• Successful defense of an employment arbitration matter in which an employee challenged his termination for violation of a workplace environment rule prohibiting harassment or discrimination. Plaintiff claimed that the company was precluded from disciplining him for discriminatory remarks made against another employee on a union-controlled electronic bulletin board because the comments were made while plaintiff was off duty. Mr. Hendricks persuaded the arbitrator that there was sufficient nexus to the workplace because the author, the audience, and the victim of the post were all employees of the company, and that when an employee brought the matter to the company's attention, it was obligated to take action.
• A six-week jury trial in Los Angeles Superior Court, where he was lead counsel and obtained a complete defense verdict for all four defendants against a plaintiff who, in a must-win case for the company, alleged race, religious, and national origin discrimination and harassment, and retaliation over a five-year period of time.
• A three-week administrative hearing before the Department of Labor, where Mr. Hendricks also obtained a complete dismissal of a whistleblower claim claiming retaliation for complaining about safety.
• An arbitration scheduled for seven days, which ended with an award for the defense after the claimant was examined by Mr. Hendricks and Mr. Hendricks began to present the defense case demonstrating that the claimant had lied about raising complaints of billing fraud and other matters.
• After two and a half days of deposition established that the plaintiff was not credible and had either welcomed or was not offended by the conduct raised in her complaint for sexual harassment and discrimination, the plaintiff stipulated to dismissal with prejudice of her claim against all defendants for a waiver of defense costs and fees.
• After six years of litigation, achieved victory for a hotel chain in a case in which the plaintiff sought $100 million for racial discrimination, civil rights violations, and breach of contract based on the hotel's failure to provide a certain facility for an event. The district court granted summary judgment in 2003, ruling that there was insufficient evidence of discrimination. The plaintiff appealed and the Ninth Circuit reversed and remanded in December 2005, denied a petition for rehearing en banc, and remanded the case. At the final pretrial conference in February 2008, Mr. Hendricks argued that the plaintiff was suing in an individual capacity under California law, and therefore had no standing because the contract was between the hotel and the partnership company of which he was a member. The court dismissed the action with prejudice, finding that the plaintiff lacked standing and that he was barred from attempting to substitute the proper party into the case.
• Summary judgment for the defendant and a complete dismissal of a California wage and hour class action in which the plaintiff, seeking to represent a class of 6,500, alleged that the employer had violated California Labor Code Section 226 by failing to provide accurate wage statements.

Mr. Hendricks also has experience with labor and employment class actions. He has helped clients obtain settlement on favorable terms for wage and hour claims. And he has helped clients obtain complete dismissals of class claims. For one client, Mr. Hendricks helped obtain a complete dismissal at the pleading stage of a putative class action that challenged an employer's health benefit plan on Title VII and ADA grounds because it allegedly failed to provide coverage for infertility, pap smears, and other medical treatments.

Mr. Hendricks has also successfully briefed and argued several matters before the Ninth Circuit and California Courts of Appeal. In one such matter, Mr. Hendricks was able to obtain, via writ petition, a published decision establishing that union officials do not have a privilege to withhold from employers during litigation information known to them concerning harassment in the workplace and that, like employers, unions have obligations to prevent harassment in the workplace.

Mr. Hendricks is admitted to practice in California.