Tim O’Donnell has more than 20 years of litigation experience and has practiced management-side employment law exclusively since 2000. He has represented a wide variety of employers from single-owner businesses to Fortune 500 companies and public entities. Tim also has defended clients in lawsuits brought pursuant to Title VII, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the Labor Management Rights Act (LMRA), the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), the California Family Rights Act (CTFA), the California Labor Code, and the Washington law against Discrimination, among others. In those cases, he has defended against claims for discrimination on the basis of sex, age, race, religion and disability; sexual harassment; retaliation; whistle-blowing; fraud; and wrongful termination.
In addition to litigating in court, Tim has extensive employment-related administrative claim experience. He has drafted numerous responses to pre-filing demand letters and to administrative complaints filed with the EEOC, the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division, and their state and local counterparts throughout the nation, including Washington state.
Areas of Focus
Employment & Labor
Defense
Tim also has experience defending wage-and-hour lawsuits, including class actions, involving claims for meal and rest break penalties, overtime wages, misclassification and other wage-and-hour claims. He also advises employers on various issues ranging from harassment and discrimination and managing employee leaves of absence to issues regarding employee pay, employer policy handbooks and the prevention of workplace violence.
Counseling
With respect to employment counseling, Tim provides clients with practical legal and non-legal advice that is consistent with the client's business culture and aims to achieve legitimate business objectives while minimizing risk. Tim is comfortable providing competent advice in fast-paced environments where time and available facts are sometimes limited.
Tim’s employment counseling experience consists of advising numerous employers and their human resources department personnel, in-house business groups and senior executives on a wide variety of legal employment-related subjects, including compliance issues arising from new legislation and recent court decisions.
Representative Matters
Successfully defended public entity defendant by obtaining dismissal based on California’s anti-SLAPP statute.
Successfully defended client through motion for judgment on the pleadings against California Fair Employment and Housing Act claims for discrimination, harassment and retaliation. Affirmed on appeal.
Obtained summary judgment for computer technology company against claim for unpaid bonus.