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Daily Journal Names Tritia Murata and David Zins 2022 Top Labor and Employment Lawyers

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Morrison Foerster’s Los Angeles partners Tritia Murata and David Zins have been named Top Labor and Employment Lawyers in 2022 by the Daily Journal. The recognitions follow strong years by both partners. This is the third consecutive year, moreover, that Tritia has been named to the list.



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Morrison Foerster’s Los Angeles partners Tritia Murata and David Zins have been named Top Labor and Employment Lawyers in 2022 by the Daily Journal. The recognitions follow strong years by both partners. This is the third consecutive year, moreover, that Tritia has been named to the list.Co-chair of the firm’s Global Employment & Labor Group, Tritia has extensive class action experience and an impressive track record of successfully defeating class certification in high-exposure wage‑and‑hour class actions. Tritia is known to pursue aggressive, effective strategies for winning wage-and-hour class and PAGA representative actions and has notched successes on behalf of leading clients spanning various industries. Outside of the courtroom, she champions diversity and inclusion, both in the firm and in the legal profession. She serves as co-chair of Morrison Foerster’s Women’s Strategy Committee and is the founder and partner sponsor of the Los Angeles office’s Working Parents Affinity Group. Tritia also serves on the board of the UCLA Law Women LEAD alumnae.David Zins was elevated to the partnership at the beginning of 2022 and is a skilled litigator and experienced advisor to employers. David’s dedication to his clients makes him a true rising star among California employment lawyers. He advises and defends employers in wage-and-hour matters and has significant experience defeating California class actions and PAGA representative actions. He also has expertise in obtaining favorable results for his clients facing FLSA collective actions and other employment-related litigation. In addition, David is committed to the firm’s pro bono program. He frequently advises nonprofit organizations with respect to a variety of employment-related issues. He also is passionate in his support for pro bono LGBTQ+ advocacy. David received the California Lawyers Association’s Wiley W. Manuel Certificate in 2018, 2019, and 2020.You can view their profiles in the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.dailyjournal.com/">Daily Journal</a>.

Daily Journal Names Tritia Murata and David Zins 2022 Top Labor and Employment Lawyers

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Tritia Murata co-chairs Morrison Foerster’s Global Employment & Labor Group and co-leads the firm’s wage-and-hour class action practice. She defends businesses against complex employment lawsuits, including putative class actions, Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) actions, and Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) collective actions.  Tritia is a skilled litigator known for her ability to develop innovative strategies to win cases. In particular, clients turn to Tritia for her extensive class action expertise and impressive track record of defeating class certification and otherwise shutting down high-exposure class and PAGA actions. Tritia’s litigation experience also includes representing employers in actions alleging discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wrongful termination, trade secrets misappropriation, employee and customer raiding, unfair competition, and other employment-related claims.Tritia has notched victories on behalf of leading clients spanning various industries, including retail, supply chain, technology, financial services, restaurant, and healthcare. She led the team that secured a complete defense win for a retail grocery client in a seminal PAGA suitable seating trial, which was upheld on appeal in a published decision. She and her team also obtained the first published California appellate decision recognizing that courts have the inherent authority to strike unmanageable PAGA claims. Tritia has disposed of cases at the pleadings stage and on dispositive motions, defeated class certification, negotiated walkaways and nuisance value individual settlements, won at trial, and protected trial court wins on appeal. Tritia has also helped clients strategically manage significant complex employment litigation portfolios.Tritia is devoted to her clients and dedicated to delivering them superior results. She understands that there is not a “one-size-fits-all" approach to successfully litigating complex actions. Every case is different, and every business is different. Tritia invests time to understand her clients’ businesses, priorities, and goals, and she leverages her deep substantive knowledge and subject matter expertise to develop and execute roadmaps to achieve successful outcomes.Outside of the courtroom, Tritia provides clients with practical, business-minded advice regarding various labor and employment law issues, including employee discipline and termination decisions, employment discrimination and harassment complaints, wage-and-hour compliance, employment policies and procedures, trade secrets and employee mobility concerns, and employee disputes and pre-litigation demands. Drawing on her experience as a litigator, Tritia evaluates her clients’ employment-related concerns and works with clients to tailor solutions that limit risk while achieving their business goals.Tritia’s landmark victories and skill as an employment litigator have earned repeated recognition. Law360 named Tritia an “<a href="https://media2.mofo.com/documents/201007-mvp-tritia-murata.pdf" target="_blank">Employment MVP</a>” in 2020, after she led her team to a seminal PAGA trial win in a suitable seating action. From 2020 through 2022, Tritia was honored as a Top Labor and Employment Lawyer by the Los Angeles Daily Journal and as a “Trailblazer” in employment law and litigation by the National Law Journal. In 2021, the Los Angeles Business Journal recognized Tritia as a Minority Leader of Influence, and she was shortlisted for the Euromoney Women in Business Law Awards in the Labour & Employment category.In 2018, Euromoney shortlisted Tritia as one of eight “Rising Stars” in labor and employment law. The Recorder previously named her to its “Lawyers on the Fast Track” list, which recognizes 50 attorneys in California whose early career accomplishments indicate that they will be tomorrow’s top lawyers and leaders. Tritia was selected by the National Diversity Council and California Diversity Council to receive a “2015 California Most Powerful and Influential Woman Award,” which recognizes and honors women who have not only achieved personal success but have made it possible for others to more easily follow in their footsteps.Tritia is committed to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion at the firm and in the legal profession. Tritia serves as co-chair of the firm’s Women’s Strategy Committee (WSC) and has been a member of the WSC for more than a decade. She is also a member of the firm’s Diversity Strategy Committee and is the founder and partner sponsor of the Los Angeles office’s Working Parents Affinity Group. Morrison Foerster selected Tritia as its Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) Fellow for 2015. Tritia serves on the board of the <a href="https://law.ucla.edu/alumni-giving/ways-connect/ucla-law-women-lead" target="_blank">UCLA Law Women LEAD alumnae network</a> and is an inaugural member of the steering committee of the <a href="https://jtb.org/summer-legal-institute/" target="_blank">Just the Beginning (JTB) Summer Legal Institute</a> in Los Angeles, a pipeline program dedicated to developing and nurturing interest in the law among young persons from socioeconomic, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds underrepresented in the legal profession. She is a recipient of the State Bar of California’s Wiley W. Manuel Award for pro bono service.Tritia received her J.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law in 2004, where she was an articles editor of the UCLA Law Review. She received her B.S. in 2001 from the University of California, Los Angeles, where she double-majored in mathematics and English and was a Regents Scholar.

Tritia M. Murata

Partner

David Zins is a seasoned employment class action litigator, an experienced advisor to employers, and a co-leader of the firm’s wage-and-hour class action practice. He is also the hiring partner of the Los Angeles office.David represents and defends a wide array of clients in the retail, manufacturing, supply-chain, financial services, and tech sectors, among others, facing high-stakes challenges to their employment and related business practices.David focuses on advising and defending employers in wage-and-hour matters, with an emphasis on defeating putative class actions, Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) representative actions, and Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) collective actions filed against California employers. He has a long track record of defeating class certification or otherwise winning claims pertaining to worker classification; meal and rest period provision; rounding of time; donning/doffing, walking time, and other off-the-clock theories; regular rate of pay calculation; paystub accuracy; and reimbursement of business expenses, among other theories of wage-and-hour liability. He has had remarkable success in PAGA actions as well. For a retail client, he successfully moved to strike, on manageability grounds, a PAGA claim alleging group-wide manager misclassification, resulting in a published appellate affirmance in a case of first impression. For another client, he successfully briefed and argued that PAGA claims are triable to the court, not a jury, in a victory affirmed on appeal in a landmark published opinion. Clients retain David and his team to win.In addition to his wage-and-hour expertise, David has significant experience defending employers against claims of employment discrimination, retaliation, wrongful termination, and other kinds of employment-related liability. He also maintains a counseling practice drawing on his extensive experience with workplace issues.David’s dedication to his clients and his proven ability to obtain victory on their behalf resulted in his selection by Super Lawyers as a “Los Angeles Rising Star” in 2018-2019 and by the Daily Journal as a “Top Labor & Employment Lawyer” in 2022.David is a dedicated firm leader. In addition to his current role as hiring partner, he has been active in the firm’s recruiting throughout his tenure and, as an associate, twice co-chaired the firm’s summer associate program in Los Angeles and served on the hiring committee for many years. In addition, he helped found and now sponsors the firm’s LGBTQ+ affinity group in Los Angeles. He also is a devoted mentor, coach, and confidant to associates and others.David is committed to the firm’s pro bono program. He frequently advises non-profit organizations with respect to a variety of employment-related issues. He also supports LGBTQ+ advocacy work in a number of ways. In recognition of his pro bono service, David has repeatedly received the California Lawyers Association’s Wiley W. Manuel Certificate.David graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was honored with the Dean’s Scholar Prizes in Labor Law, Employment Law, and Immigration and Refugee Advocacy and served as a mediator, training director, and co-president of the Harvard Mediation Program. Before law school, David worked as a human resources professional at a supply-chain company, where he was responsible for ensuring compliance with the full range of employment laws.

David Zins

Employment + Labor