Shirley Wang

Of Counsel

Shirley Wang has an extensive counseling and litigation practice, with a particular specialization in employment law matters. At The Davis Law Firm, Ms. Wang litigates a broad range of employment, commercial, unfair competition, false advertising, fraud, and intellectual property cases.

With respect to employment law counseling, Ms. Wang regularly advises employers on a wide range of issues including:

• Employee hiring and retention
• Confidentiality and protection of trade secrets
• Personnel policies and handbooks
• Drug testing and privacy issues
• Discipline and termination
• Classification of employees and independent contractors
• Discrimination, harassment, and retaliation claims
• Management training, including harassment prevention training
• Employee misconduct investigations
• Working hours, conditions, and wages
• Overtime and other wage and hour audits
• Family and medical leaves of absences
• Disability accommodations
• Business reorganizations and reductions in force
• Start-up company issues, checklists, forms, and recordkeeping requirements

Keeping in mind business needs and objectives, Ms. Wang counsels employers and management to be legally compliant and to minimize their risk of liability. Drawing on over 14 years of experience, Ms. Wang provides practical, cost-effective solutions to a wide and complicated array of employment law issues. Ms. Wang also helps employers conduct employee audits and investigations.

Ms. Wang also represents individual executives of public and private companies in the negotiation and preparation of their employment-related agreements, including separation, confidentiality, arbitration, indemnification, and consulting agreements. She provides advice on a variety of issues, including cash and incentive compensation, termination, change in control, severance, indemnification, non-competition, non-solicitation, confidentiality, and proprietary issues.

Ms. Wang has successfully defended employers and management in all types of employment litigations, including race, national origin, age, sex, and disability discrimination, harassment, and retaliation cases, as well as wage and hour actions, employment contract, trade secret and employee solicitation, and unfair competition cases. Ms. Wang has extensive experience in all phases of litigation, including pre-litigation analysis and strategy, discovery, witness preparation, motion practice, mediations and arbitrations, trials, and appeals. Recently, Ms. Wang obtained a defense verdict in a six-week trial involving sex and national origin harassment, wrongful termination, retaliation, and wage and hour claims.

Ms. Wang also defends administrative complaints before federal and state agencies, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, Division of Labor Standards and Enforcement, and the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board.

Prior to joining The Davis Law Firm, Ms. Wang litigated employment, general commercial, and securities fraud cases at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in Palo Alto. In 1999, Ms. Wang helped start the employment law practice group at the San Francisco office of Preston Gates & Ellis (now K&L Gates), where she focused on both counseling and litigation. Ms. Wang also was appointed by Governor Gray Davis to serve as Chief Counsel of the California Office of Criminal Justice Planning from 2001 to 2003, and as the Chief Deputy Director of the Office in 2003.

Ms. Wang received her law degree from New York University School of Law. She received a bachelor of arts degree, magna cum laude, from the University of Washington, where she was admitted as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She speaks conversational Mandarin, and serves on the Board of Directors of several non-profit community organizations.

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