Labor and employment lawyer Laura Reathaford has left Venable to join Blank Rome in Los Angeles, reuniting with two former colleagues there.
Reathaford's move, announced Monday, helps Blank Rome grow its practice related to California's Private Attorney General Act, which allows individual workers to file lawsuits on Labor Code violations when the state does not act. Reathaford had previously worked with Blank Rome partners Howard Knee and Michael Ludwig, who joined the firm in 2010 from labor and employment boutique Knee Roth and Silverman.
Her clients include billion-dollar companies with tens of thousands of employees, with a focus on the grocery and manufacturing industries, she said. Reathaford's clients do not overlap with Blank Rome's existing business, said labor and employment co-chair Brooke Iley. But Reathaford said she is looking forward to working with some of Blank Rome's institutional clients.
Blank Rome had existing PAGA capabilities in Knee and Ludwig, Iley said, but Reathaford deepens that knowledge within the labor and employment practice.
"She's a contender," Iley said. Having "her working on that team and able to increase the bench strength will really be a game changer in that space."
Blank Rome's competitors in the practice have traditionally been Proskauer Rose, Seyfarth Shaw and Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete, Iley said.
Reathaford left Knee's firm in 2007 for Seyfarth Shaw, and then later joined Proskauer. She became a partner at Venable in 2015. At Blank Rome, she said, the practice group will likely grow by one or two lawyers in the near future.
PAGA can have major implications for employers, Reathaford said, with exposure to penalties in the seven- or eight-figure range. Because of how the law is structured, it allows plaintiffs to bring their claims under a number of arguments, requiring a creative, robust defense, she said.
"We're getting new decisions almost every week," Reathaford said. "It makes it more difficult for lawyers to navigate the law and avoid penalties under PAGA."
Blank Rome has a significant base of employment lawyers focused on wage-and-hour cases, Iley said, and has been focused on filling out its national wage-and-hour team through hires on the West Coast.
The firm has experienced major head count growth in the past two years, including additions in California, such as its absorption of a family law boutique in L.A. last year. The L.A. office opened in 2009, and has grown to more than 40 lawyers.