Matt Tobias is a partner in the Labor and Employment Practice Group in the firm's Los Angeles and Chicago offices.
Matt handles a wide range of labor and employment matters on behalf of employers and management. His practice includes:
Class and Representative Action Litigation: Matt regularly defends clients in complex litigation matters involving wage and hour class and representative actions, including PAGA lawsuits, in both state and federal courts. He has successfully defeated class certification motions and prevailed on summary judgment in such actions.
Single-Plaintiff Litigation: Matt has considerable jury trial experience and has tried to verdict employment matters such as age, sex, national origin, and disability discrimination, as well as harassment, retaliation, and wrongful termination claims. He has successfully prevailed on summary judgment in single plaintiff matters as well.
Trade Secrets and Employee-Mobility: Matt prosecutes and defends actions involving trade secret claims, unfair competition and enforcement of restrictive covenants and non-competes. He advises clients on employee-mobility issues and how to protect sensitive and valuable information.
Internal Investigations: Matt conducts internal investigations on behalf of clients involving complex, sensitive, and often high-level personnel matters, including claims of misconduct, sexual harassment, whistleblower retaliation, and wage and hour disputes.
Advice and Counseling: Matt regularly counsels clients on day-to-day workplace issues, such as the administration and enforcement of personnel policies, employee classification issues, reductions-in-force, executive and employee discipline and separation, leaves of absence and reasonable accommodations. He also conducts interactive trainings on issues such as recruitment, sexual harassment, discrimination, and general legal compliance issues.
Mergers and Acquisitions: Matt works with clients on mergers and acquisitions to evaluate employment liabilities associated with the transactions, to develop solutions to issues that may arise as part of the transactions, and to structure any employment-related agreements that may be included in such transactions.
Traditional Labor: Matt has significant experience representing employers in union negotiations, grievance proceedings and unfair labor practice charges before the National Labor Relations Board and other administrative agencies.
Prior to joining Sheppard, Matt worked in human resources for the City of Los Angeles conducting investigations into claims of unlawful discrimination, harassment, and retaliation, presenting training seminars to City employees on compliance with state and federal EEO laws, and representing the City in union-related matters.