Alexander “Zander” Chemers is a shareholder in the Los Angeles office of Ogletree Deakins.
Zander helps businesses navigate California’s challenging legal requirements. He regularly advises clients on best practices to comply with state and federal law, and frequently delivers speeches and webinars. Zander has testified before Congress on issues surrounding independent contractors, an area in which he regularly litigates. Zander (together with his wife) has been featured on the cover of The American Lawyer magazine.
Zander represents clients in many industries, including transportation and logistics, manufacturing, retail, food services, construction, technology, and defense contractors. Through his counseling, he advises clients on compensation plans, meal period and rest break compliance, regular rate calculations, and other strategies to minimize litigation risk.
Zander is also an experienced class action litigator; as discussed in the Experience section, his clients have repeatedly defeated certification in state and federal courts. His litigation practice focuses on wage-and-hour claims, ranging from class actions involving thousands of putative class members, to representative actions under the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA), to single plaintiff arbitrations. These cases involve a broad spectrum of wage-and-hour claims, including alleged violations of minimum wage, overtime, prevailing wage, regular rate, meal period and rest break, business expenses, and wage statement statutes.
Zander has also successfully defended companies against alleged violations of federal statutes, including wage claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act, disability access claims under Title III, and pre-employment disclosures under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Zander has also assisted clients who are facing claims for discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wrongful termination, and failure to accommodate.
Zander received his J.D. from the UCLA School of Law in 2008. Following law school, Zander spent a year clerking for the Honorable Ancer L. Haggerty, Chief Judge for the District of Oregon.
