Elizabeth Falcone is a shareholder with Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C. Elizabeth represents private and public employers in all aspects of employment law, including wage/hour matters, wrongful termination, discrimination, and harassment litigation. She is known for her skills as a litigator. She is frequently called upon to take on cases that are demanding, contentious, or complicated. That includes defending class action and collective cases, as well as difficult single and multi-plaintiff cases. She has tried cases for employers in state and federal courts.
Elizabeth has significant experience representing clients faced with putative class and representative actions, including in California. She has litigated class action claims in many different industries, including retail, tech, financial services, health care, and the construction trades. She has experience leading class and representative actions from filing through settlement. Her experience includes defending against claims of misclassification for purposes of exempt status, missed meal and rest periods, adequacy of paystubs, and other wage-related claims. She has also represented defendants in class actions alleging disparate impact and other discrimination claims.
In addition to her class action work, Elizabeth has represented employers at trial in various courts in California and Oregon, and in private arbitration. In addition to courtroom work, she has appeared before the United States Department of Labor, the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, and the Oregon Bureau of Labor & Industries. She also has experience litigating against government agencies, including the EEOC and BOLI. Elizabeth has broad expertise in the area of disparate treatment, harassment, retaliation, wrongful termination, and other issues commonly raised by individual employee litigants. She provides day-to-day advice to clients on issues including wage and hour matters, leaves of absence, accommodation of disabilities, and risk management when making disciplinary decisions. Elizabeth has represented both public and private employers in grievance arbitrations, as well as at the bargaining table. She regularly speaks on issues including basic employment law, reasonable accommodations, wage/hour considerations, the law of harassment and workplace investigations.
Elizabeth is a member of the State Bars of California and Oregon, and actively practices in both jurisdictions. She received her B.A., cum laude, in English with Departmental Honors from Northwestern University in 1998. She received her J.D. from New York University School of Law in 2001. At NYU, she was a McKay Scholar, an editor of the Moot Court Board, and was named to the Order of Barristers upon graduation.
Prior to joining Ogletree Deakins’ Portland, Oregon office, Elizabeth was employed for nearly ten years in the Employment Law Department of the Los Angeles office of Paul Hastings LLP. She has received awards including listing in the Best Lawyers in America and in Chambers and the Super Lawyer designation.
