The Daily Journal selected Partners Tracey Kennedy and Keahn Morris for its 2025 list of “Top Labor & Employment Lawyers” in California.
This marks Kennedy’s 11th appearance on this prestigious list. The Daily Journal highlighted Kennedy’s more than 30-year track record of representing employers in a wide variety of employment litigation, including trying three multi-million-dollar wage-and-hour cases to verdict. The Daily Journal also noted Kennedy’s recent victories, including a two-week jury trial in which the plaintiff pursued claims of wrongful termination, breach of contract, discrimination, retaliation, intentional infliction of emotional distress and fraud. The plaintiff sought more than $50 million plus punitive damages from defendants Aurantiaca USA, LLC, Cilento LLC and Noah Schankler, but Kennedy secured a complete defense verdict for her clients.
Kennedy also won full summary judgement for Advanced Sterilization Products, Inc. (ASP) in a case where the plaintiff alleged termination based on association with her daughter’s illness and retaliation. After two years of litigation, the court determined no triable issues of material fact existed, aligning with the arguments Kennedy presented in ASP’s motion.
The Daily Journal recognized Morris for representing employers in some of the most complex labor disputes of the modern era, including cases that have helped define how businesses respond to union organization in previously non-unionized sections. Notably, Morris negotiated one of the first collective bargaining agreements in the U.S. gaming industry after employees at a major video game company unionized with the Communications Workers of America. He also represented a transportation platforming negotiating its first statewide labor agreement governing driver deactivations under Washington’s gig worker law, helping establish precedent for how companies navigate emerging labor regulations at the state level.
“Unlike traditional union drives, these efforts often extend well beyond the workplace and include public relations strategies, social media activism, political engagement and pressure on investors, regulators and customers,” Morris said.