Before you sign a severance agreement
This is where many of our employment matters begin.
A severance agreement is a contract, and it is negotiable far more often than people are led to believe. What is offered first is rarely the outer limit of what an employer will pay, particularly where the circumstances of the separation carry legal exposure the employer would prefer not to litigate.
The document also does more than set a number. It typically releases claims you may not know you have, and it may contain non-disparagement, confidentiality, non-solicitation, or cooperation provisions that bind you for years. California restricts some of these terms, and certain provisions are unenforceable as written.
We review severance agreements, explain in plain terms what each provision does and what you would be giving up, and tell you whether the offer is reasonable given the facts. Where it is not, we negotiate. Some of these matters resolve in a better agreement within weeks. Others become litigation. Which path makes sense depends on the facts and on what you want, and that is your decision to make.
Do not sign before the deadline runs without understanding what you are signing. If you have been given a deadline, tell us when you call.
What we handle
Discrimination
Adverse treatment based on race, sex, age, disability, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, or other protected characteristics under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) and Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Harassment
Sexual harassment and harassment based on any protected characteristic, whether it comes from a supervisor, a colleague, or a client.
Retaliation
California protects employees who report unlawful conduct, request accommodation, take protected leave, or participate in an investigation. Retaliation frequently appears as a sudden shift in performance ratings, exclusion from projects, reorganization out of a role, or selection for a layoff.
Whistleblower claims
Labor Code section 1102.5 protects employees who report what they reasonably believe to be a violation of law. We also handle claims involving securities and financial reporting, government contracting, and public health and safety.
Wage and hour
Unpaid overtime, misclassification as exempt or as an independent contractor, missed meal and rest periods, unreimbursed business expenses, and unpaid commissions or equity — individually and on a representative basis.
We learn what you actually do
Employment cases in technical fields turn on details that a generalist has to take on faith. Whether a performance criticism was legitimate. Whether a project failure was foreseeable or engineered as a pretext. Whether the work you were excluded from was the work that led to promotion. Whether the reason you were given for a decision is even technically coherent.
Answering those questions requires understanding the job, not just the statute. David Markevitch worked as a research chemist before practicing law and has spent his career learning unfamiliar technical fields quickly — the systems, the vocabulary, the way the work is actually done and measured.
The difference is most visible in depositions. A manager who has been prepared to explain a termination in general terms is in a very different position when the questions are specific, technically accurate, and impossible to answer with process language. It also shapes our work with expert witnesses — on compensation structures, industry standards, or the technical substance of a client's role — where understanding the field lets us give an expert complete context and lets them push our own analysis further than it would otherwise go.
The arbitration agreement you signed may not apply
Nearly everyone hired at a technology company signs an arbitration agreement, and most people assume it means their claims can never reach a courtroom. For sexual harassment and sexual assault claims, that assumption is wrong.
Under the federal Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act (EFAA), 9 United States Code sections 401 and 402, a person alleging sexual harassment or sexual assault may elect to bring the case in court regardless of any arbitration agreement signed beforehand. The choice belongs to the employee. An employer cannot force the matter back into arbitration once that election is made.
California courts have read the statute broadly. Where a case includes a sexual harassment claim, courts have held that the whole case is exempt from arbitration — including claims that would otherwise be arbitrable on their own, such as wage and hour claims.
The protection has limits, and they are worth understanding before relying on it. Courts examine whether the conduct alleged actually constitutes sexual harassment under the governing law. In one 2026 federal case in Northern California, an employee's claims were sent to arbitration because the court found the complaint did not plausibly allege sexual harassment under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, leaving the arbitration agreement in force. The statute protects real claims; it is not a drafting maneuver.
Whether it applies to your situation depends on the specific conduct and when it occurred. It is worth finding out before assuming a signed agreement decides where your case will be heard.
If your claim involves a sexual assault
California law currently revives certain employment claims — including wrongful termination and sexual harassment — that arise out of a sexual assault, even when the ordinary deadline for those claims has long passed. The revival provision reaches conduct concealed through nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) or confidentiality agreements, which are common in this industry.
If you signed an agreement about an incident and were told the matter was closed, it may be worth a conversation. These consultations are confidential and commit you to nothing.
If you are still employed
Not everyone who calls us has already been fired. Some are in the middle of something and are trying to understand what is happening to them.
If you are being treated differently after a complaint, being managed out through a performance process that does not match your work, or being pressured over a disability, a leave, or a pregnancy, you have rights while you are still employed — not only after you lose the job. Those protections are often the most useful before a termination, not after.
What we do in these situations is explain what the law protects, what your employer is and is not permitted to do, and what your realistic options are given the facts as they already stand — including what deadlines may be running and what the likely consequences of each course of action are.
We do not manufacture disputes, and we do not counsel anyone to create a record that does not reflect reality. The facts are what they are before you call us. Our role is to make sure you understand them, understand your rights, and make informed decisions rather than uninformed ones.
Many of these conversations do not lead to litigation. Some lead to an accommodation being granted, an investigation being conducted properly, or a resolution that lets someone keep a job they wanted to keep. Others lead to a claim. We will tell you honestly which we think is likely.
Consultations are confidential.
What to do now
Preserve what you have. Save relevant documents and communications to a personal account or device, consistent with your obligations. Employees regularly lose access to their own evidence the moment they are terminated.
Be careful with severance agreements. They often contain releases, non-disparagement terms, and deadlines. California limits some of these provisions, and some are unenforceable. Have one reviewed before you sign.
Watch the deadlines. FEHA claims generally require an administrative filing with the Civil Rights Department within three years of the conduct. Other claims carry different, sometimes shorter, deadlines.
Consultations
Employment consultations are free and confidential. Contacting us does not create an attorney-client relationship, and it does not put you under any obligation.