Tim Travelstead
Managing Attorney/Shareholder

Tim is the Managing Attorney and lead litigation attorney. A graduate of Williams College and Georgetown University Law Center, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude, Tim has over 15 years of employment, complex commercial litigation and civil appeals.

Mr. Travelstead was the principal author of the winning brief in Ross v. RagingWire, where the California Supreme Court ruled employers do not have an obligation to accommodate marijuana in the workplace.

Tim has represented businesses of all sizes and industries, who faced all types of employment claims including discrimination, harassment, wage-and-hour, job misclassification and retaliation claims under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act.

Employment Litigation
Mr. Travelstead has extensive experience representing employers facing discrimination, harassment, retaliation, whistleblower, and wage-and-hour claims. His practice includes both public and private sector employers, from large and small businesses across a wide range of industries, from technology to retail, restaurants to finance. Tim was the lead author in the winning brief in Ross v. RagingWire Telecommunications, Inc., 42 Cal.4th 920 (2008), where the California Supreme Court held that an employer does not have an obligation to accommodate marijuana use under California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act.

Tim also represented a public healthcare district in a multi-plaintiff employment discrimination and harassment case.  With the plaintiff’s seeking over $1 million in damages, the jury returned a complete win for the healthcare district.

Employment Clients Include:

City of Emeryville
City of Richmond
San Francisco School District
Macy’s
Technisource, Inc.
Execustaff HR, Inc.
Budget Rent-a-Car
Hull & Company
Yank Sing Restaurants

Complex Litigation
In addition to his considerable employment litigation background, Tim has extensive experience in complex litigation matters as well. He authored the brief that defeated class certification in a large overtime misclassification case involving the retailer Coach, defeated a class action against Doctors Medical Center at the pleadings stage, and has favorably settled numerous wage-and-hour class actions in the financial services, temporary staffing, food processing, emergency services, construction, and IT services industries.

Tim also has significant class action and complex case management experience outside of the employment and wage-and-hour sectors, including toxic-tort litigation, copyright and trade secrets cases, false advertising and unfair competition claims.

Class Action Clients Include:

Armani Exchange
Coach, Inc.
Foot Locker
Perot Systems, Inc.
Toys R Us
Doctors Medical Center

Civil Appeals
Mr. Travelstead has over a decade of experience representing both public and private sector clients in civil appeals. He wrote the winning brief in Ross v. RagingWire Telecommunications, Inc., 42 Cal.4th 920 (2008), where the California Supreme Court ruled employers have no legal obligation to accommodate an employee’s medical use of marijuana. He has represented public and private sector clients before the California Court of Appeals and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in discrimination, harassment, and wage-and-hour class actions, and commercial contract disputes.

Tim recently won an important appellate victory when a commercial tenant sued her landlord, the real estate broker, and the property manager over the conditions of the property.  A jury ruled against the tenant in 2010.  But four years later, she attempted to resurrect the case alleging intrinsic fraud in the conduct of the trial.

Tim wrote the winning brief and argued the case.  The Court of Appeals upheld the jury’s verdict and awarded costs to the landlord.

Other Civil Appeals Clients Include:

RagingWire, Inc.
San Francisco Unified School District
Foot Locker
Execustaff HR, Inc.
MicroDental Laboratories
Doctors Medical Center

Tim is also an active member of the LGBT community, providing long-term legal support to the LGBT National Help Center, and its hotlines for at-risk LGBT youth, adults and seniors.