Our People

Alex Wong

Associate, Los Angeles

310.981.2000
awong@lcwlegal.com
Bio
Experience Representative Matters Affiliations Awards Publications Presentations

Alex Wong has extensive litigation experience including law and motion practice, discovery, settlement negotiations, trial and appeals in state and federal courts.  Alex provides client representation and legal counsel to cities, counties, special districts, school districts, community college districts and independent schools.  He handles a range of employment and labor matters including discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wrongful termination and civil rights litigation, employee discipline, grievance arbitrations, responding to DFEH/EEOC charges, and drafting and revising personnel rules and polices.

In addition to excellent motion writing, and a proven record of success in preparing dispositive motions, Alex is also one of the firm's appellate specialists and a go to person for appellate briefs, including amicus briefs on cases with important policy ramifications for our clients.

Before joining Liebert Cassidy Whitmore's Los Angeles office, Alex handled a variety of civil and commercial litigation in both state and federal courts.  His practice areas included employment law and insurance defense.

Representative Matters

Administrative Hearings

  • Joseph Salemi v. Los Angeles Unified School District (2012) - In an 11 day teacher termination appeal hearing, the Commission on Professional Competence upheld the Los Angeles Unified School District's termination of a permanent certificated math teacher due to unsatisfactory performance under Education Code section 44932, subdivision (a)(4). The Commission on Professional Competence found good cause for the teacher's termination upon the District's demonstrating that the teacher failed to meet minimum reasonable requirements for teaching as measured by the District and that he had a sustained history of poor teaching and failed to make significant progress towards improvement, despite specific recommendations, coaching and accommodations provided by the administration. The teacher merely went through the motions of teaching by making PowerPoint presentations before his class, but did not engage the students or guide them through the lessons with any meaningful exchange.

Amicus Briefs

  • Engquist v. Oregon Department of Agriculture (2008) - Prepared an amicus curiae brief on behalf of the League of California Cities and the California State Association of Counties for the United States Supreme Court case Engquist v. Oregon Department of Agriculture (2008) 553 U.S. 591, 128 S. Ct. 2146. There, the Court held that public employees cannot challenge employment actions as violating the Equal Protection clause under a "class of one" theory. Under such a theory, public employees could have argued that the United States Constitution's Equal Protection clause required virtually all employment actions to have a "rational basis." The Supreme Court's holding foreclosed what could have been a far-reaching theory of liability for the plaintiffs' bar.

Appellate

Litigation

  • White v. Antelope Valley College (2010) - An African-American applicant for an accountant position sued the college after he was not interviewed for a job on three separate occasions.  He alleged Title VII discrimination (race and gender), age discrimination, retaliation, disparate treatment and disparate impact. We achieved a summary judgment and a complete dismissal in this case, which was affirmed by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal in an unpublished decision.
  • Batts et al. v. City of Los Angeles, et al. (2010) - LCW successfully defended the City of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Police Department, Chief William Bratton, and other high-level Police Department command staff in a retaliation action brought by nine police department sergeants who alleged they had suffered adverse employment actions because of their participation in a wage and hour litigation against the City.  The alleged adverse actions included disciplinary investigations, relief from duty, suspension, transfer, and denial of promotion.  Plaintiffs attempted to bring the matter as a class action, but the Court dismissed the class allegations. Following depositions of each Plaintiff, of Chief Bratton, and some individual defendants, LCW brought nine summary judgment motions, one for each Plaintiff.  The Court granted all the motions, resulting in a defense victory on all claims.
  • De OCampo v. Los Angeles Unified School District (2007) - In this 4 plaintiff case alleging gender and race discrimination,  summary judgment was awarded in favor of the District.

Publications

Education

  • JD, University of Southern California Law School
  • BA, University of California, Los Angeles
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