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Education

JD, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles

BA, University of California, Santa Barbara

Fire Engineer v. City Fire Department (2024) – Defeated a fire engineer’s claims for whistle blower retaliation and violation of the Firefighters Procedural Bill of Rights Act (FBOR).  The fire engineer claimed:  that he was passed over for promotion because he contacted CalOSHA regarding the allegedly unsafe condition of the fire station; and that he was interrogated without FBOR safeguards during his interviews for promotion. The fire engineer’s whistle blower claim failed because he had complained to CalOSHA only after he failed to receive promotion.  The FBOR claim failed because the fire engineer was neither under investigation, nor interrogated within the meaning of the FBOR during the job interviews.

Deputy Sheriff v. County (2023) – Convinced a hearing officer to uphold a Deputy Sheriff’s termination for: deliberately disobeying orders of his superior; absence without approved leave, and neglect of duties.  The underlying misconduct was that the Deputy had failed to respond to multiple letters directing him of his options and subsequently ordering the Deputy to return to work after his disability retirement applications were repeatedly denied. The Hearing Officer found that the County had provided the Deputy with ample opportunity to participate in an interactive process over his alleged disability, and there was no question that the Deputy had committed the misconduct that led to his termination.

Union v. County Department (2023) – Convinced an arbitrator to deny a union’s grievance that claimed that employees were assigned supervisory duties that were outside the scope of the job description.  Chris proved that while the general class specification did not list administrative supervision among the examples of duties, the job duty statement specific to this county department highlighted supervisory duties, and the each employee was interviewed about their supervisory experience.

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