Stephanie provides representation and legal counsel to public entities and educational institutions in matters pertaining to employment law, labor law, and education. Stephanie’s practice focuses on advising clients on employee benefits, Affordable Care Act compliance, and Section 125 cafeteria plan administration. This includes legal counsel on the ACA’s employer shared responsibility provisions, affordability calculations, health flex contributions, cash-in-lieu, penalties, reporting and notice requirements, and non-discrimination provisions. Stephanie represents public entities in challenging IRS penalties related to health benefits. She provides clients with assistance revising Section 125 plan documents, policies, and procedures related to benefits. She advises on collective bargaining language and changes needed to existing eligibility provisions in line with the ACA.
Stephanie also has extensive experience advising employers throughout the state on job-protected leaves such as California’s Paid Sick Leave, Family and Medical Leave Act, and California Family Rights Act. Stephanie regularly advises employers each step of the way during the disability interactive process. Stephanie also has an extensive wage and hour practice and litigates wage and hour disputes.
As an attorney-investigator, Stephanie conducts investigations involving the full range of workplace issues, including harassment, discrimination, breach of contract, theft, and misconduct. As part of the firm’s extensive training group, Stephanie frequently presents workshops on health care, benefits, sexual harassment, ethics, discipline, wage and hour, and supervisory skills.
Prior to joining Liebert Cassidy Whitmore, Stephanie worked with the UC Hastings Civil Justice Center where she advocated on behalf of underprivileged clients regarding matters such as wage and hour and unemployment insurance disputes. Additionally, she served as a judicial extern for The Honorable Thomas J. Whelan, United States District Court in San Diego.
Stephanie graduated magna cum laude from the University of California, Los Angeles and received her J.D. from the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco. During law school, Stephanie was a Senior Articles Editor of the Hasting Women’s Law Journal and worked as a law clerk in Liebert Cassidy Whitmore’s San Francisco office. She also studied abroad at Bucerius Law School in Hamburg, Germany.
