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Michael D. Weil

Partner

Michael Weil represents employers in a wide range of employment disputes, with a focus on class and representative actions asserting multimillion dollars in damages and high stakes noncompete, employee mobility, and trade secrets matters arising from a variety of industries, including life sciences, technology, retail, and financial services, throughout the United States. He also regularly handles complex single- or multi-plaintiff matters involving independent contractor status, wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, and retaliation. Michael has a deep background in trade secrets and noncompete cases involving a variety of intellectual property, including organic chemistry, genetic sequencing, chemistry lab processes, client lists, and shipping cost information, among many others.

Michael has represented employers for more than two decades on a wide variety of employment law and related business issues, with a particular focus on wage and hour class actions and representative actions under state and federal laws, trade secrets and employee mobility disputes, and matters involving independent contractor status, wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, and retaliation.

He has achieved defense verdicts for clients, including a class action asserting Labor Code violations and an arbitration asserting breach of sale-of-business noncompete agreements; obtained injunctions (or defeated injunction requests) on multiple occasions against former executives and new employers for misappropriation of trade secrets; and defeated class certification in class actions asserting Labor Code violations.

Michael regularly advises employers on a variety of employment laws, including wage and hour, leave laws, disability laws, equal employment opportunity statutes, and many more. He frequently speaks at various employment and trade secrets conferences throughout the United States.  

Class Actions

  • Defeated class certification and obtained summary judgment in a class action lawsuit alleging Labor Code violations against retail chain
  • Defeated class certification and obtained an order striking representative action allegation in a class action against a retail pharmacy chain asserting numerous California Labor Code and Private Attorney General Act claims
  • Obtained a defense verdict in a class action alleging that a retail employer violated numerous Labor Code sections through use of an allegedly unlawful employment application; verdict upheld on appeal in a published opinion

Trade Secrets and Employee Mobility

  • Obtained a defense verdict after a multiweek arbitration where a former life sciences employer sought to enforce a sale-of-business noncompete against founders of a new life sciences company
  • Following a multi-day evidentiary hearing, secured an injunction against a former retail executive and his new employer based on allegations that the executive and new employer misappropriated trade secrets
  • Following a multiday evidentiary hearing, secured an injunction against a former medical device sales executive and her new medical device employer based on allegations that the former employee and her new employer misappropriated trade secrets
  • Successfully defeated an injunction request by a gaming company against a former employee and his new gaming company employer
  • Obtained a preliminary injunction under the Defend Trade Secrets Act against defendants for misappropriation of biomedical trade secrets
  • Defeated an injunction request against a former sales executive in the consumer products industry
  • University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, 2000, J.D., editor, UCLA Law Review
  • University of California, Los Angeles, 1996, B.S., Physiological Science
  • California

MVP, Labor and Employment, Law360 (2022)

Recognized, Leading US Corporate Employment Lawyer, Lawdragon 500 (2022)

Recommended, Labor and Employment, The Legal 500 US (2019, 2020)

Rising Star, Law360 (2014)

Vice Chair, Trade Secrets Committee, American Intellectual Property Law Association (2023–2024)

Member, State Bar of California

Member, Association of Business Trial Lawyers