The Trends for Employers to Watch in Pay Equity Landscape

March.01.2021

Orrick partner Erin Connell provides a comprehensive roadmap on pay equity issues to watch at the state and federal level in this Law360 Employment Authority article.

In the article, Erin, a member of our labor and employment team, projects there will be increasing momentum behind efforts to strengthen existing pay equity laws, citing proposed legislative initiatives already unfolding in various states and the priorities of the new Biden administration. The article offers guidance on how employers can prepare.

“For these and other reasons,” Erin writes, “the importance of investing time and resources now to thoughtfully develop and enhance employers' pay equity strategies has never been greater.”

Authors

Erin M. Connell パートナー, Employment Law & Litigation, Pay Equity

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D:+1 415 773 5969
E: [email protected]

Practice:

Employment Law & Litigation
Pay Equity

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Erin M. Connell パートナー

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Erin's practice covers all aspects of employment law. She defends employers in class actions and other complex cases, as well as in systemic investigations and audits by the EEOC, OFCCP, and the California CRD. Erin has led dozens of internal pay equity analyses and is a trusted advisor for several of the nation's most prominent employers on developing areas of employment law, including pay equity and pay transparency, DEI best practices, and the use of AI in employment decision making.

Erin also is an accomplished first chair trial lawyer. She has tried several cases before juries and in arbitration, and has obtained numerous defense summary judgment rulings and other favorable resolutions in state and federal court. Erin led the trial team that obtained a complete dismissal for Oracle in OFCCP v. Oracle, the largest pay equity case ever brought by OFCCP, which garnered national media attention and earned Erin recognition as a "Litigator of the Week" by the American Lawyer and a 2021 Employment MVP by Law360. As lead counsel, Erin also successfully obtained decertification in a statewide California pay equity class action, Jewett v. Oracle.

Erin's clients include leading technology and Fortune 500 companies, including: Oracle, Meta, Microsoft, Netflix, Pinterest, Twitter, Workday, PayPal, Sony Interactive Entertainment, NVIDIA, Airbnb, SiriusXM, Dropbox, Amgen, Zendesk, Splunk and Goldman Sachs.

Erin is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Bar Association of San Francisco, a faculty member with the Institute for Workplace Equality (IWE), and frequently speaks on California and national employment law issues, including for IWE, the ABA, the Practicing Law Institute (PLI) and the American Employment Legal Council (AELC). She was formerly the management chair of the ABA Equal Employment Opportunity Committee. She has published numerous articles on employment law in publications around the country, including the ABA Journal of Law & Employment Law. She also provides employment law training and conducts internal investigations on employment-related matters.