Wrongful termination is about motive, it’s not about process and there’s a lot of misunderstanding particularly in the state of California about this. People have heard at will employment. They know what that means or at least they think they do. What it means is that they can be fired for no reason or any reason. They don’t have to be given a warning; they don’t even have to be treated fairly. But they can’t be fired for an unlawful motive like their race or their age. The motive has to be fair and right and can’t violate their civil liberties. Proving these cases can be tough, you’re trying to prove motive. But that’s why we collaborate with our clients and even our potential new clients to try and figure out what facts there are to prove what that motive is. These cases can also be nuanced and complicated.

I had a case that went to trial on behalf of chief executive officer who was fired because his bosses felt he was too American. He’d been born in China. He was working for a Chinese company but they thought that his style or approach had become too American. Somebody said he went native. That may not sound like discrimination, after all, he was Chinese and was being discriminated against by folks who were Chinese but it was still illegal because too American is still a form of discrimination. So these cases can be complicated, they can be nuanced, but they can also be very successful.