- Available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
- - SE HABLA ESPAÑOL
- Available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
- - SE HABLA ESPAÑOL
Wrongful termination, harassment, retaliation, or unpaid wages at a Brentwood workplace. The firm represents Westside workers when the dispute needs a real resolution, not silence.
NYU Law & NYU Stern · Skadden & Latham alumni · No-charge consultation · Employees only, contingency fee
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A worker fired, demoted, harassed, or short-paid in violation of California law has remedies the federal regime does not provide. FEHA carries uncapped emotional-distress and punitive damages on discrimination, harassment, and retaliation claims, with attorneys’ fees paid by the employer on a plaintiff win. Labor Code penalties stack on wage, overtime, and final-paycheck violations. For Westside professionals working under contracts drafted out of state, California Labor Code section 925 voids any provision that would require a California-resident worker to litigate or arbitrate outside California, or apply another state’s substantive law to a California claim. Effective January 1, 2017, section 925 is mandatory, not waivable, and shifts attorneys’ fees to the worker on a successful challenge. The firm handles the full California employment file for clients in Brentwood and across the Westside, including the section 925 challenge to a New York, Delaware, or Texas choice-of-law clause. Simon Moshkovich — NYU Law, former Skadden and Latham — reads every Brentwood intake himself.
Mercer Legal Group is a California-based employment law firm representing employees in workplace disputes with private and public-sector employers across the state. The firm screens every matter against a single standard: do the facts and the documents support a verdict at trial? When the answer is yes, the case draws a senior attorney for its full life. When the answer is no, the firm says so on the same day rather than running up the clock. Intakes from Brentwood and the wider Westside receive a direct, honest assessment.
A Brentwood workplace cannot fire, demote, cut hours, or reassign a worker because of race, national origin, ancestry, color, religion, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, pregnancy, age (40 and over), disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, military or veteran status, or any other category covered by the Fair Employment and Housing Act. The same statute bars sexual harassment, hostile work environment, and retaliation for opposing or reporting any of the above.
Wage and hour rules sit on a separate track and stack their own penalties. Unpaid overtime, missed meal and rest periods, off-the-clock work, misclassification as exempt or as an independent contractor, and final-paycheck delays each carry liquidated damages, waiting-time penalties, and attorneys’ fees. PAGA lets a worker pursue representative claims for the same Labor Code violations on behalf of every other affected worker at the company.
For professionals in Brentwood and the Westside working under contracts drafted in New York, Delaware, Texas, or anywhere else outside California, Labor Code section 925 voids any forum-selection or choice-of-law clause that would push a California-resident worker’s claim out of state or under another state’s law. The provision is mandatory and non-waivable, and the worker recovers attorneys’ fees on a successful challenge.
Whistleblower retaliation under Labor Code section 1102.5, leave interference under CFRA and the Pregnancy Disability Leave Law, and wrongful termination in violation of public policy round out the file the firm regularly brings against Westside employers.
A successful FEHA case recovers lost wages and benefits from the date of the violation forward, the difference between old pay and any replacement work, emotional-distress damages with no statutory cap, and punitive damages where the employer acted with malice, oppression, or fraud. The court adds attorneys’ fees and costs on top — the worker keeps the verdict, and the employer pays counsel.
Wage cases recover the unpaid amount, an equal sum in liquidated damages on minimum-wage and overtime claims, waiting-time penalties of up to 30 days of pay for late final checks, meal and rest premiums at one hour of pay per missed break per day, and PAGA penalties allocated 65 percent to the state and 35 percent to affected workers.
Section 925 challenges shift attorneys’ fees to the worker on top of whatever the underlying claim recovers. The firm structures every demand and every settlement around the full statutory exposure, not the employer’s first offer.
Free, confidential intake. Every Brentwood matter reaches Simon Moshkovich directly, and the firm gives a same-day read on whether the case is worth bringing.
Cases at Brentwood-area workplaces turn on documents and named witnesses, not on what the worker remembers six months after the fact. The firm starts every intake with a written timeline, a contract and offer-letter review, and a preservation list — emails, Slack messages, Teams threads, calendar invites, performance reviews, pay stubs, commission statements, equity grants, severance drafts, and any HR correspondence the worker still has access to.
Witness identification happens early. Coworkers who saw the conduct, managers who acknowledged the complaint, HR partners who took notes, and outside vendors or clients who watched the pattern unfold all get tracked before memories fade or contact is lost. The firm sends targeted preservation letters to the employer to lock down deletion of texts, chat archives, and HR files the moment representation begins.
Pre-suit demand goes out with the documentary record attached. Most Westside employers settle once they see the exposure mapped against the actual evidence. The cases that do not settle proceed to suit with a record already built — not assembled in panic during discovery.
Three things separate this firm on a matter at a Brentwood workplace.
First, no Brentwood, Westside, Century City, Beverly Hills, or Santa Monica company is a client the firm holds back for. Representation runs on the worker’s side only, with no corporate-defense conflicts. Every Westside case gets the full litigation posture from day one.
Second, a senior attorney handles the file from intake through resolution. The intake call, the demand letter, the deposition strategy, and the settlement or trial decision all run through the same lawyer. No handoffs to junior associates after the retainer signs.
Third, the firm gives an honest case read on the same day. When the facts and the documents support a verdict, the case moves forward immediately. When they do not, the firm says so before another month of waiting goes by.
Recent matters reflect the range of cases the firm handles. Every Brentwood case has its own facts — prior results do not guarantee future outcomes.
A senior executive was terminated weeks after raising compensation-disparity concerns with HR. The pre-suit demand attached the relevant compensation records and internal correspondence. The matter resolved for a multiple of annual compensation, with the employer covering attorneys’ fees and removing the non-disparagement clause from the standard severance template.
A senior worker requested a disability accommodation through HR. A performance-improvement plan landed two weeks later from a manager who had previously praised the same work in writing. The case resolved at roughly two years of total compensation, with a neutral reference and full equity acceleration.
A finance professional residing in California signed a New York employment agreement requiring Manhattan litigation. The firm voided the forum clause under Labor Code section 925, kept the case in Los Angeles Superior Court, and resolved the underlying wage and bonus dispute on terms reflecting the full California statutory exposure plus fees.
Call (818) 538-3458 or send a note through the contact form. Two or three sentences on what happened — termination, harassment, wage issue, retaliation — is enough to start. Confidentiality applies whether or not the firm ends up representing you.
Simon or a senior attorney works the facts on the call and gives a direct read: viable claim or not, the realistic damages number, the defense the Brentwood employer is most likely to raise. No pitch. No upsell.
If the case has merit, the firm tells you exactly what to preserve — email, text threads, performance reviews, witness contact information — and what to stop doing immediately. Where the shortest applicable deadline is close, the agency filing goes out the same week.
Once the record is built, the choice is yours: accept the best settlement the file will support, or take the case to trial in Los Angeles County. The firm’s job is to make sure either path rests on the documents, not on pressure.
Free, confidential review. Every Brentwood intake lands on Simon Moshkovich’s desk for a direct yes-or-no read.
