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Class Action Lawsuit Against Heller Ehrman Alleges Failure to Pay Accrued Vacation

pAs many readers have no doubt heard the venerable law firm of Heller Ehrman recently dissolved after nearly one hundred years in business.nbsp;nbsp;During this timenbsp;it was intermittently the biggest firm in the Bay Area and close to the top in the state./p pOne unfortunate aspect of the dissolution is that the Firm apparently made a strategic decision not to pay accrued vacation to its terminated California employees.nbsp;nbsp; Under California law (a href="http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cacodes/lab/200-243.html"Labor Code section 227.3/a)nbsp;such accrued payments are deemed to be earned wages which are property of the employee every bit as much as regular salary.nbsp;As a result,nbsp;a href="http://www.vtzlawblog.com/uploads/file/Heller Complaint.pdf"a class action lawsuit has been filed bynbsp;former Heller Ehrman employees/a to recover these and other amounts allegedly due at termination.nbsp;/p pThe lawsuit isnbsp;interesting on a number of levels.nbsp; It is a reminder tonbsp;employers that California vacation wages are annbsp;accrued liability that must be taken into account.nbsp;nbsp;/p pIt is also a sad commentary on modernnbsp;Big Firm economics.nbsp;nbsp;A law firm, no matter how large, is essentially anbsp;collection of individuals working together.nbsp; The assets of the firm quot;leave the building every nightquot; as the saying goes.nbsp; And if they don't return the nextnbsp;morning, there is really nothing left for creditors, including employees.nbsp; Clearly the plaintiffs challenge will not benbsp;establishing liability butnbsp;satisfying any judgment from a defunct partnership.nbsp;/p pnbsp;/p pnbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CaliforniaLaborAndEmploymentDefenseBlog/~4/486872998" height="1" width="1"/

Full post as published by California Labor & Employment Defense Blog on December 16, 2008 (boomark / email).