Overview
Zach Hutton is the chair of the San Francisco Employment Law Department. His practice spans all aspects of employment law, including discrimination and harassment, family and medical leaves, and wage and hour issues. Mr. Hutton has successfully represented employers in numerous class and collective actions, agency investigations, individual plaintiff cases, and administrative hearings. He has tried cases to verdict, and secured early dismissal of individual and class claims.
Mr. Hutton co-chairs the firm's nationwide Wage and Hour practice group and has extensive experience in wage and hour litigation and advice work. He provides advice and compliance guidance on complex wage and hour issues to clients in a variety of industries, including technology, retail, financial services, staffing, hospitality, health care, and insurance.
Recognitions
- Chambers USA, Labor & Employment
- Recognized by The Legal 500 for Labor and Employment Disputes
- Named a leading employment lawyer by Best Lawyers
- Recognized by the Daily Journal as a "Top Labor and Employment Lawyer"
Education
Mr. Hutton received his J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law (magna cum laude) where he was a member of the Hastings Law Journal. During law school, he served as an extern to Justice Marvin R. Baxter of the California Supreme Court.
Representations
- Defeated class certification and PAGA representative status of an overtime misclassification case for a Fortune 500 bio-technology company, and then won on appeal.
- Defeated class certification of three coordinated wage and hour class actions that alleged meal and rest break violations on behalf of nearly 25,000 employees, and then won on appeal.
- Defeated a PAGA representative action for a Fortune 100 company by winning summary judgment on all claims.
- Won a precedent-setting appeal involving California’s pay stub requirements.
- Prevailed in challenges to classification of workers as independent contractors before the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement.
- Achieved walk-away dismissals of class and PAGA claims for numerous clients.
- Won motions to dismiss with prejudice putative class actions at the pleadings stage.
- Successfully represented companies in a variety of industries in enforcement proceedings before the Department of Labor and Division of Labor Standards Enforcement.
Engagement & Publications
- Mr. Hutton lectures and writes frequently on employment law issues.
- He co-authored four major wage and hour chapters of the Matthew Bender treatise entitled California Employment Law, serves as a member of the editorial board for the Matthew Bender publication, California Labor and Employment Bulletin, and has contributed to the supplement to the ABA’s Fair Labor Standards Act treatise.
- He is a former member of the Executive Committee of the Bar Association of San Francisco (BASF) Labor and Employment Section and previously served as the Chair of the BASF Barristers’ Labor and Employment Section.
Involvement
- Bar Association of San Francisco, former member of the Labor and Employment Law Section Executive Committee
- International Bird Rescue, Board of Directors