Attorney Directory: Richard H. Harding

Emphasis

Employment Discrimination, Sexual Harassment and Wrongful Termination Litigation

Class Action Litigation and Management

Litigation Avoidance Counseling

Traditional Labor Law

Wage and Hour Issues

Personnel Issues

Collective Bargaining

Employment Discipline and Termination

AREAS OF PRACTICE

Mr. Harding is a senior shareholder of Littler Mendelson and is the founder and managing shareholder of the Walnut Creek office. Mr. Harding has over 30 years' experience with Littler exclusively representing employers in labor and employment matters. He has represented clients in California and other states in federal and state trial and appellate courts, as well as before administrative agencies.

Mr. Harding has developed and implemented litigation and defense strategies designed to enhance the employer's objectives in a multitude of cases including traditional labor disputes, wrongful termination and discrimination lawsuits and wage and hour class actions. He has tried cases to jury verdicts in California, Oregon and Hawaii.

Mr. Harding has extensive experience advising employers with respect to union-related issues, including union organizing, picketing, and work stoppages. He has successfully negotiated scores of collective bargaining agreements and has represented employers in issues of contract administration and interpretation, and in labor arbitrations involving contractual disputes and employee discipline. Before the National Labor Relations Board, Mr. Harding has represented employers in unfair labor practice cases as well as representation proceedings.

Mr. Harding has also represented employers before other state and federal governmental agencies regulating diverse employer-employee relationships, including employment discrimination claims before the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and California Department of Fair Employment and Housing and wage and hour claims before the United States Department of Labor and California Labor Commissioner.

Drawing upon his vast experience in representing employers in varied areas of labor and employment law, Mr. Harding actively counsels employers with respect to business decisions and planning, day-to-day personnel issues and preventative employment law. In doing so, Mr. Harding's central focus is upon achieving the business objectives of the employer.

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

Mr. Harding has achieved an AV attorney rating, the highest possible for legal ability and professional standards from Martindale-Hubbell, the preeminent professional directory of attorneys in the United States. Martindale-Hubbell ratings reflect the confidential opinions of the legal community with respect to an attorney's abilities and adherence to ethical standards of conduct. Mr. Harding is a member of the bars of the States of Virginia and California and its Labor and Employment and Litigation Sections. Within the American Bar Association, Mr. Harding is also a member of its sections on Litigation and Labor and Employment Law. Additionally, he is a member of the Bar Associations of Contra Costa County and San Francisco. He is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court and all trial and appellate courts of the State of California, as well as all United States District Courts in California and the Ninth Circuit and District of Columbia Courts of Appeals.

Before joining Littler Mendelson, Mr. Harding served as a captain in the United States Marine Corps. He is active in his community, belongs to numerous professional and civic organizations and has served on the Board of Directors of the Walnut Creek Rotary Club and the Alexander J. Lindsay Museum. He is a frequent speaker on a wide variety of labor and employment law topics.