Photo of Emanuela Tala

Emanuela Tala is an Associate in Liebert Cassidy Whitmore’s Los Angeles office where she provides representation and legal counsel to clients in matters pertaining to employment law and litigation. She has defended employers in litigation claims for discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wage and hour and other employment claims. Emanuela has successfully argued dispositive motions, including motions for summary judgment.

Flight attendant Charlene Carter sued her employer and her union alleging, among other things, that they discriminated against her on the basis of religion, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”).  In July 2022, a jury awarded Ms. Carter $5.1 million.  This sum appears to be consistent with

Senate Bill 1421 (“SB 1421”) went into effect on January 1, 2019.  As a result, under Government Code section 832.7 as amended, certain types of peace officer personnel records became subject to disclosure pursuant to a California Public Records Act (“CPRA”) request. Shortly after the effective date of SB 1421, Kern High School District received

In June 2021, the Supreme Court declined an invitation to overturn Employment Division, Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. Smith, its seminal 1990 case holding that a facially neutral and generally applicable law survives a challenge under the Free Exercise Clause if it is rationally related to a legitimate government interest.  However, the

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution includes both an establishment clause and a free exercise clause.  Of these, the free exercise clause is often invoked in the employment context to challenge employer policies that, while facially neutral and generally applicable, incidentally burden religion.

In Employment Division, Department of Human Resources of Oregon v.

The term “hostile work environment” is used – or rather, misused – so often, that its meaning has become somewhat obscured.  In an office full of fans of the local sports team, the sole fan of its archrival may say that being singled out as such creates a “hostile work environment.”  Or, in a workplace

In March 2018, a Philadelphia Inquirer reporter alerted the City’s Department of Human Services (“Department”) that two of the foster care agencies with which it contracts – including Catholic Social Services (“CSS”) – refused to work with same-sex foster parents.  The Department promptly conducted an investigation and, upon confirming that CSS refused to work with

If you consume social media, be it Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or the app of the moment TikTok, you have certainly come across “the Karen meme.”  By and large, “the Karen meme” is an image depicting a middle-aged Caucasian woman, almost always sporting a spiky, short blonde haircut.  “Karen” argues with and is condescending to service