Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete, LLP is pleased to announce the opening of a new office in Century City, which expands the national labor and employment law firm’s footprint to 29 offices in 16 states.

The new Century City office and the firm’s California practice will be led by Kenneth Sulzer, who joins Constangy from Proskauer Rose, LLP, where he was co-head of the firm’s California Employment Law Group. Sulzer will be joined by senior counsel Steven Katz, who comes to Constangy from Reed Smith, LLP.

“Constangy’s client demands necessitated the opening of an office in Los Angeles to service our clients facing class, collective, and representative actions and other high-profile matters in California,” said Neil Wasser, chair of Constangy’s executive committee. “We’re excited to have outstanding attorneys such as Ken and Steve to lead our expansion in Los Angeles and in California generally. Their combination of experience and intellectual firepower will allow us to better serve, at a very high level, the many major clients with a California presence.”

While the new office will represent employers in all areas of labor and employment law, it will have a heavy focus on class action defense, including not only wage and hour claims, but also systemic discrimination and other labor law violations.

The new Century City office comes on the heels of a new office in Miami in January and amid a strong period of growth for the firm, which celebrates its 70th anniversary in 2016. Last year, Constangy opened four new offices in New York, Denver, Minneapolis and Memphis and added more than 35 new attorneys to its roster. It also became the first large law firm (NLJ350) in the country to have an African-American attorney as a named partner, with the addition of Donald Prophete. “Given this momentum and client interest,” added Wasser, “we expect the new LA office to grow very quickly in the coming months.”

Sulzer, one of the top labor and employment law attorneys in California and nationally, specializes in complex class-action litigation and has represented and advised clients on a wide variety of matters, including labor-management relations, trade secrets and non-compete issues, discrimination litigation, U.S. Department of Labor investigations, and on issues involving employment tax, drug testing, employee privacy, sexual harassment law, and OSHA.

Sulzer has been recognized by Chambers USA, the Daily Journal’s Top 75 California Labor and Employment Lawyers, the Legal 500 United States, Best Lawyers in America and Southern California Super Lawyers. He is the immediate past president of the Federal Bar Association – Los Angeles chapter (and the first labor lawyer to hold that position), a fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, and former chair of the labor law section of the Beverly Hills Bar Association. Sulzer received his J.D. from Harvard Law School.

“I was attracted to Constangy due to its sophisticated and fast-growing nationwide class action practice and wanted to be part of that synergy,” said Sulzer. “My own clients will benefit from the depth of resources and flexibility that Constangy provides as well as the firm’s broad geographic platform. I am looking forward to the challenge of leading the growth of the firm’s California labor and employment practice and also taking my own practice to the next level. I was also attracted to the diversity, in all of its iterations, at Constangy. It is a very diverse law firm, with strong representation of women and minorities in its senior leadership. This aligns with important values that I have held for my entire career and Constangy embodies that philosophy of inclusion.”

“Los Angeles is the epicenter of employment-based class actions, and it was only natural to recruit Ken as he is one of the very top practitioners in California and nationally for this area of law,” said named partner Donald Prophete. “Ken is a noted authority, and has unparalleled experience in the defense of class actions and particularly claims filed under California’s Private Attorney’s General Act and he has handled numerous class and collective actions throughout the country as well. We are excited to have Ken on board, managing the new office and leading the charge with our expansion in California.”

Steven Katz, who will help Sulzer grow the firm’s presence in California, specializes in complex employment litigation matters and class and collective actions, especially those involving wage-hour issues. He is a certified appellate specialist in California who has acted as counsel of record in more than 30 appellate cases in several venues, including both the California and U.S. Supreme Courts. Katz has also served on the clinical faculties at the UCLA School of Law and Stanford Law School. He received his J.D. from the University of Southern California and a J.S.M. from Stanford Law School.

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