INTRODUCING NEW MEMBERS OF THE LABOR & EMPLOYMENT LAW SECTION EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

WENDY MUSELL

Wendy Musell is a founding partner of Law Offices of Wendy Musell in Oakland. She has represented employees in the public and private sectors since 1999 in wage theft, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wrongful termination, and whistleblower actions. She has also served as an appointee for the California State Legislature Assembly Judiciary Committee for the Closing the Justice Gap Working Group, and in numerous other roles including president of the California Employment Lawyers Association, board member on the Center for Workers’ Rights, and adjunct law professor for the University of San Francisco School of Law teaching an employment law clinical course. In the year to come, she will continue to contribute as an editor for the Law Review.

EMILY PATAJO

Emily Patajo is a partner at Akerman LLP in Los Angeles, where she focuses on employment litigation on behalf of employers in various industries—including grocery, retail, technology, and healthcare—in state and federal courts. She is regularly involved in risk assessment and defense of claims of wrongful termination and unlawful discrimination, harassment, and retaliation. In addition, Patajo provides strategic advice to employers’ human resources and employee relations regarding personnel management, including issues related to conducting investigations, the interactive process, and evaluating requests for reasonable accommodations. She will serve as a co-lead of the Labor and Employment Law Section’s Education Subcommittee in 2024.