THE LABOR AND EMPLOYMENT LAW SECTION’S NEW EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBERS

SUSAN K. GAREA

Susan Garea is a partner at Beeson, Tayer & Bodine in Oakland, California, where she focuses on representing unions and workers. She is a member of the California State Bar and is admitted to practice before the California District Courts and the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth and D.C. Circuits. Ms. Garea is a former Member of the Board of Directors, AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee. She received a B.A. from Northwestern University with majors in African-American Studies and Economics. She received her J.D. from University of California at Los Angeles, School of Law, and is a graduate of David J. Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy and with a concentration in Critical Race Studies. Her previous work experience includes Associate attorney, Gilbert & Sackman and elementary school teacher.

TIMOTHY G. WILLIAMS

Tim Williams is the managing partner at Berger & Reynolds, LLP in San Diego. Since he began working with the firm in 1999, his practice has focused on an array of employment matters, including litigation of scores of discrimination, harassment, retaliation, equal pay, and wrongful termination claims in federal and state courts across California. Mr. Williams has also litigated hundreds of other cases, including nearly 100 of the firm’s class/collective/representative actions, in many of which he has argued class certification motions and been appointed as lead counsel. Mr. Williams has briefed and argued numerous wage-and-hour appeals before state and federal courts in California on behalf of employees, including Prince, et. al. v. CLS Limo, et al. 118 Cal. App. 4th 1320 (2004); as amicus curiae in Brinker Restaurant Corp. v. Superior Court, 53 Cal. 4th 1004 (2012); and on behalf of California Employment Lawyers Association as amicus curiae in Quiles/Turman v. Parent/Koji’s Japan, Inc., 17 Cal. App. 5th 969 (2017). He also assumed a role as co-lead class counsel in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court, 4 Cal. 5th 903 (2018), and was lead negotiator for the class settlement. He has defended employers in scores of wage-and-hour cases and counseled businesses on compliance issues. Mr. Williams also regularly works with executives on employment contract and separation issues, and has been retained as an expert witness. He authors advanced practice guides and legal publications, including the Bureau of National Affairs/American Bar Association Section of Labor and Employment Law, "Wage and Hour Laws—A State by State Survey" since 2004 as an author, and since 2019 as a senior editor. He has also been a chapter author for the Practising Law Institute’s Employment Law Yearbook, Family, Medical and Military Leave treatise since 2015.