Kelsey A.Israel-Trummel

Partner

San Francisco + 1.415.875.5831

Kelsey Israel-Trummel has more than a decade of experience representing employers in labor and employment matters, including wage and hour, discrimination, and wrongful termination cases. She has developed particular experience in complex wage and hour class actions and representative lawsuits filed under California's Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) statute. She regularly practices in state and federal courts at both the trial court and appellate levels. She also represents clients in agency proceedings, including before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). In addition, Kelsey counsels corporate employers on a variety of employment issues, including wage and hour policies, employee handbooks, investigations, and best uses of workplace technologies.

Kelsey's experience includes successful dispositive motions at the pleading and summary judgment phases, a track record of avoiding or significantly limiting the scope of class claims, and appellate wins. She was a key team member in one of the first PAGA cases to go trial in California. Recent engagements include: winning a published decision from the California Court of Appeal on novel regular rate issues; obtaining dismissal of a statewide PAGA claim alleging work-from-home expenses related to COVID; securing judgment in an alleged joint-employer's favor in a wage and hour class and PAGA action; securing and enforcing an arbitration award forcing a union to withdraw a statewide ballot initiative limiting hospital executive compensation; and representing several hospitals in challenges to union-backed municipal initiatives seeking to cap the compensation health care providers may receive from insurers.

Experience

  • McDonald's victorious at trial against state-wide California class action wage and hour PAGA claimsJones Day prevailed in gutting the remaining part of a state-wide class and representative action under the California Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act filed against McDonald’s Corporation.
  • McDonald’s defeats attempt to expand class actionOn February 15, 2017, Jones Day and client McDonald’s Corporation successfully blocked plaintiffs’ attempt to certify three new theories of liability in a statewide wage and hour class action.
  • McDonald's wins summary judgment, defeats class certification and PAGA claims in wage and hour class, joint employer actionPlaintiffs filed suit in 2014, seeking to represent more than 1,200 employees at eight McDonald’s restaurants owned by a McDonald’s franchisee in franchises in Oakland, California, against both the franchise owner and the franchisor, arguing that Jones Day client McDonald’s was liable as their joint employer on a variety of wage and hour claims, or that McDonald’s was alternatively liable for those claims under an aiding and abetting, negligence, actual agency, or ostensible agency theory.
  • McDonald’s defeats class certification and PAGA claims in statewide California class action wage and hour caseIn a series of wins, Jones Day client McDonald’s Corporation defeated class action and PAGA claims brought against the company in a California-wide wage and hour lawsuit.
  • Prominent Japanese manufacturer arbitrates ICC claim dispute against former supplier for its repudication of exclusive long-term supply agreementJones Day represented a prominent Japanese manufacturer of marine equipment in an ICC arbitration against a U.S. company for its repudiation of a long-term supply agreement.
  • Arizona prison inmates successfully challenge adequacy of medical, mental health, dental care, and conditions in isolation in Arizona state prison systemJones Day, working with the ACLU's National Prison Project and the Prison Law Office, has tentatively settled litigation brought on behalf of a certified class of Arizona inmates challenging the adequacy of medical, mental health, dental care, and conditions in isolation in the Arizona state prison system under the U.S. constitution.
  • Speaking Engagements

    • September 11, 2018
      Labor & Employment Law Update in the Wild, Wild (California) West