Vickie V. Grasu

Overview

Vickie Grasu focuses her practice on labor and employment litigation, administrative proceedings, and counseling. She advises and represents employers on a wide variety of employment law matters, including wrongful discharge disputes, retaliation claims, harassment and discrimination lawsuits, and wage and hour actions.

Vickie works diligently with in-house counsel and human resources personnel to provide counsel and assistance in the areas of employee discipline, terminations, layoffs, and preventative measures, such as policy development and comprehensive employment handbooks. Vickie conducts employee classification audits, payroll audits, human resources best practices audits, and workplace investigations. She is a speaker providing seminars and workshops on employment issues, including Sexual Harassment and Discrimination Training to executives, supervisors, managers, and human resources professionals

Vickie routinely represents clients faced with challenging class actions, Private Attorney General’s Act (PAGA), and complex litigation in state and federal court. In particular, she brings a deep bench of proven experience to resolving wage and hour class actions. Notably, Vickie has defended a significant number of wage and hour class actions over the last several years.

In addition to her labor and employment practice, Vickie represents clients in actions involving tort and contract claims. Her experience in this area includes premises liability and negligence-related litigation.

Vickie obtained a Certificate in Alternative Dispute Resolution from Pepperdine School of Law's Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution. She has mediated and arbitrated numerous matters in her areas of practice. Vickie’s training at a top-ranked dispute resolution program equipped her with sophisticated negotiation techniques that often allow her to secure favorable settlements without protracted litigation. This distinctive skillset often results in her ability to strategically evaluate when to pursue aggressive litigation versus when alternative resolution pathways might better serve her clients' business interests and bottom line.

Experience

• Successfully resolved/settled numerous wage and hour class and complex actions against various entities in a variety of industries, including restaurants, lodging, industrial gas production, cement production, transportation, trucking, and more
• Henry's Bullfrog Bees v. Sunland Trading, Inc., 2:21-cv-00582, (E.D. Cal.), represented the defendant, Lamex Foods, Inc., and obtained dismissal of the action with the 9th Circuit affirming the ruling granting the Defendants’ motion to dismiss the Plaintiffs’ Complaint, with prejudice
• Garcia v. Tempur-Pedic North America, LLC (2024) 98 Cal. App. 5th 819, represented the defendant, Tempur-Pedic North America, LLC, in the dismissal of an action, and the California Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s ruling awarding costs to Tempur-Pedic as the prevailing party, and also awarded Tempur-Pedic costs on appeal

Publications & Speeches

Publications

• Author, “California Implements Statewide ‘Ban the Box’ Law,” November 2017
• Author, “California On-Duty Meal Period – Not A Waiver of a Meal Period!” April 2015
• Author, “California Public Works Projects and Prevailing Wage Laws,” June 2014

Presentations & Speeches

• Speaker, “New 2014 California Employment Laws: Developments Affecting Employee Wages and Benefits,” National Association of Women in Construction, January 2014
• Speaker, “Overtime Laws – Employee Classifications, Payment Requirements, and Calculations and Penalties,” Building Industry Association, August 2013
• Speaker, “Misclassifying Workers and its Implications Under Current California Labor Law,” National Association of Women in Construction, June 2013

Professional

• Member, Labor and Employment Law Committee, Defense Research Institute (DRI)
• Member, Labor and Employment Section, American Bar Association
• Member, Los Angeles County Bar Association
• Member, Professionals in Human Resources Association
• Member, Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles

Community

Vickie is the coach for the Granada Hills Charter Mock Trial team, which earned first place in 2006 in the Los Angeles County Teach Democracy tournament at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse.