Laura P. Worsinger

Trade Regulation

Clients rely on Laura for her knowledge and perspective on trade regulation, marketing, and promotional matters. She has substantial experience advising clients as to pricing programs, product labeling and in-store and internet sales and advertising.

She defends clients with respect to federal and state trade regulation claims involving pricing, contests and sweepstakes, telemarketing, privacy and unfair and deceptive practices. Her skill in aggressively dealing with regulatory agencies and private attorneys general has resulted in excellent outcomes for her clients.

As a former official with the Federal Trade Commission, Laura headed up national antitrust investigations of wholesale and retail pricing in the apparel and consumer electronics industries and obtained numerous consent orders. She also spent five years in-house, representing the JC Penney Company.

As a member of the Executive Board of the California Fashion Association and an authority on regulatory issues in the manufacturing and retailing industries, Laura consults industry leaders on legislative issues and critical national and global trade matters, with a special focus on compliance with regulatory requirements.

Employment

Laura supports clients in matters involving the employer-employee relationship. Laura counsels clients on all aspects of federal and California employment law, with a focus on the wage and hour laws, classification of employees and discrimination issues. She represents clients before the EEOC, the California Department of Labor, the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, and the California EDD.

Compliance with California’s employment laws are of central concern to companies involved in mergers and acquisitions and ownership and control of California entities. Laura understands the myriad of state and municipal regulations, particularly in the wage and hour area and the diverse interests of the various agencies charged with implementing and enforcing those measures. She is able to lead clients through complex transactions and acquisitions so as to avoid regulatory and policy road blocks.

Her comprehensive knowledge of wage and hour law enables her to develop and implement policies in compliance with federal and state requirements. This includes the eight-hour day, employee classification, meal and rest periods premiums, the California Wage Orders, the Private Attorney General Act, "Waiting Time" penalties, and Itemized Earnings Statement requirements under the Labor Code.

Laura headed up a Dykema litigation team that succeeded in defeating class certification in a number of wage and hour class actions brought against national manufacturers and retailers, food processors and restaurant chains. In the many class action cases she has defended,  no plaintiff has ever succeeded in obtaining class certification. She has also defended dozens of discrimination and harassment claims, most of which she was able to resolve at minimal cost to her clients.

• Her program, "It's Fit that Counts," has helped clients properly classify workers, avoid expensive claims, defeat class actions and prosper in highly regulated states.
• She has developed preventative policies to avoid WARN Act claims for clients dealing with downsizing and layoffs.
• California mandates that employers with 50 or more employees anywhere in the United States provide sexual harassment prevention training. Laura has created a state-of-the-art interactive program that assists supervisors in preventing and responding to sexual and other forms of harassment and provides mechanisms to implement and promptly address and correct wrongful behavior.
• California laws place strict limitations on employers' ability to control employee competition. Laura has designed unique non-compete, non-solicitation, non-disclosure and arbitration agreements that have withstood challenge in California courts and provided significant protection for employers.
• Laura counsels employers on credit and criminal reports and on employee investigations and reference checks in compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Environmental Issues and Greenwashing

In recent years there has been a growing interest in environmental issues. Due to her FTC background, Laura has become a specialist in assisting  companies to comply with environmental statutes that regulate unfair and deceptive advertising practices including California’s infamous Prop 65, a regulation that requires businesses to provide warning labels on products that might contain over 900 chemicals that include auto parts, baby clothes, nail polish, brake pads, surgical gloves, textiles, household goods, E-cigarettes, designer shoes and handbags, ceramic tableware, jewelry, electrical cords, burritos , and potato chips, among others. Laura has effectively counseled and when necessary defended  companies designing and producing all of these products.      

The latest ecological issue involves promotion of products as having a positive environmental impact. While initially a good thing, certain companies have resorted to engaging in a deceptive practice known “greenwashing”. In order to promote their products they have used false or misleading advertising statements about the products’ environmental benefits. Some of these companies are gaming the system or profiting off well-intentioned, sustainably minded consumers. In response state ( i.e. California Public Resources Code § 42356) and federal legislation (FTC Green Guide) have been enacted to regulate this type of greenwashing deception. Unfortunately however well-meaning companies may inadvertently use language in their advertising that is considered misleading under these regulations.  

Laura has successfully settled actions brought against clients for greenwashing based on ambiguities in greenwashing regulations. In a number of matters she have been able to avoid greenwashing claims by among other things, reviewing and revising advertising copy and/or packaging  and eliminating certain generic terms, and/or specifically identifying how the product is green.