Menu
Availability Search | Submit a Case | Resources | My JW |
  • Sign In) |
    • Contact Us |
    Sign In)

    Neutral Profile

       Print

    KELLY A. KNIGHT, ESQ.

    • Available in Los Angeles, Central Coast, Orange County
    • Mediation Only
    >> Contact Case Manager >> Submit an Inquiry >> Submit a Case

    Introduction

    Kelly A. Knight has in-depth experience in matters involving employment law, including wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, wage-and-hour, class actions, and Private Attorney General Act (PAGA) claims; all types of personal injury; professional malpractice; and business/contractual matters. He started his litigation career in a high-profile law firm representing both plaintiffs and defendants in complex business and employment matters. Kelly also gained valuable insights as a claims professional for a national carrier.

    While in private practice, he successfully resolved a high-profile, complex dispute after he was sought out by community leaders to mediate based on his proven people skills and legal acumen. This kindled his passion for mediation, and he went on to join the L.A. Superior Court PI CRASH program and U.S. District court mediation panel and began privately mediating matters, gaining invaluable experience and continuing to fuel his growing enthusiasm for resolving disputes as a neutral. With an expanding record for success and growing reputation, Kelly decided to make the transition to full-time mediator.

    Heralded for his quick study habits and calm demeanor, Kelly has a knack for mastering cutting-edge legal issues and utilizing a multitude of strategies and approaches to help bring closure for all parties. One attorney commented, “I’ve never seen a mediator as well-prepared as Kelly. He conducted a pre-mediation call and knew the facts (and the law) like the back of his hand. He arrived at the mediation with a multi-page outline, which included his own research, and that included both sides’ strengths, weaknesses and pressure points. Kelly effectively used those pressure points on both sides all day long and was aggressive and tenacious.”

    Specialties

    Hobbies & Interests

    Kelly is a fan of NBA basketball, jazz music, and strategy board gaming.

    Website

    https://www.kknightmediation.com/

    Testimonials

    Mr. Knight was knowledgeable about employment.
    - Attorney on an Employment Wage & Hour Matter

    You handled the tough personalities and disparate interests expertly, and achieved a result that no party liked, but both would accept. A perfectly handled mediation.
    - Attorney on an Employment Wrongful Termination and Discrimination Dispute

    Mr. Knight was very patient and methodical with regard to the complicated legal and factual issues. He was also very respectful to the client.
    - Attorney on an Employment Wrongful Termination & Discrimination Dispute

    Was very sympathetic to my client. Took the time to listen and understand how she was feeling. Good discussion about legal and damages issues
    - Attorney on an Employment Sexual Harrassment Matter

    Mr. Knight was knowledgeable about employment.
    - Attorney on an Employment Wage & Hour Matter

    He was tenacious. He knew the risks and explained them well. He had a great attitude.
    - Attorney on an Employment Sexual Harassment Dispute

    "Thanks again for your help today. I've never seen a mediator work so hard. You did really really good for both sides and made persuasive arguments that got us even below our bottom line and left with my client feeling good about the settlement."
    - Attorney on a property-damage matter

    Thanks for all your support in getting it done for us. Most of all, thank you for listening to the law and taking the time to test the accuracy of what I was claiming. I can’t tell you how frustrating it is when a full day mediation goes by with little discussion on the actual case law.
    - Attorney on an Employment Wrongful Termination & Discrimination Dispute

    Read More

    Links and Articles

    Experience Summary

    Legal Career

    • Full-time Mediator at Judicate West (2018-Present)
    • MSC Settlement Officer, L.A. County Superior Court CRASH Settlement Program (2017-Present)
    • Panel Mediator, U.S. District Court, Central District of California (2018-Present)
    • Sole Practitioner, Law Offices of Kelly A. Knight, practicing employment, personal injury, medical malpractice, business litigation, class action, and more (2009-2014; 2016-2018)
    • Shareholder/Partner, The deRubertis Law Firm, APC, practicing complex employment, personal injury, class action, and more (2014-2016)
    • Litigation Associate, Miller Barondess, LLP, practicing complex business litigation (2006-2009)
    • Claims Professional, Liberty Mutual (2002-2003)

    Education & Professional Affiliations

    • J.D., University of Southern California (2006)
    • B.A., University of California, Berkeley (1998-2002)
    • Pepperdine’s Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, Mediating the Litigated Case (2018)
    • Member, Southern California Mediation Association
    • Member, Los Angeles County Bar Association, Labor & Employment Section (Current)
    • Member, Korean American Bar Association of Southern California (2004-Current), Board of Governors (2006-2014)
    • Member, Japanese American Bar Association

    Legal Experience

    • All types of employment matters including class action and PAGA, wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, whistleblower, disability accommodations, and more
    • Personal Injury including auto, premises liability, and more
    • Business/Contractual
    • Professional Negligence
    • Real Property

    Representative Case Information

    Recent Representative Cases

    Business/Commercial

    A.D.A Act

    • Pregnancy-discrimination, failure-to-accommodate, and retaliation case alleging failure to accommodate medical visits after miscarriage and major alleged after-acquire-evidence issue.

    Contractual

    • Post-trial mediation of business investment-fraud and breach-of-contract case, mediated before post-trial motions and appeal.
    • Business dispute over funding of investment projects and related repayment obligations, validity and enforceability of debt instruments, and lien claims.

    Employment

    Constructive Discharge

    • Ousted executive and co-founder of company brought share-buyback, wrongful-termination, breach-of-fiduciary-duty, and other claims against company and its co-owners.

    Discrimination

    • Constructive-discharge case where plaintiff claimed failure to remedy discrimination and obtained new employment before leaving the defendant's employment; additional complicating factor of employer's admitted prior failure to accommodate plaintiff's disability that preceded the alleged constructive discharge and that was finite in duration given that plaintiff was released without restrictions before the alleged constructive discharge.

    EWT and Discrimination

    • Interactive-process and accommodations case with different liability and damage allegations tied to the these claims versus the accompanying wrongful-termination claim
    • Seven-figure executive wrongful-termination case involving disability, executive-payment, and other claims.
    • Wrongful termination case for high-earning executive alleging termination of employment to avoid company paying out employee's alleged entitlement to equity share of sale proceeds in connection with large private company's anticipated sale, with additional FEHA and other claims.
    • Disability-accommodations/wrongful-termination case against government-contractor employer involving undue-burden defense of contractual staffing obligations to satisfy government contract.
    • Constructive-discharge claim premised on alleged discrimination based on language requirement brought by employee passed over for promotion.
    • Disability-accommodations case where plaintiff alleged wrongful termination and failure to accommodate resulting in termination of employment one week after returning from psychiatric hospitalization.
    • Age-discrimination and harassment case involving alleged age-related termination of 25-year employee.

    Negligent Hiring

    • Wage-and-hour case involving alleged improper commission sales plan where minimum wages paid were allegedly credited against commissions owed.

    PAGA

    • PAGA action on behalf of truck drivers involving question of federal preemption.
    • Statewide wage-and-hour action class action against public company including claims of auto-deducted meal-period time, meal-period timing issues, on-premises rest-period requirements, Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act, and more.
    • PAGA action involving claims of unpaid on-call time and drive time.

    Pregnancy Discrimination

    • Pregnancy-accommodations/discrimination case involving employee told not to return on the last day before starting maternity leave.

    Sexual Harassment

    • Sexual-harassment, retaliation, and wrongful-termination case involving graphic text messages and images exchanged between owner of company and employee and allegedly retaliatory layoff after employee sought to end the exchanges, with additional alleged post-termination retaliation.
    • Sexual-orientation discrimination, harassment, and retaliation case brought by company executive.
    • Case involving multiple alleged sexual assaults including rape against employer and its CEO with related FEHA sexual-harassment and constructive-discharge claims, high emotional issues, large alleged general damages including alleged diagnosed PTSD, and insurance coverage issues.
    • Sexual harassment, retaliation, and constructive-discharge case against employer and employer's managing agent with claim of fully disabling psychiatric injury as a result.
    • Multi-plaintiff harassment and constructive-discharge case after change of ownership of business
    • Quid pro quo sexual-harassment case in the entertainment industry
    • Sexual-harassment, constructive discharge, and disability-accommodations case where employee went on medical leave due to being scheduled to work on same shift as alleged and reported harasser while investigation was still pending and despite prior complaints.
    • Wrongful-termination, sexual-harassment, retaliation, and failure-to-accommodate case where former employee alleged retaliation for opposing sexual harassment and wrongful termination while on medical leave for cancer.

    Wage and Hour

    • Wrongful-termination, retaliation, and accommodations case involving alleged retaliation for harassment complaint and termination for medical-marijuana use.
    • Disability accommodations and interactive-process case with large emotional damages alleged as a result of employment termination.
    • Wage-and-hour action brought by former restaurant manager alleging improper exemption misclassification.
    • Salary/exemption and independent contractor misclassification case for long-term in-home caregiver with claims under the Domestic Worker Bill of Rights and other Labor Code wage-and-hour claims.
    • Whistleblower-retaliation case involving current employee who alleged that supervisor sabotaged his transfer and job-change requests in retaliation for plaintiff's safety complaints

    Wage and Hour Class Action

    • Wage-and-hour class action on behalf of agricultural workers with issues involving donning/doffing and other off-the-clock work, rounding, meal/rest timing and control issues, and more.
    • Wage-and-hour class and PAGA action brought on behalf of electricians alleging meal-/rest-break claims, including alleged improper auto-deduction for meal periods, and derivative unpaid-wage and pay-stub claims.
    • Wage-and-hour and PAGA case against grocery chain alleging unlawful rounding and meal- and rest-break violations.
    • Wage-and-hour class and PAGA representative action raising exemption misclassification claims on behalf of managers.

    Whistleblower Wrongful Term

    • Whistleblower-retaliation case brought by employee alleging uncovering and reports of business fraud on customers.

    Wrongful Termination

    • Wage-and-hour salary exemption case brought by high wage-earner plus allegations of harassment and battery.
    • Associational-disability-discrimination case brought by employee who required leave to pick up child from school due to child's health emergency.
    • Associational disability-discrimination case involving employee needing continued leave to care for father.
    • Wrongful termination (disability/accommodations) and wage-hour administrative-exemption case brought by worker terminated after suffering serious injury outside work.
    • FEHA disability-accommodations case involving worker's comp cross-over issues, collective-bargaining/union issues, and long-term medical restrictions over a period of years.
    • Retaliation and wrongful-termination case involving alleged retaliation for safety complaint.
    • Disability accommodations case brought by employee whose employment was terminated while on extended leave.

    Real Estate

    Buy/Sell

    • Real property and business purchase-and-sale dispute over purchase of assisted-living facility. Mediation started with businesses lawyered up and attending mediation perfunctorily to satisfy contractual mediation clause as prerequisite to filing lawsuit; mediation ended with all parties in the same room closing the deal and discussing potential second major deal and future business together.

    Tort

    Premises Liability

    • Slip and fall on liquid left by customer at cashier checkout location of retail store.
    • Trip-and-fall case with large medical specials, loss of earnings, and fusion-surgery recommendation.
    • Slip-and-fall case involving concussion and knee and wrist tendon tears including surgical repair.

    Downtown Los Angeles

    601 S. Figueroa
    Ste 4000
    Los Angeles, CA 90017
    Phone: 213.223.1113
    Fax      : 213.223.1114

    Los Angeles Mediation

    West Los Angeles

    11601 Wilshire Blvd
    Ste 2040
    Los Angeles, CA 90025
    Phone: 310.442.2100
    Fax      : 310.442.2125

    Mediators Los Angeles

    San Diego

    402 W. Broadway
    Ste 2400
    San Diego, CA 92101
    Phone: 619.814.1966
    Fax      : 619.814.1967

    San Diego Mediation

    Santa Ana

    1851 East First Street
    Ste 1600
    Santa Ana, CA 92705
    Phone: 714.834.1340
    Fax      : 714.834.1344

    Orange County Mediation

    San Francisco

    100 Pine Street
    Ste 1950
    San Francisco, CA 94111
    Phone: 415.266.1242
    Fax      : 415.266.1243

    San Francisco Mediation

    Sacramento

    980 9th Street
    Suite 2200
    Sacramento, CA 95814
    Phone: 916.394.8490
    Fax      : 916.394.8495

    Sacramento Mediation

    Copyright © 2019 JUDICATE WEST(JW) - All rights reserved.

    2019.2.1.403rp

    Website by Snap Data & Logic
    Terms of Service and Privacy Policy