Event Title: Lawyers in a time of COVID
Event Type: MCLE Society Session
Location:
Via Zoom
Presenter: Nicole R. McAtee, Danielle Goodman & Leslie Wallis of Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C.
Date: Tuesday, March 1, 2022
Time: 12 Noon to 1:30pm
Description:
During this one-hour session that will provide an hour of MCLE credit for Competence,
the panel will explore how an attorneys’ mental, emotional and physical abilities impact
the work we do. In this time of COVID, care for ourselves and our clients has been
particularly challenging. We not only need to have learning and skill, but need to know
when our mental and emotional abilities are at risk. Join us as we examine our capacity
to exercise self-compassion in the face of these trying times and make sure that we are
maintaining our professional responsibilities to competently represent our clients and to
assist our colleagues while taking care of ourselves mindfully!
Nicole McAtee is a shareholder in the Ogletree Deakins’s Los Angeles office. Nicole’s practice focuses on defending employers in state and federal court on a broad spectrum of employment issues, including wrongful termination, disability discrimination, sex discrimination, retaliation, harassment, failure to provide a reasonable accommodation, failure to engage in the interactive process, and wage and hour disputes. Nicole also advises and counsels employers regarding employee handbooks, personnel policies, reasonable accommodations, leave issues, internal investigations, disciplinary actions, and lay-offs, including compliance with Cal-WARN.
Nicole received her Juris Doctor from the UCLA School of Law. While in law school, Nicole was the Chief Editor of the UCLA Women’s Law Journal and a law clerk for the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office-Major Crimes Division.
Danielle Goodman is of counsel at the firm’s Los Angeles office. In her practice, Danielle represents employers in state and federal court and arbitration on a wide range of employment matters, including claims of discrimination, retaliation, sexual harassment, wrongful termination, leave law violations, wage and hour disputes, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Danielle also represents employers in disputes with current and former employees regarding misappropriation of trade secrets, unfair competition, and breach of contract.
Danielle received her Juris Doctor from Loyola Law School. She was an active member of Loyola Law School’s Scott Moot Court Team and International and Comparative Law Review. Her oral argument ranked 8th best in the 2010 American Bar Association Regional Moot Court Competition. Before attending law school, Danielle received a Bachelor of Arts in History with a minor in Geography from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Leslie Wallis has represented employers in all aspects of employment law. Leslie joined Ogletree Deakins in 2007 as part of the merger of Ogletree Deakins and Lewis Fisher Henderson & Claxton, a labor and employment law firm with offices in Tennessee, Mississippi and California. Leslie also served as in-house counsel at a financial institution representing the bank in a broad range of litigation matters, including trial work as well as monitoring outside counsel for the bank as both plaintiff and defendant in breach of contract, real property disputes, commercial transactions, construction defect, wrongful termination and related employee disputes. Leslie continues to litigate employment matters at Ogletree Deakins in addition to spending a significant amount of her time advising clients on a broad range of employment issues, auditing employment practices and policies and responding to administrative charges. Leslie also provides training in the areas of harassment, discrimination and wage and hour issues and workplace investigations.
Prior to beginning her legal career, Leslie studied with the Royal Ballet in London, England and then earned her Bachelor’s degree in ballet at Indiana University. Following her career as a ballet dancer in the U.S. and abroad she returned to California to study law at UCLA.
Leslie was an associate editor of the UCLA Law Review and a judicial extern to the Honorable Harry Pregerson on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.