Mr. Rusche is a partner in the Los Angeles office of Seyfarth Shaw LLP. He is a member of the Labor & Employment Department as well as the Wage and Hour and Employment Litigation and Counseling Practice Groups. He also serves on the Firm’s Lawyer Development Committee. Mr. Rusche has extensive experience in employment litigation in federal and state courts across the United States and before federal and state administrative agencies. His litigation practice primarily involves the defense of wage and hour class and collective actions. He also devotes a substantial portion of his practice to defending claims for workplace harassment, wrongful termination, employment discrimination, retaliation, and breach of employment contracts. Mr. Rusche has represented small businesses and large corporations in a variety of industries, including hospitality, retail, sports and entertainment, finance and banking, publishing, manufacturing, telecommunications, technology, airline, education, construction, security, shipping, and healthcare.
In addition to several class certification denials and summary judgment victories, Mr. Rusche has had significant recent trial victories, including a defense verdict in a jury trial involving claims for off-the-clock work and alleged missed meal and rest breaks, a defense verdict in a rare class action bench trial involving claims for unlawful deductions and failure to pay wages, and a defense verdict in a jury trial involving claims for misclassification and unpaid overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Mr. Rusche has successfully negotiated favorable class action settlements and settled several putative class actions through the dismissal of the plaintiff’s claims for nominal amounts and outright dismissal of class claims with no defense payment.
Mr. Rusche routinely advises clients with respect to workforce restructuring and reductions, wage and hour audits, employment contracts, employment policies, covenants not to compete, employee handbooks, misconduct investigations, and a host of other compliance issues.
