Donna M. Rutter is a partner in the firm's San Francisco office.  Ms. Rutter practices in the areas of wage and hour class actions, wrongful discharge, discrimination, harassment and retaliation litigation before federal and state courts and agencies, exclusively representing employers in all aspects of employment law matters.  She has a special niche practice where she has been retained to conduct high-level and sensitive independent investigations.  She has also served as an expert witness on the validity of an internal investigation.  She has extensive jury and bench trial experience in State and Federal Court and has tried to verdict 12 cases.  She is one of a handful of attorneys in California who has actually taken a wage and hour class action to trial.

Ms. Rutter has defended employers during jury and bench trials in the following business and employment matters:

• Lofting v. Steinway Piano, et al.
• Shafiq v. Salvation Army
• Aguilar v. Avis Rent-A-Car
• Dotson v. Avis Rent-A-Car
• Weyerhauser Inc. v. Alonzo
• Cummings v. Kaiser Foundation Hospital
• Valpoon v. Kaiser Foundation Hospital
• Baker v. Ikon
• May v. CSU Monterey
• Ortiz v. Zomax
• Kailer v. ATP
• Vienna Hall v. Cinema 7, Inc. (class action)