Laura Reathaford is Partner in Charge of Lathrop GPM’s Los Angeles office and leads the firm’s California employment practice, providing labor and employment legal services to the firm’s California-based clients and clients with California-based employees. She focuses her practice on wage and hour class and collective actions with a particular emphasis on representative actions under California’s Private Attorneys General Act (“PAGA”).
In addition to defending employers in high-stakes litigation matters, Laura regularly advises clients on employment issues, including disciplining/terminating employees, drafting employee handbooks and complying with California and federal wage and hour laws, as well as leave and disability rules. Laura’s successes include defeating class certification in various wage and hour class actions, narrowing the scope of PAGA representative actions during discovery and at trial, obtaining summary judgment, representing management against administrative grievances and litigating a variety of other employment disputes, including claims for wrongful termination, sexual harassment, whistleblower retaliation, and discrimination.
In addition to being recognized by Benchmark Litigation as a Labor & Employment Star every year since 2019, Laura has been honored many times for her work as a Chambers USA-ranked labor & employment lawyer in California. She’s been recognized twice in 2025 – as a “Top Labor & Employment Attorney” by the Daily Journal and as one of the Los Angeles Business Journal’s “Leaders of Influence: Labor & Employment Attorneys.” In 2024, she was awarded two honors by the Los Angeles Business Journal – “Women of Influence” and “Leaders of Influence: Litigators & Trial Attorneys.” In prior years, the Los Angeles’ Daily Journal named Laura among the “Top 100 Women Lawyers,” and the Los Angeles Business Journal honored Laura with both its “Women’s Leadership Award” and “Top Women Attorneys in Los Angeles” award.
Laura is a prolific author on employment and labor industry related matters and is frequently sought out by media outlets for her insights on trending employment law topics. Her commentary has appeared in Law360, the Los Angeles Business Journal, Law.com, and the Los Angeles Times, and she regularly contributes to publications such as the Los Angeles Daily Journal and Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).
Updated Sep 2025
