Heather M. Sager

As the U.S. practice head for the firm’s Labor & Employment practice, and an active member of the firm’s Retail and Digital Media, Entertainment, Gaming, and Sports (DMEGS) industry groups, Heather M. Sager regularly litigates complex wage-and-hour matters brought under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and similar state laws, including California's Private Attorneys General Act. Her approach to these high-profile matters emphasizes proactive risk management to avoid or minimize costly litigation through efficient and aggressive strategies that help reduce exposure in class, collective, representative, multiplaintiff, or single-plaintiff lawsuits. Heather’s deep knowledge of how these cases develop and play out allows her to also provide realistic risk assessments of potential labor and employment exposure in target entities and to conduct proactive policy and procedure audits for employers that allow preemptive corrective action.

Heather is frequently engaged for highly sensitive workplace investigations, and offers counseling and training for management employees on subjects including effective performance management, workplace harassment prevention, and unconscious bias. Heather’s approach to risk mitigation emphasizes the importance of building compliant policies and practices to help clients effectively manage leave issues, employee classification decisions, independent contractor status, trade secret protection, and unfair competition. 

Heather's practice also includes traditional labor matters. She has helped clients prevail in elections, obtained injunctive relief to stop inappropriate union conduct, defeated organizing campaigns, and appeared before the National Labor Relations Board on many issues. 

Heather is a frequent contributor and featured speaker for a range of industry organizations, including Luxury Law, the Retail Industry Lawyers' Association, the Sports Lawyers Association, the Video Gaming Bar Association, the Game Developers' Conference, and others.

Heather previously served as chair of Ashurst Perkins Coie's San Francisco Pro Bono Committee and is on the board of Raphael House of San Francisco and IGNITE National.