CDF Attorneys and Firm Receive Prestigious Best Lawyers in America® Awards
Aug 28, 2018

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Carothers DiSante & Freudenberger LLP Receives Prestigious Best Lawyers in America® Awards

IRVINE, Calif., August 28, 2018 – As it approaches the quarter-century mark in protecting California employers in employment, labor and immigration law, Carothers DiSante & Freudenberger LLP (CDF) proudly announces wide-ranging recognition from Best Lawyers in America© and U.S. News – Best Lawyers® “Best Law Firms.”

In addition, CDF Founding Partner Tim Freudenberger is the recipient of the 2019 Best Lawyers®  “Lawyer of the Year” in Class Action Defense, Orange County, California.  Only a single lawyer in each practice area and designated metropolitan area is honored as the “Lawyer of the Year,” making this accolade particularly remarkable.

CDF is also ranked as a Tier 1 law firm in the 2019 U.S. News – Best Lawyers “Best Law Firms” list for its Class Action Defense Practice in Orange County, California.  Firms included in the “Best Law Firms” list are recognized for professional excellence with persistently impressive ratings from clients and peers.  Achieving a tiered ranking signals a unique combination of quality law practice and breadth of legal expertise.

Lawyers on the 2019 Best Lawyers list are divided geographically and by practice area.  They are reviewed by their peers based on professional expertise.  The Best Lawyers accolade recognizes attorneys who have displayed exemplary professional excellence with impressive ratings exclusively from clients and peers. 

“CDF soon will mark its 25th year protecting the interests of California employers, and as an employer ourselves, we are proud of the many professional accomplishments of the talented people who work at CDF– each of whom embodies our firm-wide commitment to providing exceptional legal guidance and client service,” said CDF Firm Managing Partner Marie DiSante.  “The many prestigious accolades we have received for more than two decades continue to enrich our firm history and tell a powerful story when it comes to our partnership with our clients and our dedication to supporting their business success.”

Five key CDF partners received the Best Lawyers 2019 Awards, including:

Dave Carothers (Employment Law – Individuals, Litigation - Labor and Employment and Class Actions – Defendants, San Diego).  Carothers represents employers throughout California as lead trial counsel in large complex cases ranging from class actions, wrongful termination, sexual harassment, breach of contract, ADA, wage and hour violations and discrimination.

Marie D. DiSante (Employment Law – Management and Litigation - Labor and Employment, Irvine).  Marie DiSante co-founded CDF in 1994 and has helped grow the firm to five offices throughout California – supported by more than 45 attorneys.  DiSante continually positions her clients at the forefront of emerging and unprecedented class action litigation in the state, and her dual role as a California business owner and entrepreneur allows her to understand client workplace challenges firsthand.

Timothy M. Freudenberger (Employment Law – Management, Litigation - Labor and Employment and Class Actions – Defendants, Irvine).  In addition, he was also named Best Lawyers “Attorney of the Year” in Class Action – Defense, Orange County, CA, for 2017 and again for 2019.  A founding partner, he leads the firm’s class action practice with a focus on wage and hour issues and discrimination class action lawsuits.  Freudenberger helped shape class certification and trial principles in exemption cases with a successful California Supreme Court decision in the case of Duran v. U.S. Bank Nat. Assn., 59th Cal. 4th 1 (2014).  He cemented this victory when he again defeated class certification after the case was remanded to the trial court, which was affirmed on appeal in a decision that discussed the weaknesses and unreliability of survey methodology in these types of exemption cases, Duran v. U.S. Bank, 19 Cal.App.5th 630 (2018).

Mark S. Spring (Employment Law - Management and Litigation - Labor and Employment, Sacramento).  Mark Spring leads the firm’s traditional labor law practice.  His practice focuses on management representation in union-management relations and employment-related litigation.  He has successfully battled and negotiated against a variety of unions, including Teamsters, UFCW, IBEW, Laborers, SEIU and Stationary Engineers.  Additionally, Spring has a successful record representing elected officials, public figures, athletes and executives in sexual harassment lawsuits and other high-profile matters.  Mark was also recently listed as a 2018 Top Lawyer by Sacramento Magazine.

Leigh A. White (Class Actions – Defense, Irvine).  White focuses her practice on complex litigation and dispute resolution, ranging from workplace discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and wage and hour class actions.  With close to 25 years defending California employers, she has a proven record of defeating class certification, obtaining favorable settlements and representing employers at high-status trials.  She allies with clients in developing business goals and strategies and works closely with employer human resource departments on defining multifaceted employment law issues in California.

About Carothers DiSante & Freudenberger LLP

For nearly 25 years, Carothers DiSante & Freudenberger LLP has distinguished itself as one of the top labor, employment and immigration law firms in California, representing employers in single-plaintiff and class action lawsuits and advising employers on related legal compliance and risk avoidance.  The firm has five offices throughout California – in Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego.  For more information, visit: www.CDFLaborLaw.com and find CDF on LinkedIn or Twitter to learn more about how the firm protects California employers.

About Best Lawyers

Since it was first published in 1983, Best Lawyers has become universally regarded as the definitive guide to legal excellence. Best Lawyers lists are compiled based on an exhaustive peer-review evaluation. Almost 87,000 industry leading lawyers are eligible to vote (from around the world), and we have received almost 10 million evaluations on the legal abilities of other lawyers based on their specific practice areas around the world. For the 2019 Edition of The Best Lawyers in America, 7.8 million votes were analyzed, which resulted in almost 60,000 leading lawyers being included in the new edition. Lawyers are not required or allowed to pay a fee to be listed; therefore inclusion in Best Lawyers is considered a singular honor. Corporate Counsel magazine has called Best Lawyers "the most respected referral list of attorneys in practice."

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