About Justin Curley

Justin has been defending employers facing complex employment litigation for over 15 years, successfully defeating class certification, winning jury and bench trials and arbitrations, and securing favorable settlements. His litigation practice primarily involves defending employers in wage and hour class, representative, and collective action litigation under the California Labor Code, including the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA), and the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). He has successfully resolved class, representative, and collective actions varying in size from over 100 putative class members to over 110,000. Justin is one of the few attorneys in California who has first-chaired the bench trial of a PAGA representative action and obtained a complete defense judgment on all claims for the employer. He has also secured complete summary judgment for the employer in a PAGA representative action.

Justin also handles single and multi-plaintiff claims for discrimination, harassment, and retaliation, including whistleblower claims, as well as employment-related tort and contract claims. He has significant single-plaintiff jury trial and arbitration experience, including second-chairing a four-week jury trial (complete defense verdict), a six-week jury trial (nearly complete defense verdict), a two-week FINRA arbitration (complete defense award) and a one-week JAMS employment arbitration (complete defense award). Earlier in his career, Justin was part of a trial team that obtained the plaintiff’s agreement to dismiss all claims for a waiver of costs after a two-week jury trial.

In addition to his litigation practice, Justin provides day-to-day counseling and advice to employers concerning the various state and federal laws affecting the employment relationship. He advises clients regarding wage and hour issues, employment policies and practices, termination decisions, internal complaints and workplace investigations, and negotiating employment and severance agreements.

Justin has handled litigation for and provided counseling to clients in a variety of industries, including retail, tech, e-commerce, staffing, health care, banking, insurance, construction, airline, automotive, restaurants and hospitality, and defense. He also frequently provides pro bono advice and counseling concerning employment matters to several local nonprofits, and volunteers with pro bono programs Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), Legal Services for Children, and Project Homeless Connect. Justin was a member of the firm’s 2015 Pro Bono Team of the Year, and was named a Seyfarth Pro Bono All-Star in 2019 for ten consecutive years of pro bono work.

Prior to joining Seyfarth, Justin served for two years as a law clerk to the Honorable James P. Donohue of the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle. Before law school, he earned his CPA license as a financial auditor at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

Justin is active in his community, and currently serves as Treasurer on the board of nonprofit Community Resources for Science, which helps elementary school teachers in under-resourced schools in the Bay Area teach science. He has previously served on the boards of nonprofits The Bread Project (including as Board Vice President) and Green Tree Early Childhood Center.

Justin is also committed to promoting diversity and inclusion in the legal profession and the firm, and is a member of the Hispanic National Bar Association and the firm’s Hispanic Affinity Group.