Dana Cephas
Of Counsel
Pasadena
(310) 210-1505
Dana_Cephas@gshllp.com
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Biography
Mr. Dana Cephas has significant labor and employment experience on behalf of Fortune 500 Corporations, as well as smaller employers in both California and Colorado. He also has extensive experience in providing human resource and counseling advice to employers. Among other things, Mr. Cephas has drafted employment agreements, revised employee handbooks, and provided pre-litigation advice that has discouraged numerous plaintiffs’ lawyers from filing lawsuits against his clients.
In the litigation arena, Mr. Cephas has defended employers in individual and class actions alleging race, age, disability, sexual orientation and sex discrimination, as well as wage & hour actions, in both state and federal court. He has successfully tried several employment-related matters and has represented employers before administrative agencies including the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement.
In addition to nearly twenty years of labor and employment experience, Mr. Cephas spent three years as a Deputy Federal Public Defender in the Central District of California. He has also been a member of the Criminal Justice Act Panel for the Central District of California since 2006 and has extensive experience representing court-appointed and private clients in federal criminal matters from pre-indictment through appeal.
Mr. Cephas has first-chaired more than a dozen jury trials, taken or defended over a hundred depositions, and has argued hundreds of motions in state and federal courts, including many successful motions for summary judgment. He has also drafted appellate briefs and argued appeals at the state and federal level in California.
Mr. Cephas has worked at large national firms in California and Colorado. Mr. Cephas was also employed by the EEOC as a Senior Trial Attorney in the San Diego and Los Angeles offices. Prior to attending law school, Mr. Cephas was a Captain in the United States Air Force, having served on active duty from 1983 to 1990 and worked as an audit manager for the Air Force Audit Agency.
Mr. Cephas received his J.D. from the University of Chicago, and a B.S. in Accounting from the University of Connecticut. He has been a member of the California State Bar and is a past member of the Colorado State Bar. He is admitted to practice in California; U.S. District Courts for the Northern, Southern, and Central Districts of California; U.S. District Court of Colorado; and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth and Tenth Circuits.
Education & Bar Admissions
Education
- University of Chicago, J.D.
- University of Connecticut, B.S., Accounting
Bar Admissions
- California
- U.S. District Courts, Northern, Southern and Central Districts of California
- U.S. District Court, District of Colorado
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth and Tenth Circuits
