Marissa Rael

Marissa represents employers in every phase of litigation, from pre-litigation disputes through class certification hearings and trial. She handles a broad range of complex labor and employment matters for employers of all sizes, including wrongful termination, employment discrimination, wage and hour, and PAGA litigation. She also counsels on California and federal employment law and helps conduct workplace trainings on discrimination, harassment, sexual harassment prevention, and respect in the workplace. She has experience representing clients across the health care, fashion and retail, hospitality, and temporary staffing industries.

Marissa maintains an active pro bono practice that includes representing LGBTQ+ nonprofits in employment disputes.

Before joining the firm, she served as a judicial extern to Justice C. Shannon Bacon of the New Mexico Supreme Court and to Judge Nicole M. Heeseman at the Governor George Deukmejian Courthouse. Earlier in her career, she worked as a paralegal at a family law and personal injury firm.

During law school, Marissa was an editor of both the California Law Review and the Berkeley Business Law Journal. She also provided pro bono support to the Animal Law Advocacy Project and competed in the McBaine Honors Moot Court Competition.

Experience prior to joining Hunton includes:

• Defended numerous class actions for clients in the health care, fashion and retail, hospitality, and temporary staffing industries.
• Obtained summary judgment in a single-plaintiff arbitration in which the arbitrator found that an engineer supplied by a staffing agency lacked standing to assert discrimination and wrongful termination claims.
• Successfully represented one of the largest commercial banks in the United States in a putative wage and hour class action, securing decertification of the class.
• Defended employers across a range of industries in single-plaintiff wrongful termination matters.
• Defended employers in various industries in putative wage and hour class actions.
• Advised clients on a variety of employment matters, including preventive compliance under state and federal law and pre-litigation strategy.