Gina M. Roccanova
Biography
Gina M. Roccanova is a principal in the San Francisco, California, office of Jackson Lewis P.C. She has more than 20 years of experience in both the public and private sectors and brings a practical, problem-solving orientation to her work in negotiations, counseling, investigations, litigation, arbitration, and training.
Gina’s approach to advice and counseling is pragmatic and people-centered. She aims not only to keep her clients out of trouble, but to help them enhance their operations, increase employee engagement, and live out their organizational values.
Gina has negotiated labor agreements with local, national, and international unions and other employee organizations for a variety of public sector, nonprofit, and private sector clients. She regularly represents clients in health care, public protection, railroad, transit, building management, education, retail, and other settings in discipline, contract interpretation, and interest arbitration, as well as unfair labor practice charges and fact-finding proceedings. Her experience includes negotiating post-Janus side letters for public agencies.
Gina has also handled representation and decertification petitions for clients before the Public Employment Relations Board, and has defended clients against unfair labor practice charges, ranging from individual incidents to organizing campaigns. She has advised public and private-sector clients on issues such as permissible parameters of organizational picketing and pamphleting; rules limiting management communication with employees before and during organizational campaigns and elections; proper conduct of elections; and bargaining unit determination.
As a litigator, Gina has prevailed in high-profile matters, including a constitutional challenge to an Education Code provision, winning summary judgment in a disparate impact challenge to a promotional exam, and successfully defending high-level executives and general counsels. She has particular competence with employment matters in the areas of wage-and-hour law, discrimination, accommodation, leave of absence laws, medical and recreational marijuana use issues, and NLRB enforcement in non-unionized workplaces. She has also conducted workplace investigations for clients in a variety of industries and settings. Her experience as an employment litigator, counselor, and manager inform her investigative approach, which emphasizes objectivity, an understanding of context, and approachability, and strives to balance thoroughness and speed.
Gina has advised public and private sector clients on a variety of wage and hour issues, including employee classification, workweek definition, alternative workweeks, policies and documentation, exemption, the interplay between the Labor Code and collective bargaining agreements, calculation of the regular rate of pay, work schedules, and related issues.
Gina’s decade of service as a deputy city attorney provides her with extensive experience handling a wide range of labor matters, including administrative hearings, collective bargaining and labor arbitrations, as well as providing advice and counsel to elected and appointed officials. Examples of her experience include representing management in labor negotiations with numerous employee groups as legal counsel and lead negotiator; successfully defending the city in litigation, arbitration, and unfair labor practice proceedings; and supervising disciplinary and public integrity investigations resulting in improvements and fewer reversals through the grievance process.
Gina has also served as a commissioner on the San Francisco Civil Service Commission, which oversees all aspects of City employment and serves both a policy-making and adjudicatory function. The five-member Commission handles resolution of discrimination complaints, eligibility and hiring, promotion, qualifications, and job classification. Her experience as an advocate, Civil Service Commissioner, and hearing officer informs both her strategy in litigation/arbitration and her advice to clients. She is also a California State Bar certified mediator.
Gina presents education and training programs on a wide range of legal and regulatory topics, including leave management, harassment and bullying prevention, unconscious bias, discrimination, retaliation, discipline, disability law, workplace violence, internal investigations, marijuana in the workplace, and the responsibilities of executive board members in responding to staff complaints.
Gina clerked for the Honorable Sue L. Robinson of the United States District Court from 1995 to 1997.