Cheryl Orr Named One of California’s Top Women Lawyers

International labor and employment practice group and San Francisco office leader Cheryl D. Orr has been selected by the Daily Journal as one of the “Top Women Lawyers in California” for 2020. The annual list recognizes women lawyers who demonstrate excellent lawyering and leadership skills in the state. This is the fifth consecutive year that Orr has been included on this list of leading lawyers.

In a special edition feature, the Daily Journal profiled Orr’s work counseling clients through the various challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Orr discussed how she and her colleagues across the firm advised clients at the beginning of the pandemic on workplace protocols, sheltering in place and the plethora of new rules and government guidance. “Even people who were litigators like myself, we were just there for our clients, and that’s all we did 24/7,” Orr said. As the year went on, the focus shifted to advising clients on contact tracing, employee furloughs and reimbursing expenses of people working from home.

Orr, who maintains an active wage and hour class action practice, was also noted by the publication for her management of large litigation matters, including two significant cases that are currently ongoing.

The Daily Journal also recognized Orr’s role as leader of Faegre Drinker’s international labor and employment practice, where she oversees a group of more than 100 professionals created by the Feb. 1 combination of Drinker Biddle & Reath and Faegre Baker Daniels. The practice includes teams that cover the full spectrum of labor and employment law, including immigration issues, labor law, pay equity, transactions and training, and Orr works with all of them. “While over 50 percent of my work is litigation, I still have clients that have needs in all of these other areas,” she said. “I have to say, it keeps it interesting.”

Orr added, “There’s no better way to get to know your colleagues than to work with them, and we’ve certainly had a ton of work.”