Christopher Boucher, Esq.
Founding Attorney
Christopher’s practice focuses on labor and employment law, and his expertise includes representing employers in a union environment, including labor negotiations, changes to existing terms and conditions of employment and/or the effects of those changes, and the meaning and application of labor contract provisions. He also serves as trusted counsel to employers throughout California regarding employee discipline, due process, grievance procedure issues, reasonable accommodation, and other labor and employment law matters. His clients greatly value his extensive practical human resources and labor negotiations experience, in addition to his legal skills.
Experience
Prior to entering private law practice, Christopher spent over a decade as a seasoned human resources executive with a broad spectrum of industry experience, including municipalities, public utilities, aviation, maritime, special districts, K-12 as well as higher education. Most notably, Christopher served as the Port of Oakland's Director of Human Resources from 2014 to 2018, where he directed the Port's human resources, labor relations, benefits, EEO, leaves and disability compliance, occupational health and safety, and workers' compensation functions.
Education & Training
Christopher earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and graduated cum laude from the Abraham Lincoln University School of Law. In addition, he received a professional certificate from Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, and attended the Harvard Negotiation Institute at Harvard Law School.
Awards & Recognitions
In recognition of his human resources and legal accomplishments, Christopher was featured as one of 2016’s national “Top Five Rising Stars” by Human Resource Executive magazine, and he was named among America's Top 50 Lawyers which identifies and highlights the accomplishments of the nation’s most distinguished and skilled attorneys in all fields of practice of law.
Skills
In addition to his advocacy skills, Christopher has successfully utilized his mediation training to achieve settlements on labor and employment matters. As an experienced workplace investigator, Christopher holds the Association of Workplace Investigators Certificate Holder (AWI-CH) credential, in addition to serving as part-time faculty for the Association's Training Institute for Workplace Investigators. He is also a frequent speaker at a variety of conferences on labor and employment law topics, including legal updates and keynotes.
Expert Witness
As a former experienced human resources professional and now an attorney-at-law, Christopher is available to testify, among other issues, workplace investigations, harassment, discrimination, and retaliation prevention programs, complaint procedures, interactive process and accommodation issues, performance evaluations, disciplinary action decisions, and employee terminations. Christopher's expertise includes public employee due process rights and discipline involving represented (union) employees.
Representative Clients
Christopher is honored to serve as counsel to a number of California cities, including: Carson, Cupertino, Dublin, Fairfield, Half Moon Bay, Los Altos, Manteca, Napa, Pittsburg, Richmond, Rocklin, San Anselmo, San Bruno, San Leandro, South Gate, Sunnyvale, Tracy and Vallejo; counties, including: El Dorado, Glenn, Nevada, Sacramento and Riverside; school districts, including: Hayward and Madera; special districts and joint powers agencies, including: Alameda Health System, Bay Area Rapid Transit, Coalition for Controlling Insurance Cost in California Schools (CICCS), Cosumnes Community Services District, CPS-HR, Feather River Recreation & Park District, Metropolitan Transportation Commission, Montara Water & Sanitary District, North Marin Water District, Oro Loma Sanitary District, San Mateo County Harbor District, San Mateo County Transit District, Sewer Authority Mid-Coastside, South San Joaquin County Fire Authority, Tahoe-Truckee Sanitation Agency and Thermalito Water and Sewer District; nonprofit organizations, including: Alameda Health System Foundation, Asian Americans for Community Involvement (AACI), Asian Art Museum, Child Start and FIRST 5 Santa Clara County; and other public entities, including: the University of California, Berkeley and the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco.
In addition, Christopher also serves a number of private employers, including those with labor unions, as he has experience conducting negotiations and managing labor relations under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).