Shirley Wang

Shirley Wang is the founder of Saber Law Group, a woman and certified minority-owned law firm. In her third decade of practicing law, she leads the firm’s employment law and litigation practices, representing employers and senior management, and providing high-level strategic advice on a wide array of litigation, compliance, audits, training, and investigations, and advice and counseling matters.

Shirley represents start-ups, privately-held companies, as well as Fortune 500 and global companies. Her clients span a wide range of industries including automotive retail; technology; life sciences, hospitality; professional services; real estate development and property management; as well as national and community-based non-profit organizations, including affordable housing and social services providers.

Shirley is a frequent workplace trainer, including one-on-one senior executive training for AB 1825 compliance, as well as a presenter for client and industry-specific groups on developments in sex discrimination and harassment law. She also conducts and oversees highly sensitive workplace investigations.

Shirley advises and counsels employers to be legally compliant and to minimize their risk of liability, while providing practical, cost-effective solutions. With a keen sense of business, operations, and employee morale issues, Shirley provides wide impact solutions and implementation on a myriad of employment law matters, including compensation, restructures, personnel policies, workplace violence prevention, leaves of absences and reasonable accommodations, COVID-related issues, and diversity and inclusion policies and practices.
She also represents founders and other executives of public and private companies in the negotiation and preparation of their employment-related agreements, including separation, confidentiality, arbitration, indemnification, and consulting agreements.

Shirley defends all types of employment litigation, including race, national origin, age, sex, medical leave and disability discrimination, harassment, retaliation and whistleblower cases, as well as wage and hour actions, employment contract, trade secret, and employee solicitation, and unfair competition litigations. Her practice includes the defense of PAGA representative and class actions.

In addition to her employment practice, Shirley successfully has litigated a broad range of complex contract, commercial, trade secrets, and unfair business practices disputes on behalf of companies, as well as complex professional liability malpractice, and cases on behalf of various non-profit and for profit organizations, companies and individuals.

Her recent litigation successes include:

• obtaining complete defense judgment following four week court trial during the pandemic involving pregnancy and disability discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and wrongful termination claims for a domestic violence shelter.
• reducing to single plaintiff nominal settlements in multiple PAGA and class actions involving wage and hour claims.
• obtaining on appeal an affirmance of award limiting plaintiffs’ counsel to less than $50,000 in recovered fees and costs from over $850,000 sought in a retaliation and wrongful termination action.
• obtaining on appeal an affirmance of judgment following a favorable jury verdict for a home care services provider and individually-named defendants on a complex personal injury matter.
• obtaining on appeal an affirmance of judgment following dismissal from a successful demurrer and motion to strike obtained on an employment discrimination, harassment, and retaliation matter on behalf of the nation’s largest public school employees’ labor union.
• obtaining a complete defense verdict in a six-week trial on case involving sex and national origin harassment, retaliation, wrongful termination, and wage claims for a Bay Area franchisee of a national hotel and restaurant chain.
• preventing class certification in a purported wage and hour class action alleging misclassification of managers for multi-state restaurant franchisee, which result led to a nominal settlement of the entire case.
• obtaining dismissal with prejudice of purported wage and hour class action alleging off the clock work and unreimbursed business expenses for a nationwide franchisor.
• successfully obtaining non-solicitation of national customers against former sales employee in case alleging breach of duty of loyalty, misappropriation of trade secrets, and unfair competition for food and wine importer and distributor.
• successfully opposing summary judgment in unfair business practices case for a private software company.
• obtaining nominal settlement in single plaintiff case alleging misclassification of exempt sales employee for nationwide franchisor.
• obtaining dismissal with prejudice following demurrer of race discrimination case for labor union client with over 230,000 members.
• obtaining nominal settlement in single plaintiff case alleging race discrimination for nationwide auto transport carrier company.
• obtaining nominal settlement in single plaintiff case alleging learning disability for nationwide franchisor.
• obtaining summary judgment in habitability case for a nationwide affordable housing developer.
• obtaining dismissal at hearing before California Labor Commissioner on claim for alleged unpaid overtime wages brought by residential manager.

Ms. Wang previously litigated employment, general commercial, and securities fraud cases at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in Palo Alto. She also helped start the employment law practice group at the San Francisco office of Preston Gates & Ellis (now K&L Gates), where she focused on both employment law counseling and litigation. Ms. Wang also has served as Chief Counsel and Interim Executive Director of the California Office of Criminal Justice Planning.
Ms. Wang received her law degree from New York University School of Law. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree, magna cum laude, from the University of Washington, where she was admitted as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She speaks conversational Mandarin. In her free time, Ms. Wang enjoys Giants baseball, running, and international travel.

Education

J.D., New York University School of Law

B.A., University of Washington
magna cum laude
phi beta kappa