April 13, 2012
THE RECORDER
By Amy Miller
LOS ANGELES – Proskauer Rose is expanding its California labor and employment practice with the addition of litigator Kenneth Sulzer in Los Angeles.
He was chair of Seyfarth Shaw’s California labor and employment practice, and had been with the firm for 26 years. Sulzer now co-heads Proskauer’s California labor and employment group and its national class action group.
He represents management in labor and employment law disputes, with an emphasis on wage-and-hour class actions. He also handles U.S. Department of Labor investigations, collective bargaining and arbitration matters.
“I was looking for a labor and employment practice that wanted to expand in a fairly substantial way, where my skills and my experience both as a litigator and as someone who worked to build a practice group in that area could really offer,” Sulzer said. “And my experience was exactly what they wanted.”
Proskauer had tried to recruit Sulzer several times over the past 10 years, but he said he was hesitant to leave the firm he’d joined after graduating from Harvard Law School in 1985. He made partner at Seyfarth in 1993 and had led its labor and employment practice since 2001. But Sulzer said in recent years his clients had begun asking for assistance with corporate matters. So when Proskauer approached him again, Sulzer took a closer look at the depth of the firm’s corporate practice, and liked what he saw.
“Leaving was very emotional,” Sulzer said. “I described it as kind of an out-of-body experience. But from a business standpoint and what I wanted to do, it was the right move. I was looking for a new challenge.”
Larry Watanabe and Kenneth Schwartz of Watanabe Nason & Schwartz in Los Angeles brokered the deal.