O’Melveny & Myers LLP is pleased to announce that Aparna B. Joshi, a well-respected labor lawyer, has rejoined the Firm as a partner in the Labor and Employment Practice Group. Joshi will be based in O’Melveny’s Washington, DC office.
“We are thrilled to welcome Aparna back to the Firm and expect that she will help grow and strengthen our national labor and employment capabilities, especially our Railway Labor Act practice, as we continue to build on our 35-year history of handling the most important and high-profile matters in aviation,” said Apalla Chopra, chair of O’Melveny’s Labor and Employment Practice Group. “Aparna’s broad skill set and national reputation will deepen the bench of our prominent and very busy team.”
Joshi began her legal career at O’Melveny in 2002 and quickly established an active practice in employment-law class actions and labor-law representation of airline clients under the Railway Labor Act (RLA). She has an impressive track record of successes for clients, including being part of O’Melveny teams that obtained a precedent-setting dismissal for US Airways in the Fourth Circuit in a case brought by the Air Line Pilots Association; won an appeal for US Airways before the Third Circuit in an action alleging that the outsourcing of aircraft maintenance constituted a “major dispute” under the RLA; and obtained a preliminary injunction for United Air Lines against the pilots’ union and individual pilots to prevent a job action by pilots followed by successful representation of United in the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals that upheld grant of preliminary injunction against the union and pilots.
In addition to her labor work in the aviation industry, Joshi has substantial experience in employment discrimination matters, including Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, wrongful discharge, and ERISA-related litigation, and she has litigated several significant matters in this area.
“I am delighted to be returning to O’Melveny and to its world-class labor and employment group,” said Joshi. “The opportunity to work with a team that I know and respect on exciting matters for a great roster of clients is something I very much look forward to.”
Joshi earned her B.A., summa cum laude, in 1996 from the University of Pennsylvania and her J.D., with honors, in 2000 from the University of Chicago Law School. She is a contributing editor to the preeminent treatise on airline labor law, The Railway Labor Act (BNA 2012), and has published a number of articles on various aspects of airline labor law. Joshi rejoins O’Melveny from an international law firm.
