Anna Segobia Masters, Partner

Anna Segobia Masters is a partner in Winston & Strawn’s Los Angeles office who concentrates her practice in labor and employment litigation.

Ms. Masters has practiced for more than 20 years in this area and has successfully handled a broad range of significant employment claims and lawsuits, from large wage and hour class actions to multi-party discrimination and class-action harassment claims. For more than a decade, she also has represented employers in the area of tip pooling and tip-handling claims. She functioned in the past as the senior in-house employment counsel for a large telecommunications company. She has worked for years representing employers across a broad spectrum of industries, such as banking/finance, manufacturing, hospitality, gaming, telecommunications, oil/gas, pharmaceutical, and retail.

Activities

Ms. Masters has been an active member of the legal and civil rights community over most of her career. Her accomplishments and activities have included serving as a member of the California Minority Counsel Program board, a commissioner for the State of California’s Judicial Nominees’ Evaluation Commission, a member of the Executive Committee of the State Bar Labor and Employment Section, editor-in-chief of the State Bar’s Labor & Employment legal quarterly, co-chair of the CMCP’s 2012 Annual Business Conference, a board member of the Employers Round Table of Southern California, and co-chair of the Employers Round Table of Southern California Annual Conference, a member of the board of trustees of the Mexican-American Bar Association, chair of the Latina Advisory Council for Big Sisters of LA, and a member of the board of directors of Big Sisters of LA.

Ms. Masters handles pro bono matters for children and persons with disabilities, and received the “Pro Bono Counsel of the Year” award from the Disability Rights Legal Center for her representation of an infant subjected to disability discrimination. She has been pro bono counsel to Healing Hearts Beyond Borders, a medical mission group, and to The American Jazz Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving America’s jazz heritage and promoting jazz music to youth. She also has served as amicus curiae on several cases before the California Supreme Court. She served for one month with the LA District Attorney’s office as part of its trial attorney project.

Education

Speeches and Publications

Ms. Masters has written and lectured extensively on employment issues for many organizations, including the American Employment Law Council, National Employment Law Institute, California Employment Law Council, Practising Law Institute, California Bankers Association, Los Angeles County Bar Association (Labor and Employment Section), Latin American Business Association, and Defense Research Institute. She previously served as associate editor and editor-in-chief of the California State Bar Association Labor and Employment Section’s Quarterly.

Ms. Masters’ speaking engagements include “The Use Of California’s Unfair Competition Law In Employment Cases,” presented at Practising Law Institute’s Unfair Competition Claims seminar; “Maneuvering California’s Unfair Competition Law,” presented at American Conference Institute’s National In-House Counsel Forum on Wage & Hour Law; “Summary Judgment Motions - A Defense Perspective,” presented at the Los Angeles Bar Association; “Sex, Race & Other Unlawful Harassment - An Update,” presented at the National Employment Law Institute’s 22nd Annual National Conference on Developments in Employment Law; “Privacy in the New Workplace,” presented at the Employment Law Council's Ninth Annual Conference; and “Attorney-Client Privilege for In-House Counsel: Keeping it and Losing it,” presented at the California Employment Law Council’s Annual Meeting.

Ms. Masters is the author of “Rights & Obligations Under the Americans with Disabilities Act,” which was published in Defense Research Institute’s Employment Law Basics and “Preparing a Sexual Harassment Case After Oncale, Faragher & Ellerth,” which was published in National Employment Law Institute’s Employment Law Litigation Manual.