Christine Masters, Esq.
With more than 25 years of experience in employment rights, Christine Masters was recognized in the Los Angeles Daily Journal as one of the top mediators in California in both 2003 and 2006. Her clients said “her skills are unparalleled . . . she brings her quiet, zenlike demeanor, focus and force to every session,” and “she has succeeded many times where our side had little or no hope of reaching a resolution.” Ms. Masters began serving as a neutral in the mediation and arbitration of workplace disputes and as an investigator in discrimination, sexual harassment, and employee misconduct matters in 1995, and has served exclusively as a neutral since 1998. She has a down-to-earth mediation style, and an ability to set the parties at ease, while helping to craft creative and practical settlements.

Ms. Masters began her legal career at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 1978, assigned to the Los Angeles District Office first as an investigator and then as a trial attorney. In 1982 she was recruited by Allred, Maroko, Goldberg & Ribakoff, a Los Angeles civil rights firm, where she served as of counsel for more than a decade. While at the Allred firm, she represented individuals involved in employment disputes, as well as advised several small to medium-sized employers. With her partner, Alan Ribakoff, she founded the law firm of Masters & Ribakoff in 1993, where she -continued that work until she transitioned her practice from advocacy to neutral services.

Ms. Masters has trained extensively in dispute resolution, attending The Straus Institute of Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine University School of Law, among others. She frequently lectures on mediation and arbitration of employment and workplace disputes and is often called by the news media to comment on employment issues. She is author of numerous articles and book chapters on these issues and regularly addresses advocacy, academic and employer groups on a wide variety of employment and ADR related topics.

SPECIALIZES IN:
All aspects of employment law, including discrimination, wrongful termination, sexual harassment, defamation and other employment torts and contract claims; privacy rights and trade secrets, wage-hour matters.

EDUCATION:

  • J.D. Lincoln University, San Francisco, California
  • B.A., University of California, Irvine, 1972
  • Professional Certificate in Gerontology, University of Southern California, 1990

ORGANIZATIONS AND ACHIEVEMENTS:

  • Elected as Fellow in the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, 1999.
  • Member of the Labor & Employment Law Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association since 1985, member of the Executive Committee since 1995, and Chair of the Section, 2000-2001.
  • Founding Member of the California Association of Workplace Investigators (CAWI), 2001.
  • Member, Association of Conflict Resolution, 1999 to present.
  • Member, City of Los Angeles Special Committee on Investigative Oversight, 2000 to present.

AVAILABLE:

Throughout California.