Melvin Felton is a labor and employment partner at downtown-based Sanders Roberts, where he has practiced since 2018.
Felton’s practice involves representing corporations and entrepreneurs in business litigation, as well as advisement, mediation and arbitration. He has recovered more than $10 million for clients through trials and settlements.
Outside of the firm, Felton lends his expertise to networking and education. He remains involved with the John M. Langston Bar Association of Los Angeles after serving as its president last year and also teaches a legal course for human resources students at Cal State Long Beach.
Tell me about your labor and employment practice and how you built it.
I represent a variety of companies, from Fortune 500 to mom-and-pop. I built it over time by maintaining relationships that I’ve built with friends, colleagues, law school classmates, former coworkers and people I’ve met through bar associations.
What’s a signature legal victory for you?
We parachuted into trial where a client was facing terminating sanctions because they said a witness had died who wasn’t dead but later died. We won the jury verdict 12-0 on the first question. On appeal, the court of appeal said that the case should’ve been disposed on the motion for non-suit that I wrote and argued.
Conversely, is there a loss that was nevertheless formative for your career?
I second chaired a labor trial about 10 years ago and we lost the case because the judge gave us an adverse inference regarding a key witness, and it was a key witness who we chose not to examine because his testimony kept changing whenever we spoke to him. The lesson I learned there was even bad witnesses are better than empty chairs.
What’s it like to work labor and employment in a state like California?
Busy. Period.
What has kept you busy so far this year?
Multiple trials, arbitrations and meeting my clients needs. Also, showing up for my family in ways I couldn’t show up last year when I was president of the Langston Bar Association.
In the sense that rising operating costs can result in cutbacks, do you anticipate the Trump Administration’s tariffs to add your workload at all?
I don’t know what the mid- or long-term effects of the tariffs will be but if they impact the economy in a negative way, I expect my business to increase because people tend to sue more frequently when the economy isn’t doing well. That’s when my phone rings the most.
What are unique challenges to the labor and employment landscape in Los Angeles?
There are many different bodies of law that govern how employers and employees should deal with one another. Theres obviously California state law, wage orders, federal laws, including the national labor relations act and there are also increasingly municipal ordinances that employers have to comply with too. With all these varying bodies of law, it can be difficult to keep up and remain in compliance.
How has your firm empowered your career and practice?
Since I started working here more than seven years ago, I freely shared my plans for business and client development with my now-partners who have been generous and supportive every step of the way. More than that, the firm has supported all of my bar leadership activities, generously sponsoring both Langston and National Employment Law Council.
