Devoted to Corporate Attorneys, Corporate Lawyers, and Corporate Counsel

The following is not meant to be legal advice.

From a talk on October 27, 2007 by Thomas Walker, who has represented executives and employees at technology companies in the San Francisco bay area, an employee who gets terminated may lose a lot in terms of deferred compensation, and emotions from investing a great part of his/her life to a company. 

According to old case law, every employee contract has a covenant of good faith and fair dealing.  The employment relationship is like a contract.  There is an implied contract possibly that a person will work at a company until retirement.  When the contract is breached, the employee might have a tort claim.  In a tort claim, a plaintiff is able to get noneconomic damages, such as pain and suffering, attorney fees and costs, punitive damages. 

The covenant of good faith and fair dealing no longer exists in California.  The implied contract claim is now a weak claim.  At most the person would get contract damages.  There cannot be any promises for a person to rely on because the relationship is “at will”, and this is discussed throughout in employee manuals.