Katy A. Suttorp, AWI-CH

Katy A. Suttorp, AWI-CH

Pronouns: she, her, hers

Katy Suttorp, a partner in the Orange County office of Burke, Williams and Sorensen, LLP, represents and counsels a wide range of employers, including municipalities, special districts, school districts, community college districts, and private entities, in numerous labor and employment law matters.  These include disability accommodation and interactive process, employee discipline and due process, leaves and benefits, state and federal wage and hour audits and disputes, wrongful termination, workplace investigations, Firefighters Procedural Bill of Rights Act/Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights Act, employee speech and privacy, workplace violence, pre-employment and privacy issues, including drug and alcohol testing, HIPAA/California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act, and CalPERS and CalSTRS audits and disputes.  In connection with that representation, Katy has drafted and revised a variety of personnel rules and employee handbooks, personnel-related ordinances and resolutions, board policies and administrative regulations, collective bargaining agreements/memoranda of understanding, and employer-employee resolutions/local rules.

To further educate clients regarding many of these issues, Katy has developed in-depth, customized training focused on clients’ particular problems and areas of concern, including interactive process and reasonable accommodation, discipline and due process, performance evaluations, and prevention of harassment, discrimination, retaliation, and abusive conduct.

Katy also provides advice and representation for a variety of labor matters, including acting as lead negotiator, representing agencies in proceedings before PERB, and providing workplace training addressing challenges in supervising represented employees.

During law school, Katy clerked at the U.C. Davis office of the Campus Counsel and served as a summer extern for the Honorable Gary A. Feess, a judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California.  She also served as editor-in-chief of the environmental law and policy journal, Environs.  In recent years, Katy completed a two-year appointment to the Program Review Committee for the American Inns of Court.

  • J.D., University of California, Davis, 2003
  • B.A., Environmental Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, 1998
  • State Bar of California
  • United States District Court for the Central District of California
  • Association of Workplace Investigators Certificate Holder