After a string of high-profile wins for employees at the California Supreme Court, last week Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker’s Robert Cooper got a win for an employer client at the state’s high court in a closely watched case. In a 5-2 decision, the court found that a former employee couldn’t pursue conversion claims against Cooper’s client, Greg Lampert, who was facing claims related to unpaid wages from three of his startup ventures. In a majority opinion written by Justice Leondra Kruger, the court held that allowing conversion claims for lost wages “would reach well beyond those individual corporate officers who withhold wages to punish disfavored employees or who deliberately run down corporate coffers to evade wage judgments.” 

The Recorder caught up with Cooper this week to talk about his approach to the case, which he and his firm came onto after the state’s high court granted review. What follows has been edited for length and clarity. 

Robert Cooper, Wilson Elser (Photo: Courtesy Photo)