SAN FRANCISCO — Uber Technologies Inc.’s new trial team moved aggressively on Thursday to shut down a high-stakes case over the company’s designation of drivers as independent contractors.

Lawyers for Uber, led by Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher partner Theodore Boutrous Jr., urged a federal judge not to certify a class in the wage-and-hour suit, arguing among other things that most Uber drivers don’t even want to be employees.