EDITORIAL REVIEW
Outgoing Silicon Valley executives and other exemployees call on this vocal plaintiff-side employment advocate, who has only grown in influence as the economy worsened and terminations spread.
—2008 Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America
Along with winning huge employment suits for plaintiffs, Palefsky quietly champions the ideals of civility and cooperation, rather than scored-earth confrontation.
— Lawdragon, January 2008
This goodfaith guardian won big for workers whose companies unfairly, and often retroactively, lowered their commissions or switched their sales territory.
— Lawdragon, February 2007
A “great, tough lawyer” who is always on the “cutting edge” of employment law, Cliff Palefsky has long fought for the rights of workers, say his peers. His first major victory came in 1981, when he won a verdict against IBM for firing his client after she refused to break up with her boyfriend, a former IBM employee who had gone to work for a competitor. Palefsky also authored a San Francisco city ordinance prohibiting the termination of a worker for his association with certain organizations and relationships with others. The ordinance also prohibited random workplace drug testing. Palefsky has also been an outspoken critic of mandatory arbitration. In 1998, he won a precedent-setting case that struck down mandatory arbitration clauses in employment contracts when they prevent a worker for suing his employer for civil rights violations.
— Lawdragon, October 2005