Two years after Harold DeGraff’s 2010 departure from the partnership of Perkins Coie, the corporate lawyer sued his former employer in San Francisco federal court, alleging the firm routinely deducted extraneous expenses from his paychecks.
The list of allegedly unlawful deductions is extensive, including: workers’ compensation and unemployment insurance fees, Medicare costs, shareholder loans, mandatory retirement fees, donations to charity, and travel expenses. Each of which, DeGraff argues, are “a business expense to be borne by the employer” because he joined the firm as an employee.
