Allison Eckstrom

Allison Eckstrom brings more than two decades of concentrated experience in employment and wage and hour (class, collective, and PAGA) litigation to her mediation practice, with a particular focus on high-exposure matters, including class, collective, and representative actions. Known for her strategic precision and command of complex statutory frameworks, she has built a reputation for helping parties navigate high-stakes disputes with clarity, efficiency, and practical insight.​

Her mediation style is grounded in preparation, direct communication, and disciplined analysis. She works closely with counsel and decision makers to identify key legal issues and financial inflection points, allowing parties to move beyond posturing and toward realistic evaluation. Allison is particularly effective in matters involving technical wage and hour issues, where liability models, damages exposure, and procedural risk often drive resolution strategy. She provides candid, well-reasoned assessments while maintaining a steady, measured approach that keeps negotiations productive.​

Before transitioning to mediation, Allison litigated more than 250 class, collective, and PAGA representative actions in California state and federal courts throughout the United States. Her work covered the full spectrum of wage and hour issues, including meal and rest break compliance, regular rate calculations, wage statement claims, rounding practices, off-the-clock work, expense reimbursement, and employee misclassification (both exempt/non-exempt and independent contractor/employee). She also handled single-plaintiff employment matters involving discrimination, harassment, and retaliation, giving her a comprehensive understanding of both systemic and individual workplace disputes.

Most recently, Allison served as a partner at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, where she co-led the firm’s Employment Class and Collective Actions Team. In this role, she advised clients across a wide range of industries, including retail, financial services, technology, transportation, aerospace, pharmaceuticals, property management, and hospitality. Her ability to assess litigation risk at scale, combined with her experience managing complex, multi-party cases, informs her practical and solutions-oriented approach as a neutral.

Earlier in her career, Allison practiced at leading national firms including Ogletree Deakins, Morgan Lewis, and Fulbright & Jaworski. She began her legal career with a judicial clerkship at the Supreme Court of Hawaii, an experience that sharpened her analytical approach and understanding of appellate-level decision-making.

Allison’s background also includes early experience working for a national payroll and human resource management company, providing her with firsthand insight into workplace operations and compliance considerations. This perspective enhances her ability to evaluate disputes not only from a legal standpoint, but also through the lens of real-world business practices.

In addition to her mediation work, Allison serves as a discovery referee in complex wage and hour matters and as a neutral in Early Evaluation Conferences (EECs), a procedural mechanism available under recent PAGA amendments. This experience further informs her ability to guide parties through early-stage risk assessment and resolution pathways.