Dan Chammas is a skilled litigator with extensive experience defending companies against class actions, particularly wage and hour and consumer class actions. Mr. Chammas is a member of Venable's Labor and Employment Practice Group and has litigated and resolved every type of employment dispute, including claims for wrongful termination, sexual harassment, unpaid wages, racial discrimination and representing management against union grievances. Mr. Chammas focuses his practice on “high stakes” litigation, defeating class certification in "off-the–clock violations," missed breaks, discrimination, employee misclassification, and consumer class actions. He has personally managed and prevailed in more than ten multi-million dollar class actions.

In addition to his litigation work, Mr. Chammas has advised clients on a whole array of employment issues, including terminating employees, drafting employee handbooks, and complying with California and federal wage and hour laws, as well as leave and disability rules. He has also represented and counseled entertainment studios on their rights and obligations under various minimum basic agreements and talent deals.

Representative Clients

Significant Matters

• Mr. Chammas has defended the premier global provider of wireless tracking and recovery systems for mobile assets in a wage and hour class action. He successfully argued before the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which agreed with a lower court ruling and denied compensation to an employee who alleged his commute to work and other activities should have been paid time.
• He also successfully defended a client in an invasion of privacy consumer class action with allegations that the company placed and recorded hundreds of telephone calls to individuals per day without their consent. The class – which had originally sought tens of millions of dollars – could not be certified, Mr. Chammas pointed out, because the recordings were authorized by state tariffs.
• Mr. Chammas defeated class certification of a wage and hour class action alleging the misclassification of exempt supervisors, and then prevailed in a jury trial when 16 individual plaintiffs, who could not represent a class, still pursued their claims in court individually.
• He also represented and defended a leader in the portrait photography industry in an off the clock class action in federal court. The district court denied the motion to certify a class of over 3,000 employees.
• Mr. Chammas prevailed in a class action brought by the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, which alleged that requiring applicants for employment to submit to a "nerve pace test" violated the state's disability discrimination laws.