Linda Van Winkle Deacon represents employers in a broad range of legal matters including employment discrimination (such as harassment and discrimination based on sex, race, national origin, disability, age, religion and sexual orientation), class actions, wrongful termination, wage and hour, and other employment-related disputes in both state and federal courts and before administrative agencies. Ms. Deacon also advises management in connection with union organizing drives and labor disputes and represents management in collective bargaining and arbitration.

Ms. Deacon has extensive trial experience in both bench and jury trials. During her twenty-eight year legal career, she has tried numerous cases to judgment or verdict. Prior to forming BPDZ&Y, Ms. Deacon was a Partner in the Labor and Employment Law Section of the international law firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP.

For the fourth consecutive year, Ms. Deacon was named a California Super Lawyer in the field of employment litigation, a designation awarded to the top 5% of California attorneys based on a survey of all California lawyers.

Ms. Deacon has been a visiting Associate Professor of Law at the University of Chicago, teaching equal employment opportunity law. She has taught and lectured for such organizations as UCLA Extension, California Business Law Institute and various trade groups and associations, including the Insurance Managers Association, the Society of Personnel Managers, the Medical Administrators Association, the Council on Education and Management and the Personnel and Industrial Relations Association. She also has lectured for the California Bankers Association at its Bank Counsel Seminar. In addition to teaching, Ms. Deacon has published a number of articles in the field of labor and employment law.

Ms. Deacon received her B.A. degree, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from Whitman College in 1970, and received her law degree with honors in 1973 from the University of Chicago Law School, where she was an Associate Editor of the University of Chicago Law Review and Order of the Coif.