Using a practical, business focused approach, Dawn advises employers on complex labor and employment matters, drawing on more than two decades of experience as senior outside and in-house employment counsel.
Overview
Dawn's unique client-side perspective and deep experience advising employers in the aerospace, national security, manufacturing, and technology sectors enables her to deliver strategic counsel in highly regulated environments. She partners with business leaders and human resource professionals on the full spectrum of workplace matters, including employment litigation, workplace investigations, wage and hour issues, restrictive covenants, reductions in force, and compliance with federal and state employment laws. She also counsels employers in unionized environments on collective bargaining, labor arbitrations, unfair labor practices, and related labor relations matters. Whether defending sophisticated litigation and arbitration matters, addressing day-to-day personnel decisions, or guiding enterprise-level workforce challenges, Dawn is valued for delivering clear, actionable guidance that accounts for both legal risk and organizational realities.
Before returning to private practice, Dawn served in executive labor and employment leadership roles at a multinational company, where she advised executive management on employment issues across the United States, Latin America, and Canada. That experience gives her a first-hand understanding of the pressures facing in-house legal and business teams and informs her ability to deliver counsel that aligns legal guidance with broader business objectives. She regularly helps organizations assess risk, develop workplace policies, manage compliance initiatives, and navigate employment issues arising from reorganizations, mergers and acquisitions, and other strategic business changes.
Experience
- Developed and implemented strategic compliance initiatives for global, federal, state, and local employment laws.
- Led cross-functional teams in employment and labor compliance regarding global footprint, reorganizations, insourcing, outsourcing, subcontracting, co-employment, reductions in force, mergers, acquisitions, integration, divestitures, and spin-offs.
- Experienced in drafting employment documentation and agreements.
- Trained executive staff and human resource professionals on global employment and labor law and U.S. immigration law.
- Successfully defended a national trucking company in an unfair labor practice proceeding before the National Labor Relations Board.
- Successfully defended an Arizona company in a complex discrimination case involving multiple plaintiffs, defendants, and experts in federal court.
- Successfully defended a national insurance company in trial in a gender discrimination case in federal court.
- Successfully defended a national brewing company in a gender discrimination lawsuit in California.
- Successfully defended a national company in wage and hour class action.
News & Insights
News
Publications
"RFP Reset: Start With Client Service," Law360, September 2026
"What In-House Counsel Actually Need From Outside Employment Advisers," Legal Intelligencer, August 2026
"Firms Gain Advantage by Treating Hiring as a Business Decision," Bloomberg Law, July 2026
Speaking Engagements
Recognitions
Recognitions
Recognized by the Dean's Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers with the Pro Advocate Award, 2025
Arizona Corporate Counsel Overcoming Obstacles Award recipient, 2021
Recognized by Barrett Honors College with the Distinguished Alumni Award, 2015
Named to AZ Business Magazine's "25 Most Influential Hispanic Business Leaders in Arizona" list, 2013
Named to the "40 Hispanic Leaders Under 40" list by Univision Radio and Chicanos Por La Causa, Inc., 2013
Professional & Civic Activities
Professional & Civic Activities
Fresh Start, Executive Board Member, 2025-present
National Charity League, Grade Level Advisor, 2021-2023
Make-A-Wish Arizona, Board of Directors, Wish Committee Chair, 2013-2019
Leadership Council on Legal Diversity, Fellow and City Lead, 2013
Practices & Industries
Admissions
- Arizona
- U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Education
University of Arizona, James E. Rogers College of Law, J.D., 2000
- Journal of International and Comparative Law, Editor in Chief
Arizona State University, B.A., Religious Studies and Spanish, 1997
Languages
- Spanish
