Dorian West Blair

Dorian has almost 30 years of employment law and human resources experience. She is a seasoned workplace investigator having investigated and overseen hundreds of investigations primarily for public sector employers, but also for private sector employers. Dorian specializes in investigations of claims of discrimination, harassment, and retaliation based on protected categories, but is also skilled in investigating claims of workplace violence, policy violations, misconduct, wage and hour, and safety. Dorian has experience preparing position statements for the DFEH, EEOC, and DOE/OCR and testifying at depositions and in administrative proceedings regarding completed investigations.

In addition to conducting investigations, Dorian has expertise in affirmative action plan development and programming; diversity, equity, and inclusion programming (DEI), including developing internship and apprenticeship program; and disability/leaves. She is also skilled in classification, compensation, grievance management, and training.

Dorian began her employment law journey externing for the EEOC Systemic Litigation Unit in her third year of law school. Following graduation, she prosecuted employment cases under Executive Order 11246, Rehabilitation Act, VEVRAA, FMLA, FLSA, OSHA, and STAA as a Trial Attorney at the U.S. Department of Labor and defended employers in litigation under Title VII, ADA, ADEA, FMLA, FEHA, CFRA and the California Labor Code as a Senior Associate at Rogers, Joseph, O’Donnell. She also worked in-house as Corporate Counsel at PeopleSoft developing and managing the contingent workforce program, managing employment litigation, and backing up the Employment Law Counsel.

In 2002, Dorian moved to the human resources and consulting side conducting and/or overseeing workplace investigations and responding to agency complaints as well as handling other HR-related work. In this capacity, she worked for California State University, East Bay (CSUEB), as the Director, Employment Relations and Practices and the Interim Associate Director of Human Resources and for CSUEB Continuing Education as an Instructor in Disability Law. She also has worked at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine (UCSF SOM) as the Director of Human Resources, Silicon Valley Bank as a Senior HR Business Partner, CPS HR Consulting as a Lead Investigator, East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) as a Diversity and Inclusion Officer, and Its Personnel as an Attorney Investigator. Accomplishments during her career include development of the first AA/EEO program and development of a recruitment process to enhance diversity at CSUEB, improvement of the Management Incentive Program and development of an HR Strategic Plan at USCF SOM, and expansion of the high school, college and specialty internship programs to create a pipeline of diverse candidates and leveraging the District Affinity Groups for recruitment and engagement initiatives at EBMUD.

Dorian earned her Juris Doctorate from Stanford Law School and a Bachelor of Arts in Communications Studies from UCLA, where she graduated cum laude. She is a member of the Association of Workplace Investigators, an active member of the State Bar of California, and an inactive member of the D.C. Bar.