Gabriela B. Odell
Attorney at Law
1990 North California Blvd. 8th Floor
Walnut Creek, CA 94596
Contact:
Gabriela.Odell@
Godellcounsel.com
Phone 925-705-7784
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GABRIELA ODELL 
EMPLOYMENT ATTORNEY 
Workplace Investigations
Fact-Findings
Dispute Resolution and Mediation
Ombuds Services
Workplace Consulting
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Gabriela Odell is an employment attorney who performs California workplace investigations and fact-findings of employment discrimination and misconduct allegations in both the private and public sector. She also offers workplace consulting, neutral ombuds and dispute resolution services.   With her combined 26 years experience in litigation and as in-house counsel, she applies an approach tailored to the unique context of each workplace and industry.
Ms. Odell has had two decades experience as in-house labor and employment counsel for a scientific organization with a 7,000+ employee workforce, and seven years in private practice representing both public and private sector employers. Her comprehensive experience dealing with all areas of employment law for different industries and sectors has reinforced her philosophy that every fact-finding or dispute resolution process requires an approach that incorporates the unique context, culture and dynamic of the organization.
Having served as in-house counsel and member of human resources management for a large, diverse workforce, as well as having prepared for and defended scores of administrative claims and lawsuits, she has developed an organizational perspective of the challenges involved in investigating discrimination, harassment and other claims in today's highly complex legal environment. She understands the extent to which external investigators can be challenged by unfamiliarity with a corporate culture, while internal investigations may be perceived as biased or subject to management influence.  She brings the best of both perspectives to her investigations: understanding the need to learn as much as possible about each workplace and its relationships, while maintaining an outsider's neutrality.  
Ms. Odell's  career litigating both single plaintiff and class action lawsuits, including hands-on experience taking and defending depositions for both plaintiffs and employers, provides the fact-finding experience necessary to understand how the investigation process plays out in court. Her representation of clients in arbitration hearings, jury trials and in hearings before governmental tribunals and investigators, as well as her experience handling investigations by EEOC, DFEH or and the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs provide an "in-the-trenches" perspective of
how employer/employee relationships go wrong and balloon into
destructive and costly disputes.
With her knowledge of the organizational, regulatory and legal ramifications of workforce management, Ms. Odell applies unique skills to workplace i