November 15, 2018
The Board of Directors of the San Diego County Bar Association voted on November 13 to elect Johanna Schiavoni to serve as President Elect of the Association in 2019 and President in 2020. Johanna–currently serving in her third year on the Board and as a Vice President–previously served as Treasurer, as the inaugural Chair of the Public Positions Advisory Group, and as Chair of the Court Funding Action Committee. Johanna will serve as the 14th female president of the Association, which was founded in 1899.
April 4, 2018
In April 2018, Super Lawyers announced its “Top Attorney” lists in San Diego. Johanna Schiavoni was selected as one of San Diego’s “Top 25” women attorneys, and one of the “Top 50” attorneys overall (one of only 8 women on that list). “Super Lawyers” evaluates attorneys based on their professional expertise, peer evaluations, and independent research. Selection for the “Top Attorney” lists is based on the overall scores individual attorneys receive in the evaluation process.
Johanna is incredibly proud to be included among these groups of talented lawyers, and to continue to provide excellent service to her clients.
The lists are published here: http://bit.ly/2xAY7Ea
and here: http://bit.ly/2HbUK68
February 27, 2018
After being nominated by San Diego’s Mayor Kevin Faulconer, Johanna Schiavoni was unanimously confirmed by the San Diego City Council to a position on the nine-member board overseeing the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority. The Authority is an independent agency that manages the day-to-day operations of the San Diego International Airport and addresses the region’s long-term air transportation needs.
Schiavoni understands the importance of that role in the region, and notes that she is “proud to help guide the stewardship of a critical regional asset and economic engine like San Diego’s International Airport.”
July 15, 2015
Johanna Schiavoni was re-elected to serve a seventh term as Co-Director of the San Diego Leadership Alliance, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in San Diego with a mission to develop the next generation of progressive leaders by providing the skills, relationships and opportunities to build a sustainable progressive infrastructure in the San Diego region. Johanna was a founding leader of the SDLA in 2011, and has served as Co-Director of the organization since then. She is the longest-serving Co-Director of the organization. SDLA’s benchmark program is a six-month leadership training program that trains a cohort of 20 young professionals with a focus on the organization’s mission and values. To date, SDLA has trained nearly 120 young professional leaders in San Diego, and engaged more than 200 community leaders as faculty, advisers, and mentors. You can read more about the SDLA here: http://www.sdleadership.org/
March 24, 2015
A 3-judge panel of the California appellate court in San Diego issued a sweeping appellate victory to the plaintiff in a sexual harassment and wrongful termination case. The case was handled in the trial court by San Diego employment attorney Josh Gruenberg, and by appellate attorney Johanna Schiavoni on appeal.
After extensive briefing in this hard-fought case, the appellate court overturned the trial court’s grant of summary adjudication and summary judgment on five separate causes of action, including hostile work environment sexual harassment, failure to prevent harassment and retaliation in violation of the Fair Housing and Employment Act (FEHA), in addition to claims for intentional infliction of emotional distress and wrongful termination in violation of public policy. The court’s decision is available at Dawson v. Country Club of Rancho Bernardo (Mar. 23, 2015) 2015 WL 1311302, 126 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 1300.
The appellate court adopted Johanna’s argument, agreeing that the employee raised triable issues of fact on both the subjective and objective aspects of her sexual harassment, failure to prevent harassment and IIED claims, and that the trial court erred by considering the evidence in piecemeal fashion and discounting certain of the employee’s evidence. The court also agreed that the employee raised triable issues that she was retaliated against and wrongfully terminated within just weeks after she complained about the harassing conduct. The court held the company manager to whom the employee complained demonstrated hostility and bias against her during the investigation and that the evidence showed other inconsistencies in the company’s “performance-based” explanation for the termination. Thus, there were triable issues regarding whether the termination was instead done in retaliation for the employee’s protected conduct of complaining about her supervisor’s harassment.
The Court of Appeal reversed the judgment in its entirety, awarded costs to the plaintiff, and remanded the case for trial on all five causes of action.
