Jonathan P. LaCour · Founder & CEO

One lawyer in 2016. Three firms today.

Jonathan LaCour is the founder and CEO of Employees First Labor Law, WIN Trial Lawyers, and LaCour Trial Lawyers — seven California offices, more than $200 million recovered, and a company that is still led from the courtroom. He is also a mediator with AMAJ and an angel investor in operator-led companies.

The growth storyJoin the team
CEO · Employees First Labor Law · WIN · LaCour Scroll Pasadena · Irvine · Long Beach · Pomona · Riverside · Bakersfield · Fresno

Built at a kitchen table.

Employees First Labor Law started with one lawyer, no office, and no staff. A decade later it is three firms and seven offices — grown on purpose, one hire and one courtroom at a time. The founder story →

Before0

The other side

Starts as in-house counsel to a manufacturer and learns how employers actually make — and paper — decisions about their people.

20161

Employees First

Opens Employees First Labor Law in Pasadena: one lawyer, one conviction — represent the employee, never the company.

20212

WIN Trial Lawyers

Launches WIN Injury & Accident Trial Lawyers, bringing the same trial-first model to serious injury cases.

20253

LaCour Trial Lawyers

Takes on California disasters — the Eaton Fire, the GKN chemical release, the Lineage warehouse fire — on behalf of the communities they hit.

Today7

Offices statewide

Pasadena, Irvine, Long Beach, Pomona, Riverside, Bakersfield, and Fresno — the same trial lawyer behind a worker in the Central Valley as in Orange County.

Recovered for clients since 2012
$0

More than two hundred million dollars, one case at a time — for people who were fired, harassed, underpaid, discriminated against, hurt doing their jobs, or harmed by a disaster that never should have happened.

Employees First Labor Law · WIN Trial Lawyers · LaCour Trial Lawyers

Three firms. Seven offices.
One side of the table.

Employment law, personal injury, and disaster class actions, built from a single conviction: represent the person, never the company. Every client has a trial lawyer, and every case is prepared as if it will be tried.

Est. 2016 · Employment

Employees First Labor Law

Wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and wage-and-hour class and PAGA actions — plus a workers' compensation department led by Rony Barsoum and Spanish-language service through Empleados Primero.

employeesfirstlaborlaw.com ↗ Est. 2021 · Personal injury

WIN Trial Lawyers

Catastrophic injury, wrongful death, vehicle and premises cases, and the third-party claims that grow out of workplace injuries — prepared from day one to be tried.

wintriallawyers.com ↗ Class action · Mass tort

LaCour Trial Lawyers

Wildfire, chemical-release, and industrial-disaster litigation for individuals, families, and businesses — big enough to take on a utility, built to try the case.

lacour.law ↗

Run like a company.

Most plaintiffs’ firms are run case by case. Jonathan runs his like a business — systems, accountability, and a culture people want to join — so that the lawyers can spend their time winning. How the firm is built →

2016Founded · Pasadena
3Practices — EFLL · WIN · LaCour
7California offices
9Trials in a single 12-month span
$200M+Recovered for clients
1stBelieved first fee award under Lab. Code § 1102.5(j)

The operating idea is simple and unusual for a plaintiffs' firm: run it like a company. Jonathan completed Stanford Graduate School of Business's executive program in leadership and organizational strategy and brought the capstone home — a shift from reactive to proactive case management that now governs how every matter at EFLL is staffed, calendared, and prepared for trial from day one.

Leadership isn't about titles — it's about influence, accountability, and alignment. We have built a culture where excellence is expected, but empathy is required.

Growth has been intentional: a headquarters on South Fair Oaks in Pasadena, then Irvine, Pomona, Riverside, Long Beach, Bakersfield, and Fresno, so that an injured or wrongfully fired worker in the Central Valley has the same trial lawyer behind them as one in Orange County. The firm has doubled in size more than once, and the standard hasn't moved: every case is measured by whether the result changed the client's life.

The partners Jonathan P. LaCourFounding Partner · Lead Trial Counsel · CEO Lisa NoveckManaging Partner · lisanoveck.com ↗ Rony BarsoumPartner · Workers' Compensation & Catastrophic Injury · ronybarsoum.com ↗
Careers

Build it with us.

The firms keep growing, and growth is a people decision. We hire trial lawyers, associates, law clerks, paralegals, case managers, intake specialists, and operators who want to work on the right side of the caption — and who want to get better every year they are here.

Trial-firstAssociates try cases early
7 officesAcross California
  • Real courtroom work — the firms tried nine cases in a single twelve-month span
  • Systems that let you practice law instead of chasing paper
  • A leadership team that coaches, promotes from within, and expects excellence
  • A mission you can explain to your family in one sentence

Excellence is expected. Empathy is required.

Introduce yourselfThe firm ↗
Angel investing

Backing operators, not decks.

Great companies don't just disrupt markets — they redefine expectations. Jonathan invests in founders who pair innovation with execution discipline, and treats each investment as a partnership: growth systems, leadership coaching, positioning, and preparation for the next round.

$25K – $500KCheck size
Seed · Series AStage
  • Authentic operator DNA — founders with firsthand industry experience
  • Large, expanding markets serving fundamental needs
  • Early traction — proof of concept or revenue
  • Relentless, data-driven execution
  • Cultural leadership grounded in integrity and ownership

Retail, technology, and service businesses; primarily U.S.-based with selective global opportunities. Send a short summary: what you do, traction to date, and upcoming milestones.

Pitch a companyInvestment thesis
The trial lawyer

The CEO still tries cases.

Senior Trial Counsel at Employees First Labor Law and lead trial counsel at LaCour Trial Lawyers. Every case at the firms is prepared as if it will be tried, because he tries them.

Film

Forty-seven seconds on who he is and what the firms stand for.

Results that hold up.

Settlements, an arbitration award, and a jury verdict. Every one of them against an employer or insurer that said no first. All results →

$5,150,000
Workplace injury & wrongful termination
Settlement
$2,187,500
Pregnancy discrimination & wrongful termination
Settlement
$2,000,000
Gender discrimination & wrongful termination
Dababneh v. DOJA, Inc.
Jury verdict · San Bernardino Superior Court · 2025
$1,800,000
Sexual harassment & wrongful termination
Settlement
$1,200,000
Associational disability discrimination
Settlement
$1,100,000
Disability discrimination & wrongful termination
Arbitration award
$1,000,000
Race discrimination & wrongful termination
Settlement

Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each matter depends on its own facts and law. Amounts are gross recoveries before fees and costs.

What the firms fight.

Employment cases through Employees First Labor Law. Injury cases through WIN Injury & Accident Trial Lawyers. Wildfire, chemical-release, and industrial-disaster class actions through LaCour Trial Lawyers.

FEHA · Lab. Code

Wrongful termination

Fired for the wrong reason, or for a pretext covering the wrong reason. California protects more than most employees are told.

Employees First Labor Law ↗ FEHA

Discrimination

Gender, pregnancy, disability, race, age, and associational discrimination — including the cases where the paper trail was built to look clean.

Employees First Labor Law ↗ Wage & hour · PAGA

Wage violations

Unpaid overtime, off-the-clock work, denied meal and rest breaks, misclassification — individually and as class and PAGA actions.

Employees First Labor Law ↗ Whistleblower

Retaliation

Demoted, cut, or pushed out after complaining, reporting, taking leave, or filing a claim. Retaliation is its own case.

Employees First Labor Law ↗ FEHA

Sexual harassment

Hostile environments and quid pro quo — and the terminations that follow when someone finally says something.

Employees First Labor Law ↗ Class action · Mass tort

Disasters

Wildfires, chemical releases, and industrial fires — the Eaton Fire, the GKN chemical release, the Lineage warehouse fire. Big enough to fight a utility. Built to try the case.

LaCour Trial Lawyers ↗ Personal injury

Serious injury

Auto and truck collisions, premises liability, and catastrophic injury — tried, not just settled, through WIN Injury & Accident Trial Lawyers.

WIN Trial Lawyers ↗ Workers' compensation

Workplace injuries

Injured on the job, then let go. Workers' compensation through the department Rony Barsoum leads, third-party claims through WIN, and the employment case alongside.

Workers' comp with Rony Barsoum ↗
The mediator

Resolve it like it’s going to trial.

A neutral who has actually tried these cases — for employment, injury, and business disputes.

Mediation

Direct, fair, and final.

Outcome-driven mediation for counsel who want a neutral who has actually tried these cases. Pre-mediation calls with both sides, real preparation, candor about risk, exposure, and credibility — and continued engagement after the session until the deal is papered. Evaluative when it helps; never a passive facilitator.

$10,000Full day, all-inclusive
Same dayFollow-up until signed
  • Wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, retaliation and whistleblower claims
  • Wage-and-hour class actions and PAGA
  • Disability accommodation and misclassification disputes
  • Executive agreements, founder and shareholder conflicts
  • Breach of contract, business torts, unfair competition

Jonathan is a neutral with AMAJ, the Pasadena-based institute he is helping build that combines ADR education with mediation and arbitration services — on the principle that preparation, process, and perspective shape results.

Half-day and multi-day matters considered case by case. To check availability, send a brief case summary and proposed dates.

Request datesMediation detailsAMAJ.org ↗
AMAJ

An institute for resolution.

Jonathan is spearheading AMAJ, a Pasadena-based institute that pairs alternative dispute resolution education with mediation and arbitration services. The premise is the one he runs his firms on: preparation, process, and perspective shape results.

PasadenaHome base
ADREducation · Mediation · Arbitration
  • Neutrals with real trial and business experience
  • Training for lawyers, HR leaders, and executives on resolving disputes early
  • Mediation and arbitration for employment, injury, and commercial matters
Visit AMAJ.org ↗
Jonathan LaCour, CEO of Employees First Labor LawEmployees First Labor Law · 2025
Biography

Jonathan LaCour

Founder & CEO · Senior Trial Counsel · Mediator · Angel Investor

Jonathan LaCour is the founder and CEO of Employees First Labor Law and WIN Trial Lawyers, and founding partner and lead trial counsel of LaCour Trial Lawyers, the firm's class-action practice representing California communities harmed by wildfires, chemical releases, and industrial disasters. He is a trial lawyer known for aggressive litigation and inventive advocacy, and he has led the firms' expansion to seven offices across Southern and Central California while continuing to try and settle high-stakes cases himself.

He began his career on the other side of the table, as in-house counsel to a large manufacturing company, before moving to employment law and founding EFLL. That vantage point — knowing how employers actually make decisions and paper them — still shapes how he builds a case.

He earned his J.D. at Loyola Law School, where he was selected to the Federal Bar Association National Moot Court Team and competed nationally against the country's top law schools. He later completed a certification at the Stanford Graduate School of Business in leadership, organizational strategy, and scaling high-growth teams; his capstone, "Shifting from Reactive to Proactive Case Management Culture," was implemented directly at EFLL.

Every case is more than a file — it's a life, a story, and a promise to deliver justice with honor.

Full biography

$200M+Recovered since 2012
2022President, The National Advocates
7California offices
In the press Attorney JournalsCover feature · December 2025 — "A Decade of Growth, Grit, and Groundbreaking Wins" Attorney JournalsCover feature · July 2024 — "Rising to the Challenge" Voyage LAInterview — "Meet Jonathan LaCour of Employees First Labor Law" Super LawyersProfile — Employment & Labor, Pasadena

Honors and recognition.

Distinctions held by fewer than one percent of attorneys in the United States. All honors →

2026 · 2027Super LawyersSelected to the Super Lawyers list two consecutive years, following six consecutive years as a Rising Star.
2020 – 2025Super Lawyers Rising StarRecognition limited to no more than 2.5 percent of attorneys in the state, six years running.
MemberMulti-Million Dollar Advocates ForumReserved for attorneys who have won multi-million-dollar verdicts, awards, and settlements.
MemberMillion Dollar Advocates ForumRecognizing trial results and client advocacy outcomes.
2022 PresidentThe National AdvocatesTop 40 Under 40 — member and past president of the invitation-only organization.
Invitation onlyNational Trial Lawyers Top 40 Under 40Reserved for the most accomplished young trial attorneys in the country.
NomineeCAALA Rising StarConsumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles recognition for emerging leadership in plaintiff trial practice.
EducationLoyola Law School · Stanford GSBJ.D., Federal Bar Association National Moot Court Team; Stanford Graduate School of Business certification in leadership and scaling.
Juris Doctor · Federal Bar Association National Moot Court Team
Certificate · Leadership, organizational strategy, and scaling high-growth teams
Admitted to practice · Member, Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles

Writing and community.

Plain-language guides to California employment law, notes on mediation and building a firm, and a long-standing commitment to Pasadena. All articles →

Leadership

Running a law firm like a company

Lessons from ten years of growing Employees First Labor Law from one lawyer to three firms and seven offices.

 Mediation

What to expect at mediation

A mediator and trial lawyer walks through the day — caucuses, offers, the mediator's proposal, and making the deal stick.

 Whistleblower

Labor Code § 1102.5, explained

Who California's whistleblower law protects, how retaliation is proven, and the fee-shifting provision that changed these cases.

 Philanthropy

Pasadena Humane

Supporting the 501(c)(3) that has cared for and protected animals since 1903 — compassion and community, values that align with a practice built on advocacy for those in need.
Contact

Let's talk.

A legal matter, a mediation date, a role at the firms, a company worth backing, or a community initiative — send a note and it reaches Jonathan's office directly.

Phone
310.853.3461
Office
Employees First Labor Law
1 S. Fair Oaks Ave., Suite 200
Pasadena, CA 91105
Firms
Employees First Labor Law
WIN Injury & Accident Trial Lawyers
LaCour Trial Lawyers

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