Freddie Fender Verified Attorney
Keith Andrew Custis
Employment Law
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Freddie's Review
He Once Defended American Express and Citibank. Now Keith Andrew Custis Represents Employees
Large companies rarely enter legal disputes unprepared. They have experienced lawyers, substantial budgets, and strategies designed to control both the pace of the case and the pressure placed on the person challenging them. Keith Andrew Custis understands that advantage from firsthand experience. Before representing employees, he spent years defending some of the country’s most powerful corporations.
At Choate, Hall & Stewart LLP and Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP, Custis represented clients including American Express, Citibank, and Washington Mutual Bank in consumer class actions and commercial litigation. He learned how major institutions assess risk, respond to damaging evidence, and decide whether to negotiate or continue fighting. For an employee confronting a company with far greater resources, that perspective can be extraordinarily valuable.
His transition into employee advocacy developed through several sides of complex litigation. After his large-firm work, Custis joined a consumer class-action practice where he helped recover more than $16 million for clients and class members. He later served as special counsel to an employment firm representing both employees and employers. By the time he opened Custis Law Office in 2014 and established Custis Law, P.C. in 2018, he had seen how workplace disputes are evaluated from nearly every position at the table.
His experience with institutional-scale litigation continued after he opened his own practice. In 2017, Custis successfully defended a $300 million public contract after a competitor challenged its award. Although different from an employee claim, the matter demonstrated his ability to operate in disputes involving enormous financial interests, sophisticated opponents, and consequences extending far beyond a single courtroom appearance.
Custis also arrived at litigation by an unusual route. Before graduating magna cum laude from Boston College Law School, he earned a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from American University. He later served as Executive Editor of the Boston College Law Review, was inducted into the Order of the Coif, and clerked for U.S. District Judge Mark L. Wolf. That combination matters in employment cases, where success often depends on reducing thousands of pages of documents, conflicting testimony, and complicated workplace policies to one clear and persuasive human story.
One result reveals the persistence behind that work. Custis obtained a $2.8 million settlement for a minimum-wage employee subjected to racial harassment, retaliation, and wrongful termination. Reaching that resolution required more than 25 days of depositions and responses to more than 600 discovery requests—the kind of prolonged pressure that can cause an individual to question whether continuing is possible.
His broader record shows the range of employees he represents. Custis secured $2 million for more than 3,200 restaurant workers pursuing unpaid wages and workplace penalties, $1.5 million for an employee in a whistleblower-retaliation matter, and $1.35 million for a C-suite executive alleging retaliation and wrongful termination. He also obtained $383,250 for a security guard and single mother who was terminated shortly after beginning pregnancy-disability leave. The job titles and financial circumstances differ, but the underlying problem is familiar: one person confronting an organization with more power and more resources.
Custis has been recognized in The Best Lawyers in America for Litigation–Labor and Employment beginning in 2024 and was selected to the 2026 Southern California Super Lawyers list for Employment Litigation: Plaintiff. The more revealing qualification, however, is the breadth of his experience. He does not have to imagine how major companies defend themselves. He spent years representing them, then carried that knowledge through consumer class actions, both sides of employment litigation, and ultimately into a practice focused on employees.
For workers, that history offers more than an impressive résumé. It provides an attorney who understands how institutional defenses are constructed, where pressure is likely to come from, and what it takes to continue when a powerful employer expects an individual to give in. Corporate America once benefited from Keith Andrew Custis’s judgment. Today, his employee clients do.
That combination of experience, reputation, verified professional standing, and public credibility is why Keith Andrew Custis was included on FreddieFender.com.
Credentials
- Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, cum laude, University of Georgia (1987).
- Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, American University (1992).
- Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, Boston College Law School (1997); graduated in the top 5% of his class, inducted into the Order of the Coif, and served as executive editor of the Boston College Law Review.
- Active member of the State Bar of California, Bar No. 218818; licensed since 2002.
- Admitted to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
- Admitted to the United States District Courts for the Central, Northern, Eastern, and Southern Districts of California.
- Member, American Association for Justice.
- Member, Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles.
- Member, Consumer Attorneys of California.
- Member, Los Angeles County Bar Association Labor and Employment Law Section.
- Member, National Employment Lawyers Association.
Career Highlights / Proven Experience
Career Highlights
- Firm Founder: Founded Custis Law Office in 2014 and established its successor, Custis Law, P.C., in 2018. His current practice represents employees in wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wage-and-hour, protected-leave, and class-action matters.
- Federal Judicial Clerkship: Began his legal career clerking for the Honorable Mark L. Wolf of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
- Fortune 500 Defense Background: Represented major corporations in consumer class actions and complex commercial litigation from 1998 through 2009. His work at Choate, Hall & Stewart LLP and Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP included representing American Express, Citibank, Washington Mutual, and other national financial institutions.
- Experience on Both Sides of Employment Litigation: Before dedicating his practice to employee advocacy, served as special counsel at a litigation boutique representing both employees and employers in individual and class-action litigation. He now uses that defense-side knowledge to anticipate the strategies employers and their insurers may employ.
- More Than $16 Million in Earlier Class Recoveries: Before founding Custis Law, worked with a consumer class-action firm where his efforts helped recover more than $16 million for clients and class members.
- Professional Leadership: Serves on the Dinner Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Law Section, helping organize continuing legal education programs for employment attorneys. He was also appointed to the editorial board of Los Angeles Lawyer magazine.
- Peer Recognition: Selected to the Southern California Super Lawyers list for Plaintiff-Side Employment Litigation and Class Actions for 2026 and 2027.
Proven Experience
- $2.8 Million Racial-Harassment and Wrongful-Termination Recovery: Secured a $2.8 million settlement for a minimum-wage worker subjected to racial harassment, discrimination, retaliation, and wrongful termination. The heavily litigated matter involved more than 25 days of depositions and over 600 discovery requests.
- $2 Million Restaurant-Worker Class Recovery: Represented more than 3,200 restaurant workers in recovering unpaid wages, meal-and-rest-break premiums, and statutory penalties through wage-and-hour class litigation.
- $1.5 Million Whistleblower-Retaliation Recovery: Represented an employee in a whistleblower-retaliation and wrongful-termination matter resulting in a $1.5 million recovery.
- $1.5 Million Truck-Driver Class Recovery: Represented more than 1,500 truck drivers in recovering unpaid wages, meal-and-rest-break premiums, and penalties through wage-and-hour class litigation.
- $1.35 Million Executive Whistleblower Recovery: Represented a C-suite executive in a whistleblower-retaliation and wrongful-termination matter producing a $1.35 million recovery.
- $850,000 Technology-Worker Representative Recovery: Represented more than 800 employees in recovering statutory penalties for California Labor Code violations involving a technology company.
- $850,000 Restaurant-Employee Representative Recovery: Obtained an $850,000 result for employees pursuing California Labor Code penalties against a restaurant chain.
- Employment Arbitration Victory — Udoff v. Proto Homes, LLC: Represented an employee whose former employer attempted to force her workplace claims into arbitration. Custis successfully defended the trial court’s refusal to compel arbitration, and the California Court of Appeal affirmed, allowing the employee to continue pursuing her claims in court.
- Mass-Arbitration Appellate Victory — Intuit Inc. v. 9,933 Individuals: Served as California counsel for thousands of TurboTax consumers after Intuit attempted to halt their individual arbitration proceedings. The California Court of Appeal affirmed the denial of Intuit’s requested injunction, allowing the consumers’ claims to proceed through arbitration.
- Successful Defense of a $300 Million Public Contract: Defended a $300 million public contract legitimately awarded to his client after a competing bidder filed a protest seeking to overturn the award.
- Additional Individual Employment Recoveries: His firm reports a $525,000 retaliation and wrongful-termination recovery for a real-estate employee; $450,000 for an engineer terminated after requesting medical leave; $450,000 for a graphic designer alleging racial discrimination and retaliation; $383,250 for a security guard terminated shortly after beginning pregnancy-disability leave; $350,000 for an executive alleging whistleblower retaliation; $300,000 for an accounting executive alleging whistleblower retaliation and disability discrimination; $282,500 for a creative professional alleging national-origin discrimination; and $260,000 for two employees alleging whistleblower retaliation and disability discrimination.
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