Stephen W. Hogie

All Six Claims Were Dismissed—Then Stephen W. Hogie’s Firm Helped Revive Every One

Robert Bezzina’s disability case against United Airlines had reached the legal equivalent of a dead end. The trial court granted summary judgment, eliminating all six of his claims before a jury could hear them. Hogie & Campbell did not leave the case there. The Ninth Circuit reversed the entire ruling, finding that a jury could decide whether a face shield with a drape would have allowed the ramp-service employee, whose post-traumatic stress disorder prevented him from wearing a conventional mask, to work safely. The court also questioned whether indefinite unpaid leave was truly an accommodation. The case returned to federal court and later settled. For an individual employee facing a major corporation, restoring every claim was a consequential victory in its own right.

Across more than 30 years in law, Stephen W. Hogie has seen employment disputes from both sides. He began as corporate counsel for Service Station Services, handling employment-defense and other corporate matters, and continued working on the employer side through 2004. Then he made the defining professional choice: he began representing employees exclusively. This is more than an interesting turn in a biography. It means he has seen how companies evaluate workplace disputes, defend personnel decisions, and respond when an employee challenges the official explanation.

The results associated with the practice show what that perspective can produce. Hogie & Campbell secured a settlement exceeding $300,000 for a longtime employee being forced out after more than 25 years of service. A sexual-harassment matter involving the owner and chief executive officer of a large corporation ended in a $250,000 settlement after the employee rejected his advances and found her job performance under attack. Another case produced $150,000 for a remote worker whose disability accommodation was withdrawn amid age-related comments. These are different stories, but each concerns the same imbalance: one person trying to protect a livelihood against an organization controlling the workplace and its records.

Not every difficult case becomes an appellate decision or a headline figure. Hogie has described representing a worker in a sexual-assault and harassment matter that culminated in termination. The first mediation was cancelled; the eventual proceeding involved translators and at least three cultures. The matter still reached a negotiated resolution. It is a revealing example of the practical work employment cases demand—keeping a complicated human negotiation moving after the first attempt has fallen apart.

He also writes for employees in direct, recognizable language, addressing questions such as whether to resign when threatened with firing, how wrongful termination differs from ordinary unfairness, and when workplace discrimination may require legal help. The California Employment Lawyers Association selected him to moderate a professional program about assisting people facing mental-health or substance-use issues. Both forms of communication matter. Workers often seek counsel while frightened, angry, or still employed, and they need someone capable of explaining the law without losing sight of the person living through it.

Hogie’s distinction is not that every dispute becomes an appeal. It is that an employer’s decision—and sometimes even a court’s first ruling—does not necessarily deserve the final word. For employees confronting discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wrongful termination, or unpaid compensation, that combination of inside knowledge and employee-side resolve can matter from the first evaluation through the last available challenge.

That combination of experience, reputation, verified professional standing, and public credibility is why Stephen W. Hogie was included on FreddieFender.com.