Mark S. Spring
Sacramento Office Co-Managing Partner
CDF Labor Law LLP
Mark S. Spring has over thirty years of experience handling labor and employment law matters throughout Northern California. Spring’s practice is focused on the representation of management in union-management relations and handling litigation triggered by all types of employment-related disputes.
Spring has a successful record of dealings with union locals from the Teamsters, UFCW, IBEW, Laborers, Machinists, SEIU, Steelworkers, and Stationary Engineers. He negotiates union contracts, handles ULP charges, resolves grievances, represents clients at grievance arbitrations, and manages secondary picketing issues and other strike-related litigation and matters. In addition, Spring assists non-union employers with union avoidance efforts. He also counsels employers during union campaigns.
Spring’s reputation for litigation excellence is further built upon an impressive record as lead trial counsel in high-stakes employment litigation in both federal and state courts. In addition to his successful courtroom and trial work, Spring regularly represents California employers in discrimination, harassment, wage and hour, and employee safety issues in administrative matters/hearings before the NLRB, DFEH, EEOC, DLSE, Cal-OSHA, CUIAB, and other state and federal agencies.
Spring also maintains a significant litigation prevention practice, advising national and regional clients on adopting employment policies and managing challenging personnel problems in compliance with California law. He has also represented public figures, elected officials, executives, and athletes in high-profile sexual harassment lawsuits and investigations.
Spring is active in DEI issues. After serving for over fifteen years on the Sacramento County Bar Association’s Minority and Diversity Hiring and Retention Committee, in 2022, Spring served for several years as the Co-Chairperson and Chairperson of that organization.
Spring is a long-term member of the American Employment Law Council (AELC), a national invitation-only group of senior management-side employment attorneys. He is the Northern California representative and Board Member (Treasurer) for the Wage & Hour Defense Institute (WHDI), a group comprised of rigidly selected top wage and hour litigators from across the country. Spring was named the Best Lawyers® Sacramento 2021 “Lawyer of the Year” for the category of Employment Law – Management by his peers.
Spring loves to teach. He served for ten years as an adjunct lecturer at California State University, Sacramento, where he taught an undergraduate course in recreation law in the Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Administration Department. Spring is the Managing Editor of our award-winning California Labor and Employment Law blog. Spring is also a frequent speaker to employment-related groups and associations on a variety of labor and employment law issues.
In his off-the-clock hours, Spring enjoys playing golf, traveling (especially to the Balkans), white water rafting, and coaching. He spent over two decades as a high school boys’ basketball coach (Folsom and El Dorado HS) and several years high school girls’ lacrosse coach (Oak Ridge HS). He spent parts of two summers in Montenegro, coaching basketball at the Balkan Basketball Diplomacy Project co-sponsored by the Georgetown University Basketball program and the United States Department of State and has also conducted several lacrosse clinics in Israel for the Israel Lacrosse Foundation based in Ashkelon, Israel.