A partner at Bowles Law, Cindy has a strong skill set and extensive experience in California employment law issues. This includes harassment prevention training, employee handbook compliance, wages (including overtime), meal and rest breaks, leaves of absence, independent contractor classification, disciplinary measures, and terminations.

Prior to joining Bowles Law, Ms. Bamforth served as in-house counsel for a group of affiliated businesses supervising all legal affairs.

Last year, she was honored by host John Horn to speak on KPCC NPR’s “The Frame” on identifying and preventing sexual harassment in the workplace. The invitation came on the heels of her participation in Women in Film’s #MeToo movement’s panel discussing sexual harassment in Hollywood.

Her lively and informative radio segment touched on the advantages to live classroom-style harassment prevention training, and what employers should do to prevent workplace harassment.

Ms. Bamforth is dedicated to helping companies develop sound employment practices for secure growth, through education and counseling. She is known for her exceptional communication skills and ability to defuse potentially explosive situations in the workplace.

Cindy received her Bachelor of Arts in government from Wesleyan University and her J.D. degree magna cum laude from Seattle University Law School. She also served as Associate Editor for the Seattle University Law Review.

Raised amid a family of lawyers, Ms. Bamforth also employs her legal skills in pro bono work for a variety of social betterment groups.

October, 2019

Helena is “Of Counsel” to the Law Offices of Timothy Bowles. She contributes to the firm’s continuing specialty of employment law while adding her extensive experience in copyright/ trademark and contract work. Helena also regularly assists clients in the evolving area of home care law, aiding in creation and compliance, and as applicable, registration, of home care organizations and domestic referral agencies.

Admitted to The Florida Bar in 1978 and to the State Bar of California in 1991, Ms. Kobrin began her practice in the commercial realm, handling transactional matters, banking and other government regulation, as well as real estate and probate work.

For the bulk of her career, and through the Bowles & Moxon and Moxon & Kobrin firms, she represented churches and other non-profit organizations in a large variety of areas, including copyright, trademark, and trade secret issues, contract review and drafting, bankruptcy, litigation, and dispute resolution. She continues to enjoy helping organizations in the non-profit and religious realms.

Starting in the 1990s, Ms. Kobrin was instrumental in establishing protections for copyrights and trademarks on the Internet. She was part of the team that represented plaintiffs in the first-ever copyright infringement suit over unauthorized online postings and was featured in media interviews around the globe. That case led to the passage of the federal Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) requiring service providers to remove copyright infringements from websites upon receiving notice, while protecting providers proactive in taking down such copyrighted material online.

Ms. Kobrin was also a speaker and participant at various early-Internet forums addressing copyright issues, including one at The Brookings Institution and a CSPAN-featured debate over how to protect copyright online while exempting proactive service providers from liability.

November, 2019

The Twentieth Century, and the start of the Twenty-First, have been no cakewalk. While our advances in science and technology have made possible the real prospect of a civilized world community, the reason, ethics and justice that would establish a secure society and lasting peace have been repeatedly crushed by the madness of ignorance, global war and genocide. In the past one hundred years, more people died in the cause of freedom – and at the hands of technological “advancement” – and more put to death for their religion than at any other period of recorded history.

While some say that the past century delivered lessons that have enabled a more stable and interdependent world, we need not look very far for signs to the contrary – decaying, ineffective educational systems, growing pharmaceutical dependence for emotional “stability,” and destruction of human rights and civil liberties to “fight” faceless terrorism. Unless effective and enlightened leadership prevails, these trends herald this emerging Twenty-First Century as more anguished and inhumane than the one that has just passed.

I am a lawyer – and foster and expand this firm – because human survival depends on a social framework that promotes and supports the basic rights and nature of humanity to create and change conditions for the better. We are dedicated to serving in the employment realm as our societies are engaged upon it the vast majority of time. The workplace is thus a critical setting for productive, fair and mutually beneficial human interchange.

The justice system works only when individual citizens adhere to and are accountable to the ideal of personal responsibility – responsibility for one’s own condition, for family, for community and for the human race. Through our work as trusted advisors and litigators, our law firm is committed to helping those we touch to achieve that noble and worthwhile end.

Tim Bowles

January, 2020

We are Pasadena Weekly’s Best Law Firm … Again!

For the second year running, our clients, fellow attorneys and other supporters have confirmed we are Pasadena Weekly’s best law firm. Thanks to all Southern California communities for allowing us to serve you since 1998.

Our Employee Policy Handbook & Forms for 2021

Including New COVID-19 Vaccination and Other Guidelines

Clear, written workplace policies are a critical component for legal compliance and productivity. Continuing pandemic conditions and California's lawsuit happy environment underscore the importance of sound, across-the-boards written rules and protocols.

Updated for 2021, our model forms include:

• Workforce pandemic recovery and prevention measures;
• Vaccination promotion, requirements and procedures;
• Paid sick leave benefits under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act and related federal and California directives;
• Employment application and accompanying job description template(including key requirements for Americans with Disabilities Act compliance and California's constitutional privacy protections);
• Pre-employment protocols (properly positioning the process to meet changing legal requirements);
• Employment agreement (including confidentiality/non-disclosure of company trade secrets);
• Alternative dispute resolution agreement (also properly setting terms to match changing standards for private mediation and arbitration in lieu of court action);
• Meal and rest period acknowledgments (confirming employer provision of required breaks); and
• Termination policy, checklist and standard release (to be applied as appropriate for full transition and greater protection against later, preventable suits).

Our comprehensive model employee handbook now includes (but is not limited to):

• Conditions of company employment, including mutual "at will" termination rights;
• Discrimination and harassment, prevention and handling (including new standards stemming from government response to COVID-19 conditions);
• Employee compensation;
• Employee benefits;
• Employee job performance;
• Limits of employee privacy, including valid employer access to employee-maintained databases and social media guidelines;
• Paid and unpaid leaves;
• Workplace health and safety;
• Job-related injury or illness, including prevention plan priorities; and
• Drug and alcohol policy, including testing and violations procedures and standards.

CONTACT US TO ORDER NOW

To order or for more information, contact Office Manager Aimee Rosales at 626.583.6600 or email her at officemgr@tbowleslaw.com.

Written Policy Never Goes Out of Style

Our Workplace Policy Handbook & Forms for 2022

Clear, written policies are a critical component for workplace legal compliance and productivity. Our unprecedented combination of pandemic conditions and California's earned lawsuit-happy environment underscore the importance of sound, across-the-boards written rules and protocols.

Updated for 2022, our model forms include:

• Workforce pandemic recovery and prevention measures;
• Vaccination promotion, requirements and procedures;
• Paid sick leave benefits under federal and California directives;
• Employment application and accompanying job description template(including key requirements for Americans with Disabilities Act compliance and California's constitutional privacy protections);
• Pre-employment protocols (properly positioning the process to meet changing legal requirements);
• Employment agreement (including confidentiality/non-disclosure of company trade secrets);
• Alternative dispute resolution agreement (also properly setting terms to match changing standards for private mediation and arbitration in lieu of court action);
• Meal and rest period acknowledgments (confirming employer provision of required breaks); and
• Termination policy, checklist and standard release (to be applied as appropriate for full transition and greater protection against later, preventable suits).

Our comprehensive model employee handbook, 2022 edition, includes (but is not limited to):

• Conditions of company employment, including mutual "at will" termination rights;
• Discrimination and harassment, prevention and handling (including new standards stemming from government response to COVID-19 conditions);
• Employee compensation;
• Employee benefits;
• Employee job performance;
• Limits of employee privacy, including valid employer access to employee-maintained databases and social media guidelines;
• Paid and unpaid leaves;
• Workplace health and safety;
• Job-related injury or illness, including prevention plan priorities; and
• Drug and alcohol policy, including testing and violations procedures and standards.

CONTACT US TO ORDER NOW

To order or for more information, contact Office Manager Aimee Rosales at 626.583.6600 or email her at officemgr@tbowleslaw.com.

Workplace Policy Handbook & Forms for 2022

Clear, written employee policies are the foundation for workplace legal compliance and productivity. Prolonged pandemic conditions and California's earned reputation as a litigation hotbed underscore the importance of sound, across-the-boards written rules and protocols.

Updated for 2022, our model forms include:

• Workforce COVID protocols;
• Vaccination promotion, requirements and procedures;
• Paid sick leave benefits under federal and California directives;
• Employment application and accompanying job description template(including key requirements for Americans with Disabilities Act compliance and California's constitutional privacy protections);
• Pre-employment protocols (properly positioning the process to meet changing legal requirements);
• Employment agreement (including confidentiality/non-disclosure of company trade secrets);
• Alternative dispute resolution agreement (also properly setting terms to match changing standards for private mediation and arbitration in lieu of court action);
• Meal and rest period acknowledgments (confirming employer provision of required breaks); and
• Termination policy, checklist and standard release (to be applied as appropriate for full transition and greater protection against later, preventable suits).

Our comprehensive model employee handbook, 2022 edition, includes (but is not limited to):

• Conditions of company employment, including mutual "at will" termination rights;
• Discrimination and harassment, prevention and handling (including new standards stemming from government response to COVID-19 conditions);
• Employee compensation;
• Employee benefits;
• Employee job performance;
• Limits of employee privacy, including valid employer access to employee-maintained databases and social media guidelines;
• Paid and unpaid leaves;
• Workplace health and safety;
• Job-related injury or illness, including prevention plan priorities; and
• Drug and alcohol policy, including testing and violations procedures and standards.

CONTACT US TO ORDER NOW

To order or for more information, contact Office Manager Aimee Rosales at 626.583.6600 or email her at officemgr@tbowleslaw.com.

Workplace Policy Handbook & Forms for 2022

Clear, written employee policies are the foundation for workplace legal compliance and productivity. Prolonged pandemic conditions and California's earned reputation as a litigation hotbed underscore the importance of sound, across-the-boards written rules and protocols.

Updated for 2022, our model forms include:

• Workforce COVID protocols;
• Vaccination promotion, requirements and procedures;
• Paid sick leave benefits under federal and California directives;
• Employment application and accompanying job description template(including key requirements for Americans with Disabilities Act compliance and California's constitutional privacy protections);
• Pre-employment protocols (properly positioning the process to meet changing legal requirements);
• Employment agreement (including confidentiality/non-disclosure of company trade secrets);
• Alternative dispute resolution agreement (also properly setting terms to match changing standards for private mediation and arbitration in lieu of court action);
• Meal and rest period acknowledgments (confirming employer provision of required breaks); and
• Termination policy, checklist and standard release (to be applied as appropriate for full transition and greater protection against later, preventable suits).

Our comprehensive model employee handbook, 2022 edition, includes (but is not limited to):

• Conditions of company employment, including mutual "at will" termination rights;
• Discrimination and harassment, prevention and handling (including new standards stemming from government response to COVID-19 conditions);
• Employee compensation;
• Employee benefits;
• Employee job performance;
• Limits of employee privacy, including valid employer access to employee-maintained databases and social media guidelines;
• Paid and unpaid leaves;
• Workplace health and safety;
• Job-related injury or illness, including prevention plan priorities; and
• Drug and alcohol policy, including testing and violations procedures and standards.

CONTACT US TO ORDER NOW

To order or for more information, contact Office Manager Aimee Rosales at 626.583.6600 or email her at officemgr@tbowleslaw.com.

Mandatory Sexual Harassment Prevention Training

Advantages of Live Webinar Training Over E-Training

Every two years, California employers with five or more on payroll have to provide at least two hours of classroom or other effective interactive training and education regarding sexual harassment to all California supervisory employees and at least one hour of such training to all nonsupervisory employees in California. This is inclusive of on-site and remotely working employees.

New employees must do this training within six months of hire.

The required instruction must include:

• information and practical guidance on applicable federal and state law on prevention, correction and remedies of and for sexual harassment;
• "practical examples aimed at instructing supervisors in the prevention of harassment, discrimination, and retaliation"; and
• prevention of abusive conduct.

Based on two-plus decades of classroom-style delivery, our live Zoom webinar training is well-suited for remote workers as well as those back at pre-pandemic work sites. The all-participants on-camera format confirms employee attentiveness as well as promotes interaction and thorough understanding of the materials.

Live classroom-style interactive webinars are the superior alternative to point-and-click e-training:

• Real time interaction with trainer, with ability to apply principles to specific work conditions;

• Immediate answers to questions, benefitting all attendees on the webinar;

• Employees will be called on randomly throughout, which means they typically pay closer attention;

• Live training confirms company commitment to effectively addressing and preventing unlawful or inappropriate workplace conduct;

• Proper emphasis on importance of information relative to specific scenarios; and

• By the bulk of feedback we've received, our live sessions are engaging and effective.

Contact us TODAY for more information, pricing or to schedule your workforce's webinars at (626) 583-6600 or officemgr@tbowleslaw.com.