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Overview
An employment litigator turned corporate attorney, Sayuri is a zealous advocate with a unique eye for minimizing risk. Sayuri’s corporate practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, general corporate transactions, and corporate governance. Sayuri’s practice touches a variety of industries including hospitality, apparel and beauty, financial services, food and beverage, health, wellness and fitness, manufacturing, construction, transportation, and entertainment.
She has experience in a wide variety of corporate transactions, including:
- Representing acquirers and target companies in all aspects of equity and asset acquisitions, with a focus on the middle market (transactions between $5 million and $500 million).
- Drafting and negotiating executive employment agreements, consulting agreements, and equity incentive agreements and plan documents, including stock option agreements, restricted stock agreements, and profits interest grant agreements.
- Drafting and negotiating non-competition agreements, and other restrictive covenant agreements, including in connection with sales of businesses.
- Drafting cease-and-desist letters to enforce restrictive covenants and trade secret laws, including non-solicitation, non-disclosure, and confidentiality obligations.
- Drafting influencer agreements, non-disclosure agreements, confidentiality agreements, and proprietary information and assignment of inventions agreements.
- Serving as a day-to-day resource for corporate clients regarding transactional and governance matters.
- Drafting employee handbooks, workplace policies, and separation agreements.
Sayuri’s experience handling transactional and litigation employment matters, enhances her transactional work, including with respect to executive employment agreements and equity incentive matters, as well as due diligence and navigating post-acquisition integration (e.g., wage and hour compliance, employee classifications, drafting and implementing employment policies and agreements).
An active member of her community, Sayuri provides pro bono legal services through the Public Law Center and Rutan’s Orange County Human Trafficking Project, serves as Treasurer of the Orange County Women Lawyers Association, Board Member of the Public Law Center, and Past Chair of the Orange County Association of Business Trial Lawyers – Young Lawyers Division.
Sayuri is fluent in Spanish.
Experience
Areas of Focus
- Corporate/Securities Law
- Mergers & Acquisitions
- Operating Agreements, Shareholders Agreements, Buy-Sell Agreements
- Equity Incentive Plan and Award Documents
- Drafting and Enforcing Restrictive Covenant Agreements
- Contract Negotiation
- Corporate Governance
- Non-Disclosure, Confidentiality, and Proprietary Information Agreements
- Influencer Agreements
- Employment Agreements and Employment Policies/Handbooks
- Wage and Hour Diligence
- A.B. 1825 Sexual Harassment Training (Spanish & English)
Representative Matters – Corporate and Transactional
- Represented both buyers and sellers in equity and asset acquisitions, across a wide spectrum of industries and geographies
- Acted as outside general counsel for various private companies, assisting with all matters from capital raises, contract negotiation, acquisitions, and structuring matters.
- Represented funders in various litigation finance investment transactions.
- Represented company in connection with capital raises.
- Drafted influencer agreements for fashion retailer partnering with social media influencers.
Representative Matters – Litigation
- Defended communications company and multiple individual defendants against claims of fraud, conversion, unjust enrichment, and breach of fiduciary duty, among others, and ultimately obtained pre-discovery dismissal of entire action.
- Defended construction company in hotly contested putative wage-and-hour class action involving more than 11,000 employees. Defeated plaintiffs’ bid for class certification, and further obtained a “walk-away” (no money paid to plaintiffs) settlement of plaintiffs’ individual claims.
- Defended hospital against retaliation and wrongful termination lawsuit in multi-day arbitration. Obtained arbitration decision in favor of hospital on all claims.
- Represented restaurant client against former employee in wage claim asserting claims of unpaid wages and waiting time penalties before the Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) and obtained decision in favor of restaurant, awarding the plaintiff $0.
News & Insights
Recent Publications
- “New COVID-19 Related Orders for Los Angeles City Employers,” Rutan & Tucker, LLP E-Alert, April 2020
Awards & Affiliations
Memberships & Affiliations
- Treasurer, Orange County Women Lawyers Association (Present, served as Secretary in 2024 and Board Member in 2023)
- Board Member, Public Law Center (2025 – Present)
- Board Member, Orange County Women Lawyers Association Foundation (2022)
- Chair, Public Law Center, Volunteers for Justice Silent Auction Committee Member (2022-2024, served on Silent Auction Committee since 2019)
- Chair, Association of Business Trial Lawyers, YLD Committee (2019-2021)
- Member, State Bar of California (Labor and Employment Law Section)
- Member, Orange County Bar Association
Awards & Honors
- Orange County Coalition for Diversity in the Law “Top 10 Young Diverse Lawyers of OC” (2024)
- Southern California Super Lawyers, Rising Stars Edition, 2023 – 2024
- Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch for 2022-2025
- Rutan & Tucker, LLP Excellence in Pro Bono Services Award, 2021
