Experienced. Practical. On Your Side.

Kim Owens is a California employment lawyer with more than 20 years of experience advising organizations, executives, and professionals on complex workplace matters.

Most recently, Kim served as Associate General Counsel and Head of Employment Law and Ethics & Compliance at Waymo. Before moving in-house, she spent a decade representing employers in employment litigation, beginning her legal career at Littler Mendelson. Her experience spans trials, appeals, and administrative proceedings before agencies including the DLSE, NLRB, EEOC, and California Civil Rights Department, as well as work on matters before the California Supreme Court and U.S. Supreme Court.

Kim's connection to employment law began in law school, where she volunteered with a workers' rights clinic at Legal Aid in San Francisco. Over the two decades since, she has seen workplace issues from many perspectives—from helping individuals understand their rights, to litigating complex disputes, to advising business leaders and HR teams as in-house counsel. That breadth of experience shapes how she practices today.

Kim advises executives and professionals on significant career and workplace matters, including employment agreements, compensation and equity, workplace concerns, transitions, and separations. She also partners with startups, growing organizations, in-house counsel, and HR teams on employment practices, policies and agreements, workplace challenges, and day-to-day employment law needs.

Her approach is practical, collaborative, and human. Kim helps clients understand their rights and obligations, identify what matters most, and make informed decisions with a clear view of both the legal and practical considerations. Her practice focuses on counseling, negotiation, conflict avoidance, and constructive resolution—not litigation. Having spent years litigating employment disputes, she understands both the value and the cost of conflict and looks for opportunities to solve problems without unnecessary escalation.

Kim's decision to found Kim Owens Employment Law was also personal. After stepping away from practice while undergoing and recovering from cancer treatment, she heard from a growing number of executives and professionals looking for help with consequential employment issues. She saw a gap: accomplished people facing important decisions who needed experienced counsel that could step in, understand the problem quickly, and provide practical, accessible guidance.

The experience reinforced something Kim had come to believe throughout her career: good legal counsel should make difficult situations easier to navigate. In a fast-paced work culture where people are already carrying too much, a lawyer should help take problems off a client's plate—not add another burden.

Kim founded her firm to do just that: provide experienced, thoughtful counsel; make complex employment issues understandable; and work collaboratively toward practical solutions for both individuals and organizations.