Jeff Hook

CONTACT INFORMATION

17901 Von Karman Avenue
Suite 500
Irvine, CA 92614

Work: (949) 537-3800
Fax: (949) 537-3822
Email:[email protected]

Jeff Hook is a business litigator with more than twenty years of experience in the areas of construction law, surety law, employment law, partnership disputes, and general business litigation. Mr. Hook is a skilled trial attorney and has extensive experience in alternative dispute resolution. Mr. Hook also counsels, advises, and defends both contractors and sureties related to prevailing wage laws and public works projects. This includes advising prime contractors and subcontractors regarding compliance with respect to apprenticeship obligations, certified payroll record reporting requirements, and craft classification determinations. Mr. Hook regularly defends his clients against Civil Wage and Penalty Assessments and Notices of Withholding of Contract Payments issued by the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement and Labor Compliance Programs throughout the State of California.

EDUCATION

Whittier College School of Law, J.D., Cum Laude, 2001 – Clerked for the Honorable Judith Ashmann-Gerst, now Justice Ashmann-Gerst while in law school.
San Diego State University, B.A., 1999

BAR ADMISSIONS

State Bar of California; Admitted to practice law in all California state courts, the U.S. District Court, Central District of California, and U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

PERSONAL

Pitched in the Houston Astros and Milwaukee Brewers minor league organizations from 1994 through 1996.

NOTABLE CASES

SMTD’s Jeff Hook Successfully Defends High Stakes Prevailing Wage Case at Hearing on the Merits
On November 21, 2024, Katrina S. Hagen signed a Decision of the Director of Industrial Relations that determined less than $10,000 in unpaid prevailing wages was owed by SMTD’s client and reduced the penalty rate against it from $200 per day per worker to the statutory minimum. This result followed five days of hearing on the merits where attorney Jeff Hook defended SMTD’s contractor client against a Notice of Withholding of Contract Payments that assessed $469,312.49 in unpaid wages/training funds and $433,970.00 in penalties. After cross-examinations of the Labor Compliance Officer and six former workers that testified on behalf of the Enforcing Agency, followed by the presentation of the Contractor’s witnesses and evidence, the 47-page decision determined only two percent of total assessed wages was owed.
SMTD’s Jeff Hook Obtains Favorable Coverage Determination for Contractor
On March 12, 2024, the Department of Industrial Relations, in PW Case 2021-010, issued a coverage determination finding the Eastwood Framework Street Improvement for Wet Utilities Project was not a public work and therefore was not subject to prevailing wage requirements despite the contract calling for the payment of prevailing wages. This resulted in the dismissal of a Civil Wage and Penalty Assessment that assessed a combined $722,707.55 in wages and penalties against SMTD’s client.
SMTD’s Jeff Hook Successfully Obtains Peremptory Writ of Mandate Against the DLSE
SMTD Law’s Jeff Hook obtained a Peremptory Writ of Mandate from the San Diego Superior Court reversing a decision on a Civil Wage and Penalty Assessment (“Assessment”) in favor of the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (“DLSE”). The Court determined that the Contractor’s interpretation of a notice for landscape/irrigation work was correct despite a written decision by the Director of Industrial Relations (“DIR”) that held otherwise. SMTD Law established that DIR had “abused its discretion” when it improperly found in favor of the DLSE. The Court’s Writ of Mandate reduced the Assessment from in excess of One Hundred Thousand Dollars to less than Four Thousand Dollars with costs reimbursed by the DLSE to the Contractor.
SMTD’s Jeff Hook Obtains Unanimous Jury Verdict for Surety Client
As lead trial counsel for a six-day jury trial in Orange County Superior Court, Jeff Hook obtained a unanimous verdict on behalf of SMTD’s client in a heavily contested indemnity action. The six-day jury trial was followed by a one-day bench trial in which SMTD defeated defendants’ reformation claim based on alleged fraud. Following the trial, Mr. Hook successfully obtained an award of all the client’s attorneys’ fees, costs, and prejudgment interest.