Danielle Pener

Danielle Pener
Principal (AWI-CH)

Danielle has been practicing employment law for over two decades. In addition to working at both large and small law firms, she served as in-house employment law counsel at a Fortune 500 company and a Bay Area technology company. In 2015, she founded Alta Employment Law to meet a growing need for workplace investigations and employment law advice and counsel, but quickly found that her passion lay in investigations. She loves being able to bring all of her experience, skills and talents to helping employees and employers navigate the complexities of the modern workplace.

Exclusive focus on investigations has allowed Danielle to refine her process such that she is able to efficiently and effectively gather relevant facts regardless of a client’s sector or size. She has investigated complaints in settings ranging from professional services to manufacturing, high tech to hospitality, at Fortune 100 companies, large and small privately-held companies, and nonprofit organizations. She also has a well-developed toolkit for managing complexities such as complaints that involve executives, witnesses represented by counsel, reluctant witnesses and situations involving multiple complainants.

Throughout her career, Danielle has been recognized for being thoughtful and meticulous. Clients appreciate her skillful management of the investigation process, and referring attorneys recommend her to their clients based on the excellent quality of her work.

Danielle is a member of the State Bar of California and the Association of Workplace Investigators (AWI). She is an AWI Certificate holder, leads AWI’s Workplace Investigation Basics seminars for those learning investigations, and has spoken at the AWI Annual Conference. Danielle also holds inactive bar licenses in Missouri and Kansas. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Washington University in St. Louis, with a double major in Political Science and Women’s Studies, and was in the top 20% of her class at UC Davis School of Law. 

Danielle Pener
Heidi Quan
Lisa Poncia