David Mastagni
About David Mastagni
David P. Mastagni is the founder and managing partner of Mastagni Holstedt, APC, where he practices civil litigation and labor law. He has tried more than 300 proceedings to verdict, including over 100 jury trials in both state and federal courts, and has participated in more than 450 appellate cases. In 2003 he obtained what was recognized as the largest law enforcement binding arbitration award in the United States. He represents public and private labor unions in contract negotiations, grievances, and binding arbitration, and lectures regularly for the Peace Officers' Research Association of California. He received the American Jurisprudence Award in Evidence during law school and holds a Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent rating.
Notable case results
A class of 110 Cathay Pacific pilots secured a $16.65 million settlement in 2024, resolving California wage-and-hour claims over unpaid overtime, missed meal and rest periods, and reserve duty pay that the international airline had disputed for seven years.
Mastagni Holstedt secured a $1,376,827.22 settlement for 534 Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District employees after the district excluded holiday-in-lieu pay and health benefit cash-outs from workers' regular rate of pay when calculating FLSA overtime.
In the first and only published federal decision on the question, Mastagni Holstedt secured a ruling that Vallejo Police Department mounted unit officers were entitled to FLSA overtime for time spent feeding, grooming, transporting, and training their police horses at home, overturning a contrary Department of Labor opinion letter, with the city ultimately settling the claims for $659,880 through its Chapter 9 bankruptcy proceedings.
Largest law enforcement binding arbitration award in the United States (2003)
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.
