The Legal 500

Altshuler Berzon’s San Francisco practice is ‘really outstanding’, fielding ‘superb lawyers deserving of recognition’. Among these lawyers are Eve Cervantez, a ‘serious force’, Michael Rubin and James Finberg, while in 2010 Danielle Leonard and Peder Thoreen were made partners. The firm is strongly oriented towards representing workers and labor unions, handling a number of appeals and constitutional work. To this end, the firm regularly seeks injunctive relief for plaintiffs against defendant employers or other respective entities. The firm has been appointed co-counsel for nearly 14,000 current and former non-exempt workers in a class action against fast food giant KFC, where the US District Court for the Southern District of California granted class certification for plaintiffs to pursue their meal and rest period claims. A related class was not granted in relation to claims alleging forcible continuation of work after clocking out but leave was granted for plaintiffs to present further evidence on this issue.

‘Really in its prime’, New York headquartered Outten & Golden LLP is routinely praised for its work and has recovered over $100m in back wages, injunctive relief as well as other beneficial remedies on behalf of workers. It is acting as co-counsel alongside Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP in a gender discrimination class action against Goldman Sachs filed in September 2010. Plaintiffs in the case allege that Goldman Sachs engaged in a systemic practice of gender discrimination against female employers up to managing director level. The case is currently pending before the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. The firm has also recently filed discrimination cases against other high-profile employers such as Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Smith Barney. It is also involved in a series of overtime and wage-and-hour class actions. Chair of the class action practice group Adam Klein is highly recommended, and focuses his practice on employment discrimination and wage-and-hour claims.

Employment discrimination and wage-and-hour violations are two of the pillars of practice for Oakland-based Goldstein, Demchak, Baller, Borgen & Dardarian. ‘Historically a leader in the field’, the group has a significant track record of plaintiff representation in class actions. The firm is acting as co-counsel in Hudson v First Transit Inc, a class action filed in 2010 and alleging race and national origin discrimination by bus operator First Transit. The claims are based on the assertion that the defendant’s blanket policy of refusing or withdrawing employment from individuals with criminal convictions had a disparate impact based on race because of a higher incidence of convictions among African-American and Latin American employees. The case was filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California. The firm was also co-lead counsel in Contreras et al v Bank of America National Association, a putative class action that was filed on behalf of the bank’s mortgage loan officers, which had a settlement approved in September 2010. David Borgen is a sought-after attorney, particularly for wage-and-hour cases. Managing partner Teresa Demchak is also recommended.

Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP fields 60 fee-earners across its offices in San Francisco, New York and Nashville. In New York, Rachel Geman is recommended as an expert in employment discrimination cases, while in San Francisco, Jahan Sagafi is a specialist on misclassification. In 2010, the San Francisco pair of Daniel Hutchinson and Heather Wong made partner; both are experts on Title VII discrimination and ERISA cases. The firm has been appointed co-lead counsel in the highly publicized Goldman Sachs gender discrimination class action lawsuit alleging violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, in that it has participated in systemic and pervasive discrimination against female professional employees. The firm is also representing former AT&T Operations technical support workers in Buccellato v AT&T, a class action that alleges violations of federal overtime pay laws because AT&T enacted a common practice of misclassifying technical support workers as exempt, thereby failing to pay them for all overtime hours worked.

Rudy, Exelrod, Zieff & Lowe, LLP’s class action practice has grown from the firm’s traditional strength in individual plaintiff representation in the labor and employment space. Although still handling a larger portion of individual matters, the firm has become a recognized name in class action litigation and is capable of handling multi-district litigation; that said it is especially prominent in California, as a result of its base in San Francisco. The firm regularly handles an array of employment law matters including sexual harassment, race or age discrimination and wrongful termination. In December 2010, the practice obtained a $1.4m class action settlement approved by the Northern District Court of California to settle overtime and related claims against Ulta Salon on the basis of alleged violations of California law due to its failure to pay overtime wages to store managers. The firm also represented technical writers in a class action against Sun Microsystems, seeking recovery for unpaid overtime claims; the Santa Clara Superior Court granted final approval to a $5m settlement in October 2010. Standout figures include the wage-and-hour class action experts David Lowe and Steven Zieff.