Banning Employment Lawyers

Christopher Wren Taylor focuses exclusively on labor and employment law representing aggrieved employees in claims against their employers. He is an experienced trial attorney who has represented clients in jury trials and arbitrations. He aims to prevent workplace injustice, knowing the undeserved outcomes of workplace conflict have real and immediate repercussions for individuals and their families. The fallout can be long-lasting financial and psychological injury devastating to families and underappreciated or misunderstood by outsiders.

Mr. Taylor has particular expertise in disability discrimination (e.g., pregnancy, disease, orthopedic injury, stress, depression, etc.), sex harassment and wrongful termination and draws on his many...

Paro M. Astourian practices in the areas of business law and civil litigation, with a focus on litigating business, real property, construction, employment and personal injury cases in state and federal courts.
A practicing lawyer for about twenty one years and has a background as an active litigator and legal consultant in Europe and the Middle East.
A graduate of the American University of Beirut and the Law College of the Lebanese State University. He has expertise with international litigation and has been handling and consulting on disputes involving foreign entities and individuals from Europe, Asia and the Middle East;...

The Law Offices of Norma Ann Dawson, founded in 1994, is located in Long Beach, California. In the past decade and a half, it has become a respected law firm in Southern California, providing legal risk management and alternative dispute resolution services in areas such as real estate transactions and litigation, and business transactions and litigation. Ms. Dawson's law practice focuses on general corporate counseling, corporate and regulatory compliance, and ethics, with a view toward minimizing the risk of liability, especially regulatory and contractual liability. Norma Ann Dawson, rated Av by Martindale Hubbell, has both extensive trial...

Civil litigation, maritime and transportation attorney with experience representing cargo handlers, motor carriers, air carriers, freight forwarders, NVOCCs, logistics providers, terminal operators, marinas, warehousemen and vessel operators in both state and federal court throughout California.

Patti Syverson is an experienced Employment Law and Class Action lawyer. Patti is dedicated to protecting the rights of individuals against unjust and unlawful practices. In keeping with this desire, Patti’s practice focuses on employment law class actions, where she strives to protect employee rights in the workplace and has represented employees in individual, collective, and class actions for recovery of unpaid overtime and wages due under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and state unpaid wage statutes. Patti’s practice is primarily devoted to wage and hour litigation. She has litigated numerous class and collective actions and individual actions on behalf...

Attorney Samuel M. Salom represents individuals and business entities in civil, business, and commercial litigation matters involving contracts, debt collection, employment, real estate/property, and other related matters. This includes representation with post-judgment enforcement and collection efforts. Mr. Salom also provides legal counsel to businesses on various corporate, transactional, contract, and employment matters.

Mr. Salom represents clients in both California State and Federal courts and is licensed to practice law in all California State Courts, as well as the United States District Court for the Southern District of California, and United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of California.

Mr....

Lauren Vega, Esq. is a labor attorney and principal of Ferraro Vega Employment Law. Based in San Diego, Lauren dedicates her practice to wage and hour class actions on behalf of employees throughout California.

She also represents employees in all types of employment cases, including wrongful termination, discrimination, and sexual harassment. Lauren is a skilled litigator in state and federal courts and before the EEOC, DFEH, and DLSE.

Lauren was born and raised in San Bernardino. Graduate of Cajon High School, UC San Diego, and the University of San Diego School of Law. She was a member of the San...

Imad Elias is a founding partner of The Law Offices of Mann & Elias, a Los Angeles based law firm handling employment law and personal injury cases. Contact Mann & Elias at (323) 857-9500 for a free consultation.

Joana Fang is a Senior Associate Attorney with expertise in class action, employment litigation, personal injury, insurance litigation, and consumer protection laws. Ms. Fang has extensive experience in case management and all aspects of litigation, from drafting complaints to engaging in the discovery process, settlement negotiations, and preparing for trial. During her legal career, she has recovered millions of dollars for her clients. Ms. Fang is also a prolific writer who has written and published numerous articles on Law360, The Recorder, and Daily Journal. She has also led seminars on using depositions at trial and on litigating sexual abuse cases against schools...

Alex Favela serves as the firm’s Pre-Litigation Attorney and specializes in disputes involving wage and hour violations, misclassification, harassment, discrimination, retaliation, wrongful termination, failure to accommodate violations, and class actions. Alex received his J.D. from Stanford Law School. As a child of immigrant working-class parents, upholding the dignity of workers is central to Alex’s identity as a lawyer. A person’s job is their livelihood, and Alex strongly believes that workers deserve to be treated with respect and fairness. Before joining the firm, Alex represented workers at a respected employment plaintiff-side law firm. He has also clerked for the U.S. Office of Special...

Ms. Gold is an experienced litigation attorney who specializes in class action labor and employment matters. She spent the first decade of her career at a major law firm working on a wide range of business matters, including defending clients in high-stakes class action litigation. This experience provided Ms. Gold with valuable insight on how to best position cases for settlement and/or trial by allowing her to better understand defendants’ strategies, incentives, and motivations throughout the various phases of litigation. Ms. Gold then transitioned to a well-known boutique plaintiff-side class action law firm, where she was instrumental in obtaining nearly $100,000,000...

Danielle L. GruppChang is a passionate advocate for workers’ rights and a seasoned attorney specializing in wage and hour class actions. Raised in a family where both parents worked in the restaurant industry, Ms. GruppChang developed an early respect for the hard work and resilience of the Californian workers. This background exposed Ms. GruppChang the struggles of working-class individuals sparked her dedication to fighting for justice on behalf of workers. Ms. GruppChang’s professional journey began when she started working at a local coffee shop and continued throughout college where she worked tables, often serving her classmates. These experiences further resolved her...

Lara is an associate attorney at Blackstone Law. She graduated from Wake Forest University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology with a concentration in Criminal Justice and a minor in Communications. Lara then earned her Juris Doctorate from the University of California, Los Angeles where she specialized in Critical Race Studies. While in law school, Lara worked as a law clerk at the District of Columbia Public Defender Service and as a judicial clerk in the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Hearings Unit in Los Angeles. She was involved with the El Centro Teen Court Clinic, Disability Law Journal,...

Leo Livshits is an accomplished employment attorney with extensive trial and litigation experience. Mr. Livshits handles a wide variety of employment matters involving workplace discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and other civil rights violations. Aside from securing numerous seven-figure settlements in single-plaintiff cases, Mr. Livshits has co-chaired jury trials and arbitrations that resulted in verdicts or judgments of $155.4 million, $2.7 million, $1.7 million, and $1 million. Additionally, Mr. Livshits has successfully litigated appeals in state and federal court. This includes a published decision in Hernandez v. Meridian Management Services, LLC (2023) 87 Cal.App.5th 1214, where the California Court of Appeal found that...

Betty is an associate attorney at Blackstone Law. She graduated from UCLA with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science with a concentration in International Relations and a minor in Armenian Studies. While in undergrad, Betty, along with fellow classmates, started the Armenian Pre-Law Students Association, to connect Armenian students aspiring to become attorneys to successful alumni within their community. A proud double Bruin, Betty later attended UCLA School of Law, where she obtained her Juris Doctorate. As a law student, Betty’s professor recognized her articulate writing abilities and selected her as a Legal Research and Writing Advisor for first...

Ms. Schimmel’s practice is dedicated to employment litigation matters on behalf of California employees. More than half of Ms. Schimmel’s experience has been focused on representing employees in wage and hour class and representative actions for labor code violations (including, but not limited to, claims unpaid overtime, minimum wages, expense reimbursement, meal and rest period), as well as consumer and privacy right matters. Ms. Schimmel’s experience also includes representing employees in wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment and retaliation matters against employers who violate California law. She has successfully prosecuted and resolved hundreds of cases. Prior to joining Blackstone, Ms. Schimmel...

Ani M. Akopyan received her bachelor’s degree, with honors, from UCLA in 2001 and her law degree from Southwestern Law School in 2004. Since law school, Ani has worked exclusively in the field of labor and employment litigation. Prior to joining the Akopyan Law Firm, Ani was a member of a well-known, reputable defense firm where she represented employers and their insurance companies in all stages of labor and employment litigation including wrongful termination, harassment, discrimination, retaliation, and whistle-blower litigation, as well as high stakes wage & hour class action cases. Ani’s 10+ years of experience in defending employers both...

Alex is a Senior Associate Attorney at Blackstone Law. Alex is an active member of the legal community as it relates to employees’ rights. Alex is a member of the California Employment Lawyers’ Association (CELA), and is on the committee for the Mentor Committee, the Women’s Committee, the Legislative Committee, the Wage and Hour Committee, and the New Member Committee, as well as a recent admit to the 2024 – 2025 CELA Leadership Conservatory. Alex has significant experience providing the best counsel for his clients, whether through trial, or through multimillion dollar settlements, or through whatever need the client may describe....

P.J. Van Ert is a seasoned trial lawyer and civil litigator specializing in class actions and individual employment matters. As a Blackstone law associate she dedicates her practice to California employees. After more than 75 criminal jury trials during thirteen years as a deputy district attorney, she transitioned to civil litigation and found her way to Blackstone. From wage and hour theft to sexual harassment and hostile work environment, she is able to utilize her years of zealously advocating for victims of crime to get superior results in employment cases. Ms. Van Ert has earned guilty verdicts in lengthy homicide...

Ryan Block is a seasoned trial attorney who spends most of his time as a lawyer in the courtroom doing trials. He has done many thousands of trials as the lead attorney and has been in front of over 50 different judges in Los Angeles County and surrounding areas. Mr. Block's familiarity with court personnel along with his innate ability in the jury selection process selecting appropriate jurors has been paramount in maximizing the recovery of his clients. As a member of many plaintiff's attorney associations of Los Angeles including the Jewish Bar association of Los Angeles and the...

Michael Akopyan received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California in 2001 and his law degree from Southwestern Law School in 2005. Before establishing his own firm in 2009, Michael worked as an associate attorney with Keith Fink & Associates and Solomon, Saltsman & Jamieson, where he represented both plaintiffs and defendants in a broad spectrum of cases including employment cases, personal injury cases, civil rights cases, business disputes, and administrative proceedings. Michael has successfully represented clients in civil and administrative trials and appeals.

Michael has recovered millions of dollars for his clients. He was named to the CaliforniaRising...

I act as my clients outside general counsel and advise them on the full range of legal issues facing their businesses. In addition, I mediate both litigated and non-litigated matters and do workplace investigations. I built my reputation by achieving outstanding results for the clients and colleagues with whom I have been privileged to work.

Mr. Dietz has aggressively litigated civil cases in California for over a decade. He has represented government agencies in high-profile employment law, general liability and civil rights matters, including representing some of the largest school districts in California. His prior experience includes working at one of the largest firms in the U.S., as well as a highly respected litigation boutique, where he represented the full gamut of businesses from Fortune 500 companies to mom-and-pop shops in employment and business litigation matters in state and federal court and administrative bodies. Over the course of his career, Mr. Dietz...

Barbara is dedicated to fighting for the rights of California’s employees in both individual and class/PAGA cases. As a working mom, Barbara has a particular passion for vindicating the rights of women who have suffered discrimination and harassment in the workplace. Barbara was also co-counsel on Young v. Department of Public Social Services, et al, a retaliation/whistleblower case, and obtained the 7th highest employment law verdict in California in 2022. Presently, Barbara and her team focus on litigating class and PAGA actions on behalf of thousands of California employees who have been denied meal and rest periods, denied fair compensation, and...

Ken Ruttenberg is the founder of The Ruttenberg Law Firm, P.C.. He is an experienced and seasoned civil litigator in a broad range of legal areas including employment, construction and personal injury.

In 2014 through 2017, Ken was selected to the list of Southern California Super Lawyers, a rating service of outstanding lawyers who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. Fewer than five percent of attorneys receive the Super Lawyers recognition. In 2015, 2016 and 2017, Ken was named among the Top 100 Southern California Super Lawyers. Ken is also an AV® Preeminent™ Peer Review...

Ashley Cruz is an employment attorney who has spent her entire career pursuing justice and advocating for people across the United States. Her passion for upholding, asserting, and defending the rights of others has guided her throughout her career. Ashley has represented children in abuse and neglect proceedings, individuals and families in deportation proceedings, and workers actively seeking legal recourse. Her self-imposed requirement for nothing less than excellent representation, coupled with her dedication to helping others, has received praise from clients, judges, mediators, and fellow professionals. Ashley litigates in the area of labor and employment law. She has handled harassment, discrimination,...

Abdi & Associates is located in Los Angeles and serves clients throughout the entire state of California. Practice areas include workers compensation, personal injury, car, truck, Lyft/Uber, and motorcycle accidents, bicycle and pedestrian accidents, brain and spinal cord injuries, burn injuries, dog bites, premises liability/slip & fall, and wrongful death.

Our firm is a contingency fee-based practice which means that clients pay no attorneys’ fees unless and until we recover for you. No recovery, No Fee. We even offer a free, no obligation, case evaluation and consultation. Abdi & Associates provides personalized, customized, caring service and pursues maximum compensation that you...

Mr. Choe began his legal career in workers’ compensation representing insurance companies and employers. As a defense attorney, he became well versed in the nuances of worker’s compensation laws allowing him to aggressively represent his clients. The Law Offices of Anthony Choe was founded to provide the same aggressive representation to injured workers. Mr. Choe is able to use his experience in dealing with insurance companies and employers for the benefit of injured workers to effectively obtain medical treatment and maximize recovery. What sets the Law Offices of Anthony Choe apart from other firms...

In practice since 1996, attorney and firm co-founder Eric B. Kingsley has litigated complex cases and authored numerous appellate briefs in both state and federal court on behalf of the California law firm of Kingsley & Kingsley, including over 150 class actions. Mr. Kingsley concentrates his practice on wage and hour litigation and is currently handling several class actions regarding the failure to pay wages, including overtime and the denial of break or meal periods. In addition, to wage and hour litigation, Eric handles the claims of individuals who have been wrongfully terminated or sexually harassed in the work...

Attorney Stacey Cutting brings ample amounts of experience and skills to Schimmel & Parks, APLC and is a devoted Southern California civil litigation lawyer. While she highly skilled in various areas of law, Attorney Cutting focuses much of her practice handling cases involving construction defects, personal injury, employment law, insurance bad faith, and consumer class actions. She plays an essential role in the discovery processes of cases, completes trial preparations, creates motion papers, and assists with various key parts of litigation processes. Before committing her life to judiciary work, Attorney Cutting attended California State University, Northridge, where she earned her...

Maryam Abrishamcar, Esq. is the Founder and Managing Partner at Abrishamcar Law Group, A.P.C. She is a compassionate and adept attorney, serving clients throughout Northern & Southern California. With a neuroscience background and previous history in the pharmaceutical industry, she offers her clients a unique perspective. Attorney Maryam Abrishamcar is passionate about providing high level care and support to individuals who have suffered serious injury, including injuries to the brain (TBI). Ms. Abrishamcar is proficient in the legal practices of car accidents, slip and fall cases, motorcycle crashes, dog bites, wrongful death, and employment law. Maryam Abrishamcar earned her J.D....

Kolin C. Tang is a Partner in the San Diego office of Miller Shah LLP, where his practice focuses on complex litigation, including ERISA, antitrust, securities, and consumer protection matters. Prior to joining the firm, Kolin gained experience with antitrust and consumer protection issues as a legal intern at the Federal Trade Commission. He earned his law degree from The George Washington University Law School in 2011, where he was a member of The George Washington International Law Review, and holds undergraduate degrees in Economics and History, with honors, from the University of California, Berkeley.

Associate Michael Kent practices in all areas of civil litigation, including employment law, personal and catastrophic injury, professional liability and civil rights discrimination.

My practice focuses on vindicating employees’ rights in single plaintiff discrimination suits, wage & hour class and representative action litigation, and other employment claims. Education I received his Bachelor of Arts in History, summa cum laude, with a minor in Public Affairs from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). I earned his Juris Doctor from UC Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall), where he was awarded a Prosser Prize for his academic achievement. Experience As a former associate at Anderson Kill P.C., a Vault 150 leading mid-size law firm specializing in insurance coverage litigation, I gained significant experience litigating against insurance companies on behalf...

Noriya Bragg is an Associate Attorney at Blackstone Law. Prior to joining Blackstone Law, she worked as a Law Clerk for a highly respected civil rights firm in Los Angeles where she gained experience working on matters ranging from employment discrimination to police misconduct. Ms. Bragg holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science with a minor in Philosophy of Law from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Ms. Bragg earned her Juris Doctorate from the University of California, Davis School of Law (Martin Luther King Jr. Hall), where she worked as a Research Assistant to Professor Irene O. Joe and...