La Puente Employment Lawyers

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Ms. McMillan obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree in English, Spanish and Latin American Studies from the University of New South Wales in Australia in April 1993, after which she returned to the United States to attend law school. Ms. McMillan received her J.D. from Western State University College of Law in Fullerton, California in 1996, having graduated from Western State University Magna Cum Laude in the top 5% of her class. Ms. McMillan was placed on either the Honor Roll or the Dean’s High Honors Roll for every semester of law school. Ms. McMillan received a number of American Jurisprudence...

Jon McGrath has been practicing employment law in Southern California for over ten years, upholding the principle of "preventative law", which focuses on legal compliance and risk avoidance for smaller sized businesses in Orange County and throughout the state. Jon has a successful track record of being a business owner himself and understands the issues that Californian business have with compliance and a multitude of state and federal employment laws and regulations, such as dealing with discrimination and harassment matters.

Mr. McGrath is a graduate of California State University at Long Beach and California Western School of Law in San...

Attorney Davis founded the Law Offices of Terry K. Davis in June 1993 Bar Admissions: Admitted to California Supreme Court U.S. District Court (Central and Eastern Districts), U.S. Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit U.S. Supreme Court Reported cases: Carter v. California Dept. of Veterans Affairs (2006) 38 Cal.4th 914 Professional Affiliations: American Inns of Court, Robert A. Banyard Chapter, Orange County Orange County Bar Association, Labor and Employment Law Section Orange County Trial Lawyers Association, Board of Directors and Past Vice-President, 2010 California Employment Lawyers Association Consumer Attorneys of Los Angeles Education: Juris...

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...

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...

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...

Attorney Hines represents employees with claims against their employers for harassment, discrimination, retaliation and Labor Code violations.

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...

Joshua Waldman is a senior counsel whose practice focuses primarily on business disputes. Mr. Waldman began his legal career as an extern for the Honorable Napoleon Jones, Jr. from the U.S. District Court, Southern District of California. He was an associate for Walsworth, Franklin Bevins and McCall and Collins & Bellenghi, focusing on civil litigation, with an emphasis on business and employment disputes before joining BKCG. Since joining BKCG, Mr. Waldman has secured many positive outcomes for BKCG clients by winning dipositive motions, achieving extremely favorable settlements, and prevailing in multiple trials and arbitrations. Born in Phoenix, Mr....

Mr. Saba’s practice consists of prosecuting and defending individual, class action and mass action claims. He has considerable experience in a wide range of federal and state civil litigation and trial actions, including consumer litigation, employment litigation, women’s rights, complex business and entertainment disputes, catastrophic injury claims, professional responsibility, copyright/trademark, civil rights, maritime, and municipal, landowner and product liability.

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.

In 1991, after graduating near the top of his class, an insurance company hired Paul Zuckerman to be their lawyer. Paul approached the job with optimism. He believed the company’s advertisement and thought that he was hired to be there, like a good neighbor, for policyholders in need. However, Paul soon discovered that his work was merely padding the pockets of his employer, and not ensuring that injured people were compensated fairly. Thus, Paul, with his law school classmate John Carpenter, established a new kind of law firm: A law firm that only represents injured people against insurance companies. Paul...

Ethan D. Kirschner is an experienced litigator with clients in California, throughout the United States, and overseas. Originally from Wisconsin, Mr. Kirschner was a champion high school and college debater. He has a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Michigan, graduated cum laude from the University of Minnesota Law School, and received an LL.M. in intellectual property law from the University of California, Berkeley.


Mr. Kirschner has been practicing law since 2005. He is licensed to practice law in California.

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...

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.

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...

Michael Oberbeck is a senior counsel focusing on business litigation issues. At BKCG, Mr. Oberbeck has extensively litigated employment disputes, commercial and real property disputes, international manufacturing and distribution litigation, and trademark and franchise issues. Mr. Oberbeck has litigated cases throughout California in both state and federal courts, and he has obtained many client-favorable results at trial, arbitration, and mediation. Mr. Oberbeck also has authored and successfully argued several matters before the California Courts of Appeals for BKCG clients. Born in Evansville, Indiana, Mr. Oberbeck graduated, cum laude, from Purdue University in 1993 with a double major in Psychology...

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,...

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...

Annabel Blanchard is an associate attorney who represents individuals in wage and hour class actions and representative actions under the California Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA). Prior to joining Blackstone, PC, Ms. Blanchard worked at a respected plaintiff’s-side employment law firm, where she focused on obtaining court approval of large-scale class and PAGA settlements. Before practicing wage-and-hour employment law, Ms. Blanchard worked at boutique law firms providing estate planning services to families, with a focus on special needs planning and conservatorship. As a part of her estate planning practice, Ms. Blanchard served on the Los Angeles Superior Court “Court Appointed...

After years of practice at one of the world’s largest law firms, the California Court of Appeal, Orange County District Attorney’s Office, and the United States Department of Justice, Mr. Zandi joined with his mentor, friend, and one of California’s leading trial lawyers, Shawn Steel, to form Steel Zandi, APLC. Mr. Zandi is nationally recognized as one of the leading experts in Qui Tam and state and federal whistleblower litigation and policy. While serving as an assistant United States attorney with the United States Department of Justice, Mr. Zandi led the DOJ’s Affirmative Civil Enforcement Task Force (ACE). As director of...

At the Weinberg Law Offices, we work tirelessly to ensure that you are compensated for the compensation that you are legally entitled to. This includes, but is not limited to medical expenses, pain and suffering, loss of earnings, and property damage. We communicate with you throughout the entire process to ensure that you know the status of your case. We also make sure that the party that is at fault for your injury is aware that we have no qualms about proceeding to litigation if they do not give you a fair settlement offer. Whether it's an auto accident, a...

Jaymie Sabilia-Heffert is an attorney at Sanders Law Group and is a member of the firm’s Copyright Infringement team. She is an experienced civil litigation attorney, with diverse knowledge and experience in a wide range of legal fields, including complex construction litigation, business disputes, and administrative appeals. She has experience litigating matters in both state and federal courts. Jaymie earned her J.D. from Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center in New York and is admitted in New York State, the Northern District of New York, and the Southern District of New York.

I began my career as a legal administrator for a Chapter 13 bankruptcy trustee. That experience required me to evaluate cases and claims from the perspective of a court neutral and examine the strengths and weaknesses of the respective positions of the multiple parties to a bankruptcy proceeding. It also required me to develop an in-depth knowledge of how cases proceed when they are governed almost exclusively by a complex statutory scheme. These experiences, learned early on in my career provided me with the type of analytical skills that would prove highly beneficial as my career progressed. After bankruptcy, I joined...

A decorated U.S. Navy Veteran, Karo Karapetyan’s career has subsequently been validated by awards for achievement and performance. In his professional experience as an attorney, business owner, financial adviser, and real estate broker, he provides clients with the tried and tested insights required to serve as counsel for real estate litigation and transactions, employment law cases, and personal injury law matters. Mr. Karapetyan received his J.D. from the University of West Los Angeles School of Law where graduated a Summa Cum Laude class Valedictorian, and the recipient of several Witkin Awards for Academic Excellence. He received his undergraduate degree in Professional...

Lori Carver Hershorin is a licensed California, Texas and Indiana attorney with over 30 years of experience. Lori's practice focuses on real estate, escrow title, business, insurance and appeals. Ms. Hershorin has prevailed in 39 appeals out of 42. In 1991, Ms. Hershorin began her legal career at McDermott Will & Emery focusing on fraud, real estate, and employment matters. She subsequently joined Lewis Brisbois and focused on mortgage fraud, real estate and breach of contract litigation. In 1995, Lori joined the in-house legal team of Fidelity National Title Insurance Company as an Assistant Vice-President and Associate...