Granite Bay Employment Lawyers

Very experienced and highly ("AV") rated business lawyer. Offer the experience of a large firm and the responsiveness of a start up.

I have extensive experience in employment, business, insurance and real estate litigation. In 1997, I graduated Order of the Coif (top 10%) from Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California, Berkeley. I clerked for the Honorable Maxine M. Chesney of the United States District Court, Northern District of California in 1999 and the Honorable Robert Boochever of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2001. I practiced insurance law as an associate with Sonnenshein Nath & Rosenthal and employment law as an associate at Heller Ehrman. I focused on real estate litigation while working...

After decades as a business and employment law counselor and successful trial attorney, Linda McPharlin has learned that the most satisfied clients are not those who win in court after bruising if not brutal years in litigation, but those who resolve disputes before litigation takes over their lives, and their finances. She now focuses her trial acumen and considerable negotiating skills on conflict resolution at the earliest possible stage, ideally before a lawsuit is even filed. For her employer clients, her conflict resolution practice takes many forms, with an eye to business realities as well as legal...

April practices civil litigation specializing in employment law, estate planning and probate litigation,transportation law and real estate transactions. She is a strategic thinker and advocate who is focused on providing exceptional customer service while solving and preventing legal problems. April is a former Assistant State's Attorney in Illinois and worked as a Staff Attorney for the 19th Judicial Circuit in Illinois. She also worked for the San Diego District Attorney's Office.

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...

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...

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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...

Candice Klein is a skilled and devoted personal injury attorney with a passion for helping people suffering with physical and mental anguish after suffering catastrophic injuries. Candice is known for spending a large amount of time with her clients to fully understand their needs. By doing so, she is able to better convey their losses to a jury. With this approach, Candice has recovered millions of dollars in verdicts and settlements for her clients.

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...

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...

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...

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...

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

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...

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.

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

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.

Mr. Tamir has dedicated his entire career to practicing labor and employment law. He has litigated hundreds of employment-related cases, including claims of discrimination, retaliation, harassment, and wage and hour (i.e. overtime, meal & rest breaks, misclassification). The results speak for themselves, he has successfully settled and won numerous cases and dispositive motions.

With more than 20 years of experience, Tre Lovell has been noted among the elite trial lawyers in the nation, having been named "Lawyer of the Year" Finalist, 2016, by the Los Angeles Business Journal, and further honored by The National Law Journal as one of the Top 50 Litigation Trailblazers in the United States. Mr. Lovell has been recognized among the top 1% of attorneys in the country as a litigator through such esteemed organizations as America's Top 100 Attorneys, Distinguished Justice Advocates, National Academy of Jurisprudence, Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum and Rue's Best Attorneys of America. In addition,...

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...

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...

David Spivak is a Southern California employee rights litigator. From offices based in Beverly Hills and downtown Los Angeles, David Spivak has been fighting for the rights of California workers since 1995. He has obtained several million dollars in recoveries for his clients. Mr. Spivak's areas of concentration in labor and employment law include: Wrongful Termination, Constructive Discharge, and Public Policy Violations Discrimination Harassment Retaliation & Whistleblowers Employment Contracts & Severance Agreements Defamation of Character (Slander & Libel) Unpaid Overtime Wages Unpaid Minimum Wages Unprovided Rest Breaks and Meal Periods Failure to Pay Work-Related Expenses Medical & Family Leave...

Farid Yaghoubtil is a personal injury attorney at Downtown L.A. Law Grou