Is Your Bag Check Stealing Your Pay Check?

There has recently been a rising debate about the legality of employee bag checks. Not whether bag checks are legal (they are) but whether bag checks should be conducted on or off the clock. This may seem like a trivial manner unless you are one of the thousands of California employees standing in line for […]

California Domestic Caregivers Rights to Minimum Wage & Overtime Pay

The state of California takes a close interest in employee rights, especially when it comes to proper pay. There are a few exceptions, but you have a right to get paid at least the minimum wage for domestic work. As a domestic caregiver, you’re entitled to overtime pay and all the other rights associated with […]

Employee Expense Reimbursement Under California Law

There are so many different policies on the federal and state level regarding Employee Expense reimbursement, some of which appear to conflict. While the California labor law provides guidelines on what is reimbursable, there is also the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regulations that state what types of business expenses are deductible and are not related […]

What Your California Employer Can’t Make You Pay For

Some employers are insidious. They will find a way to pinch a penny out of anything, including the employees. If you’ve ever had a boss that liked to deduct things from your paycheck or make you pay for little damages, you know exactly what we are talking about. There are a number of things employers […]

How California’s Bill 1513 Changed Commissions for Salons and Spa Workers

California’s Bill 1513, originally signed into law in 2015, drastically altered the way salon and spa owners are now required to compensate their employees. Salon and spa owners may not be as compliant (though not necessarily intentionally) as they should be; these changes are causing much consternation among employees regarding their pay. Classifications of Employee […]

What are Unpaid Bag Checks?

Every now and then, an employer will feel it necessary to check employee bags before staff can leave the facility. This is often due to suspicion of theft and is sometimes a safety precaution to ensure hazardous materials or items don’t leave the workplace by accident. However, there is a current controversy over whether the […]

California Employees Should Be Paid While “On Call”

In California, “on call” employees should be paid for the time they wait to learn if they are working or not. If you haven’t been adequately compensated for hours you’ve spent “on call” you may be owed money.  “On Call” Workers are Entitled to Pay While Waiting For the Call to Work in CA The […]

Driver Rights in California: If You Can’t Go Home, You Should be Getting Paid

Many delivery drivers and truck drivers are not being paid fairly. Here in the state of California, labor laws are extremely specific about when an employee should be getting paid and what time constitutes as on-work hours. However, each industry tries to define its worker’s hours in the most economically efficient (for the employer) way […]

How to Passively Insist on Your Right to Meal and Rest Breaks

The federal law requires that all employers provide reasonable rest and meal breaks. California has an even more refined definition of what those mandated meal and rest breaks should be. Specifically, you have a right to a 10-minute paid break for every 4 hours you work. For each 5 hours you work, you also have […]

California Employee Training: Should You Be Getting Paid for Your Time?

Employers love this one: Get a batch of new hires who haven’t received their first paycheck yet. Tell them their start-date is a week out, but they’re expected to show up for job training as a closer date. Provide mandatory training for days to a week before their “start date”. Only start paying the employees […]

Lisseth Bayona

Attorney

Education and Background

I am a Los Angeles native and daughter of Salvadorian immigrants. From an early age, my parents instilled the value of hard work and education in me and my two siblings. Their perseverance enabled each of us to graduate from college and earn professional degrees.

My interest and commitment to workers’ rights have roots in my parents’ experiences as undocumented workers in Los Angeles. Witnessing the challenges they faced inspired me to pursue a career where I can help individuals confronted with similar struggles. To help someone in those moments is very satisfying. I love connecting with people and learning about their stories. I believe that dignity in the workplace is a right of all workers, not a convenience or privilege reserved for employees of a certain race, gender, age, sexual orientation, or gender identity.

Legal Experience

I received my J.D. from the University of Southern California (USC) Gould School of Law. While there, I served as a judicial extern to the Honorable Patrick J. Walsh of the United States District Court for the Central District of California, where I drafted a criminal judicial opinion. Also, while at Gould, I served as an extern for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. As a Criminal Division Extern, I had the opportunity to work closely with a trial team of Assistant U.S. Attorneys on a money laundering case which further sparked my interest in litigation.

Personal Interests

In my free time, I enjoy urban vegetable gardening, traveling, and spending time with my nephew and niece. I also love to spend time at San Onofre Beach learning to surf, although admittedly, I am not very good.

Education

 

Hallie L. Von Rock

Attorney (SBN 233152)

Education and Background

I moved to the Bay Area from Washington after graduating high school. I had been accepted to UC Berkeley through a program where I could defer for two years while getting my California residency and attending community college, which was significant since I was paying for college on my own. I began working for Randall Aiman-Smith and Reed Marcy in 1996 as an office manager while taking night classes. My first foray into the legal world was soon after starting at the firm when I was ready to transfer to UC Berkeley. Rather than accepting my resident status, the Board of Regents took the position that California residency required a student to be in California “two calendar years.” Randall and Reed took up my case with the same verve as they helped their actual clients and I got the chance to comb through the UC Berkeley library to read their codes and regulations to support my position. In that experience, I learned what is was like to feel helpless against a big organization and then to have dedicated attorneys in my corner to take up my cause.

After a break to pursue my major in art history, I went to UC Hastings College of Law and continued working with Randall and Reed. Having worked together now for over 25 years, we have a unique ability to work collaboratively and finish each other’s sentences. I have strived throughout my career to make a difference in the lives of our clients. At the end of the day, if I am helping someone to get compensation for losses they suffered, then I know that all the work put into a case has been worth it.

Legal Experience

I have extensive experience in civil litigation and class action cases, including conducting discovery and depositions, calculating damages analysis, preparing motions for certification, writing appellate documents, and overseeing claims administration. We have handled several class actions against retailers where plaintiffs claimed they were forced to purchase clothing to wear to work and were not compensated for these purchases, including against Abercrombie & Fitch, Hugo Boss, Armani Exchange, Uniqlo, Dollar Tree, and Ross. Recently, I was trial counsel in a defamation claim against Bank of America on behalf of a former employee who claimed the Bank blacklisted her with future employers. The jury found Bank of America liable, including for punitive damages.

Personal Interests

Aiman-Smith & Marcy has sponsored me in the Boston Marathon and New York Marathon. When I race, I often wear a “Rockstar Ronan” shirt to support research for childhood cancer through The Ronan Thompson Foundation.

Education

University of California, Berkeley, B.A., 1999

Hastings College of the Law, University of California, J.D., 2004

Randall Aiman-Smith

Abogado (SBN 124599)

Aiman-Smith & Marcy. Oakland consumer fraud attorneys.

Educación y antecedentes

Fui afortunado. A pesar de no haber terminado la escuela secundaria o la universidad, pude -aunque con mucho trabajo- ser admitido y sobresalir en una de las mejores escuelas de derecho del país: La Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad de Berkeley. Mientras estuve allí, tuve el privilegio de ser editor de la California Law Review y miembro del Moot Court Board, asesorando en la redacción de escritos y en la defensa de apelaciones a otros estudiantes. Después de salir de la escuela de derecho, en mis primeros años de práctica, enseñé la escritura legal y la defensa de apelación en la Universidad de California, Hastings College of the Law. También, a lo largo de los años, he sido presentador en eventos de educación legal continua.

Experiencia legal

He sido abogado durante 35 años. He dedicado mi práctica exclusivamente a representar a empleados, consumidores e inversores en los tribunales estatales y federales de primera instancia y en los tribunales de apelación. Me gusta ir a los tribunales por mis clientes y he llevado muchos casos con jurado en los tribunales estatales y federales.

¿Ejemplos? En 2010, fui la abogada principal, junto con los otros abogados del bufete, en el caso Williams v. Union Pacific Railroad donde, después de cuatro años de preparación, el bufete obtuvo un veredicto del jurado de 1.670.000 dólares para una empleada afroamericana. En Rivero v. Surdyka, fui el abogado principal en el juicio y la apelación de un caso de derechos civiles que duró 15 años, incluyendo un juicio completo y tres apelaciones al Noveno Circuito, concluyendo finalmente con una sentencia para los demandantes de más de 2.300.000 dólares. Estos casos ilustran el lema del bufete: compromiso – resultados. Hay que comprometerse con un caso, a veces durante mucho tiempo, para obtener el resultado que el cliente merece.

No siempre ganamos en el juicio. Cuando eso ocurre, el compromiso significa llevar el caso al siguiente nivel y recurrirlo. En el caso Rivero, antes mencionado, eso fue lo que ocurrió: el tribunal desestimó el caso -habíamos perdido- pero apelamos y conseguimos una victoria para nuestros clientes que mantuvimos a través de dos apelaciones más. Desde entonces, el bufete ha conseguido muchas victorias en apelación que reivindican los derechos de los empleados y los consumidores.

A lo largo de los años he sido abogado de los demandantes en numerosos casos individuales y acciones colectivas. Puede sonar cursi, o difícil de creer, pero después de todo este tiempo, y después de todas las grandes experiencias que he tenido, mi parte favorita de ser abogado es cuando consigo dar un cheque a mi cliente.

 

Educación

Facultad de Derecho, Universidad de California, Berkeley, J.D., 1986