FAIR © 2019
On July 23, 2014, FAIR announced the members of its Advisory Board. These notable leaders have great experiences advocating for plaintiffs in such areas as employment law and civil rights.
Advisory Board
One of our nation’s leading constitutional law scholars, Erwin Chemerinsky is the13th Dean of Berkeley Law, where he is a Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law. Dean Chermerinsky is the author of eight books and more than 200 articles in top law reviews on topics including civil rights and civil liberties.
Mr. Goldstein is has been Of Counsel at Goldstein, Borgen, Dardarian & Ho since 2000, previously serving
as managing partner. Mr. Goldstein also served at the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc., (LDF) for eighteen years, including several years as the Director of its Washington, D.C. office, litigating employment discrimination or related cases.
Ms. Kendell is the former Executive Director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, a national legal organization that fights for the civil and human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their families through litigation, public policy advocacy, and public education. She appears regularly as a leading voice of the LGBT community in media from the New York Times, to the Washington Post, to Good Morning America, to CNN.
Mr. Kwoh is co-founder and President Emeritus of Asian Americans Advancing Justice-LA, the largest legal aid and civil rights organization primarily serving the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community in the United States.
Ms. Larkin is the Executive Director of the Impact Fund, an organization which provides strategic leadership and support for litigation to achieve economic and social justice. Her practice focuses on complex employment discrimination and class action practice on behalf of plaintiffs, having litigated such cases as Dukes v. Walmart and Ellis v. Costco.
Dolores Leal
Ms. Leal is a partner at Allred Maroko Goldberg where she specializes in trying sexual harassment, employment discrimination, and wrongful termination cases. Ms. Leal previously worked as a senior trial attorney at the EEOC. Ms. Leal is a past president of the California Employment Lawyers Association (CELA).
Bill Lann Lee
Mr. Lee is a shareholder at Lewis Feinberg Lee Renaker & Jackson where he focuses on representing groups of individuals in employment discrimination, disability access and other civil rights cases. He previously served as Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division in the United States Department of Justice in the Clinton Administration, as the nation’s top civil rights prosecutor.
Ms. Graff has been President of Legal Aid at Work (formerly Legal Aid Society – Employment Law Center) since 1981. Previously, Ms.Graff vigorously advocated for equal rights through her work with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Equal Rights Advocates.
Eva Jefferson Paterson
Ms. Paterson is the President and Co-Founder of the Equal Justice Society. A civil rights and social justice pioneer, she co-authored several landmark lawsuits in support of affirmative action. She was previously Executive Director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights for over a decade and has served as Vice President of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) National Board and chaired the boards of Equal Rights Advocates and the San Francisco Bar Association.
Luis J. Rodriguez
Luis J. Rodriguez is Division Chief at the Los Angeles Public Defender's Office. From 2013-2014, he wasthe 89th President of the State Bar of California. He is the first Latino and first active Public Defender to serve as President of the State Bar. In 1994, Luis joined the Los Angeles County Public Defender's Office where he has worked to fight for the rights of indigent adults and children. Luis has taken leadership roles throughout the years as President of the Los Angeles County Mexican American Bar Association, President of the California La Raza Lawyers Association, President of the Latino Public Defender Association, member of the California State Board of Education and Chair of the State Bar of California's Council on Access and Fairness.
Mr. Rudy was a co-founder of Rudy, Exelrod, Zieff, & Lowe LLP, a leading firm fighting for employee rights and protections. For many years, Mr. Rudy has been focused solely on mediating employment matters, and has received a vast array of professional awards, including being rated every year one as of California’s top mediators by the Daily Journal and Recorder.
Mr. Saenz is President and General Counsel for MALDEF, the Latino legal voice for civil rights in America. He was a leader in MALDEF’s successful challenge to California’s unconstitutional Proposition 187, and has led numerous civil rights cases in the areas of immigrants’ rights, education, employment, and voting rights. He previously served as Counsel to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and on the mayor’s executive team.
David Sanford
Mr. Sanford is the Chairman and co-founder of Sanford Heisler, LLP, a national law firm with offices in Washington, D.C., New York and California. He has recovered over one billion dollars for individual clients and the United States government since 2004. Among his litigation successes, he won the largest employment verdict in United States history, a $253 million verdict on behalf of 6,000 women in Velez v. Novartis, and settled a Novartis wage/hour class action for $99 million. Mr. Sanford’s firm is uniquely committed to increasing diversity in the plaintiffs’ employment bar, having initiated FAIR’s Sanford Heisler Public Interest Diversity Fellowship in 2013.
Benjamin Schonbrun
Mr. Schonburn co-founded the Southern California-based firm of Schonbrun Desimone Seplow Harris & Hoffman LLP, leading advocates for plaintiffs on matters of sexual harassment, race discrimination wrongful termination, and pregnancy discrimination. He has recovered millions for victims of civil rights abuses during decades of practice.
Ira Spiro
Mr. Spiro of Spiro Law Group has represented employees in more than 100 wage & hour class actions.
Mr. Spiro brings extensive leadership experience, having served an appointed term as a member of the ethics committee of the State Bar of California. He also served three appointed terms as a member, vice-chair, and chair of the ADR committee of the State Bar of California, the committee that works on the
subjects of mediation and arbitration.
Dan Stormer
Mr. Stormer, of Hadsell, Stormer Renick & Dai LLP is recognized both nationally and internationally as one of the nation's leading civil rights, employment, and constitutional law attorneys. He is engaged in numerous professional associations, including the California Employment Lawyers Association (CELA), the National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA), and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).