* UAW v. Johnson Controls (Supreme Court): Prohibited employers from adopting "fetal protection" policies that discriminate against female workers in violation of Title VII.

* UAW v. Brock (Supreme Court): Compelled the Department of Labor to restore $200 million in wrongfully withheld Trade Act benefits to thousands of unemployed autoworkers and steelworkers.

* Bower v. Bunker Hill Co.: Restored, after a six-week jury trial, tens of millions of dollars of retiree health insurance benefits that had been terminated following the shutdown of Idaho's largest private employer.

* Golden Gate Restaurant Ass’n v. City and County of San Francisco: Obtained a Ninth Circuit ruling permitting a San Francisco ordinance, which requires employers either to provide health benefits to their employees or to pay into a City fund for the same purpose, to go into effect while an appeal from a district court order invalidating the ordinance as preempted by ERISA is pending.

* Does I et al. v. The Gap, Inc., et al.: Negotiated $20 million settlement and innovative workplace monitoring program in anti-sweatshop class action on behalf of 30,000 Chinese and other foreign workers against Saipan garment factories and retailers for alleged violations of RICO, Alien Tort Claims Act, FLSA, and federal common law.

* Satchell v. FedEx Express: Obtained a consent decree providing $55 million in monetary relief to two classes of African American and Latino employees of FedEx Express, as well as comprehensive injunctive relief against discriminatory employment practices, including reducing managerial discretion in promotions, compensation and discipline, and prohibiting the use of a promotion test that had an adverse impact on minority employees.

* UAW v. Kiddoo: Required California to resume paying unemployment compensation to almost 400,000 unemployed workers following a budgetary impasse between the Legislature and the Governor.

* Pulaski v. Calif. Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board: Successfully defended the nation's first safety standard on ergonomics against an industry challenge and invalidated exemptions that would have prevented that standard from applying to most California workplaces.

* Chamber of Commerce v. Lockyer: Obtained Ninth Circuit en banc decision rejecting First Amendment and federal preemption challenges to a California law that prohibits employers from using state funds to influence employees about union organizing.

* SkyWest Pilots ALPA Organizing Committee v. SkyWest Airlines, Inc.: Obtained a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction prohibiting an airline from interfering with its pilots’ rights to organize and to free expression under the Railway Labor Act.

* UFCW Local 751 v. Brown Shoe Group, Inc. (Supreme Court): Established unions' standing to sue employers that violate the WARN Act's statutory notice requirements.

* NLRB v. Town & Country Electric, Inc. (Supreme Court): Protected paid union organizers from discriminatory discharge or refusal to hire under the National Labor Relations Act.

* State Building & Constr. Trades v. Aubry: Struck down, as a usurpation of legislative authority, administrative regulations that would have lowered by 20 percent the prevailing wage rate paid to construction workers on public projects.

* Bell v. Farmers Ins. Exchange (Bell III): Obtained appellate decision upholding the largest overtime pay jury verdict in history, in class action on behalf of insurance company claims representatives who were misclassified as exempt under California's wage and hour law, and subsequently negotiated a settlement in excess of $200 million for class members.

* The Hess Collection Winery v. California Agricultural Relations Bd.: Successfully defended against constitutional challenge a California statute providing for the binding resolution of disputes between agricultural employers and their union-represented employees arising from their failure to agree on an initial labor contract, thereby guarantying that agricultural workers will obtain an initial contract.

* Gentry v. Superior Court: Obtained California Supreme Court ruling that employers generally may not prohibit workers from pursuing statutory claims on a classwide or collective basis.

* Employee Staffing Services, Inc. v. Aubry: Defeated an employee-leasing company's ERISA preemption challenge to California's workers' compensation laws.

* Long Beach City Employees v. City of Long Beach: Overturned on state constitutional grounds a city policy requiring public employees to submit to polygraph examinations.

* Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corp.: Obtained a ruling that a national aluminum manufacturer violated the NLRA by unlawfully locking out 3,000 of its employees and must pay them approximately $175 million in back wages -- the highest backpay award in the history of the NLRA.

* Bay Area Laundry Workers v. Ferbar (Supreme Court): Established longer statute of limitations for suits against employers that withdraw from multi-employer pension plans.

* Associated Builders and Contractors v. Nunn/ACTA v. Smith: Defeated federal court preemption challenges to a regulation raising the minimum wage rates for California apprentices.

* Capers v. Nunn: Obtained decision upholding a California Aprenticeship Council ruling that precluded non-union apprenticeship program from operating outside its approved geographic area.

* Amaral v. Cintas Corp.: Won $1.4 million summary judgment in a class action challenging a nationwide laundry company’s systematic underpayment of its workers, defeating state law preemption and federal due process challenges to a local living wage ordinance.

* Rosenburg v. Int’l Business Machines Corp.: Obtained a $65 million settlement in a class action brought on behalf of IBM information technology specialists for failure to pay overtime compensation.

* Frazier v. Citicorp Investment Services: Obtained class action settlement for full backpay on behalf of securities brokers who alleged that their employer violated California and New York law by enforcing a corporate fine-based disciplinary policy.

* Air Line Pilots Ass’n, Int’l v. Emery Worldwide Airlines, Inc.: Obtained an eight-figure settlement of breach of contract claim on behalf of airline pilots who were permanently furloughed when their employer ceased flight operations.

* SEIU Local 24/7 v. Professional Technical Security Services, Inc.: Obtained settlement under state wage and hour laws providing payments to hundreds of low-wage workers as reimbursement for uniform cleaning expenses.

* State Building and Construction Trades Council v. Rea: Obtained decision holding that a developer’s receipt of state low income housing tax credits to subsidize a construction project requires the construction workers on the project to be paid prevailing wages.

* Vega v. Contract Cleaning Maintenance, Inc.: Obtained class action settlements on behalf of low-wage janitors and maintenance workers who were misclassified as independent contractors, providing double overtime, reimbursement of allegedly unlawful paycheck deductions and statutory interest.

* Burlington Northern Santa Fe Ry. Co. v. Int'l Bhd. of Teamsters Local 174: Obtained a unanimous en banc court of appeals decision overturning prior decisions that had severely weakened protections afforded by the Norris-LaGuardia Act to union economic action.

* Southern California Edison Co. v. Public Utilities Comm’n: Obtained decision upholding the authority of the Public Utilities Commission to order utilities to require the payment of prevailing wages to construction workers on energy utility construction projects.

* Reigh v. Calif. Unemployment Insurance Appeals Bd.: Obtained the right to unemployment compensation for workers in non-safety-sensitive jobs who were discharged after refusing to take, or failing, a random drug test.

* Akau v. Tel-A-Com Hawaii: Upheld, against an employer's ERISA preemption challenge, Hawaii's Dislocated Workers Act, which provided supplemental unemployment compensation benefits to workers adversely affected by plant closings.

* AFL-CIO v. Marshall: Required payment of an additional 26 weeks of extended unemployment compensation benefits, worth billions of dollars, to unemployed workers nationwide.

* IBEW v. Eichleay: Enforced a multi-million dollar arbitration award against an employer that tried to evade its contract obligations through a non-union alter ego.

* Cremin v. Merrill Lynch: Settled nationwide sex discrimination class action on behalf of women brokers, resulting in establishment of novel claims procedure and agreement by brokerage firm no longer to compel its employees to arbitrate statutory discrimination claims.

* Armendariz v. Foundation Health Psychcare Svcs.: Obtained a ruling from the California Supreme Court that employers cannot require their employees, as a condition of employment, to resolve employment claims through arbitration, where the arbitration agreement does not provide for specific procedural protections.

* Local 1564 v. City of Clovis: Struck down a local "right to work" law enacted by a New Mexico city.

* Washington Service Contractors Coalition v. District of Columbia: Successfully defended against a federal preemption challenge a local displaced worker ordinance that requires new service contractors to retain the employees of their predecessors.

* Gerlach v. Wells Fargo & Co.: Obtained a $12.8 million settlement in a class action brought against Wells Fargo for misclassifying employees given the title "business consultants" as exempt from overtime.

* Patel v. Sugen: Obtained a nearly $2 million settlement in a class action challenge to a pharmaceutical company’s refusal to pay contractually-mandated severance pay and bonuses to employees upon sale of the company, representing complete recovery of all monies owed plus ten percent interest.

* Figueroa v. Guess?, Inc.: Obtained a million dollar settlement of a wage and overtime class action on behalf of Los Angeles garment workers.

* EQR/Legacy: Obtained settlement in administrative action of $1.6 million in back wages to contruction workers who were not paid the prevailing wage required on public works projects..

* Californians for Safe and Competitive Dump Truck Transportation v. Mendonca: Defeated an industry challenge to the application of California's prevailing wage law to motor carriers after the enactment of trucking deregulation.

* Martens v. Smith Barney: Settled nationwide sex discrimination class action on behalf of women brokerage employees, resulting in a novel claims procedure allowing for potentially tens of millions of dollars in damages.

* Gerke v. Waterhouse Securities: Obtained a $3.3 million overtime settlement on behalf of 1,800 employees of a discount brokerage firm who were not paid for half-hour lunch periods during which they were expected to work.

* California Hospital Ass'n v. Henning: Overcame a federal statutory challenge to a California law requiring payment of accrued vacation pay to workers upon cessation of employment.

* Fry v. Air Line Pilots Ass'n: Defeated an attempt to hold a union liable under RICO and state tort law for ostracism allegedly directed against strikebreakers.

* AFL-CIO v. Employment Development Department: Compelled California to continue to pay unemployment compensation benefits to hundreds of thousands of claimants per year pending evidentiary hearings on their continued eligibility.

* IBEW Locals 595 and 6 v. LIS Electric: Won a private attorney general action, after a multi-week trial, against a construction contractor and its president for failing to pay workers prevailing wages on public works projects.

* Intl. Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 142 v. Hawaiian Waikiki Beach Hotel: Obtained an order requiring the corporate parent of a hotel to arbitrate claims for millions of dollars in accrued vacation and severance pay owed to the hotel's employees, notwithstanding that the hotel had been placed in receivership.

* SEIU v. County of San Bernardino: Obtained an injunction prohibiting one of the nation's largest counties from depriving its employees of their right to discuss union issues at work.

* Retlaw Broadcasting Co. v. NLRB: Successfully defended on appeal the NLRB's decision that an employer unlawfully implemented a contract proposal allowing it to bypass the union and instead negotiate directly with its individual employees.

* CPS Chem. Co. v. NLRB: Confirmed an employer's continuing duty to bargain with the local union that represents its employees, notwithstanding that union's affiliation with a national union.

* Bishop v. Air Line Pilots Ass'n: Defeated a challenge to a nationwide collective bargaining agreement that had been approved by a majority of the bargaining unit employees in a secret ballot election.

* Does I Thru XXIII v. Advanced Textile Corp.: Established the right of workers to sue under fictitious names and to withhold their identities from their employers, where they reasonably fear that the disclosure of their identities will result in severe retaliation.

* San Joaquin Regional Transit Dist.: Obtained an arbitration award stopping a transit district from contracting out numerous jobs held by union-represented workers.

* United Public Workers v. Yogi: Invalidated a state public employee wage freeze that conflicted with the state constitutional right to organize for the purpose of collective bargaining.

* Passantino v. Johnson & Johnson Consumer Products, Inc.: Successfully defended on appeal a multi-million dollar jury award in an employment discrimination action under federal and state law.

* Driscoll v. Oracle: Negotiated $12.7 million settlement in nationwide overtime case under FLSA and state law on behalf of internet sales representatives.

* UAW Local 2244 and New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc.: Obtained an arbitration award in excess of one million dollars for violation of a contractual provision requiring an employer to pay a premium to employees who start their shifts before 6:00 a.m.

* ATU Local 1292 and Alameda County Transit District: Obtained an arbitration award prohibiting a public transit district from using a lease arrangement to evade contractual restrictions on outsourcing bargaining unit jobs.

* California Federation of Interpreters v. Region 1 Court Interpreter Employment Relations Committee; California Federation of Interpreters v. Region 2 Court Interpreter Employment Relations Committee; California Federation of Interpreters v. Region 4 Court Interpreter Employment Relations Committee : Obtained arbitration awards requiring Superior Courts to pay mileage compensation to court interpreters and holding that the Courts acted illegally by giving interpreting assignments to independent contractors.

* Int'l Bhd. Of Electrical Workers Local 551 v. WSB Electric: Enjoined a contractor and its officers from continuing to commit unfair business practices by underpaying workers on public works projects, leading to the debarment of the contractor from bidding on public works projects for three years.

* Associated Builders and Contractors: Obtained an NLRB decision that an association of nonunion construction contractors violated the NLRA by filing and prosecuting a lawsuit challenging a union program to recapture jobs for union workers.

* St. Thomas - St. John Hotel & Tourism Ass'n v. Gov't of the U.S. Virgin Islands: Defeated an NLRA preemption challenge to a Virgin Islands statute that protects employees from termination without cause.

* Simo v. Union of Needletrades. Industrial & Textile Employees: Successfully defended a labor union's use of the "garment industry proviso" to Section 8(e) of the NLRA.

* Patterson v. Heartland Industrial Partners, LLP; Adcock v. United Auto Workers: Obtained federal district court decisions that an agreement under which an employer agrees to remain neutral in union organizing campaigns in return for the union’s agreement to limitations on such campaigns does not violate Section 302 of the Taft-Hartley Act or RICO.

* Heartland Industrial Partners, LLP and the United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO: Obtained an NLRB decision upholding a neutrality and card-check organizing agreement under Section 8(e) of the NLRA.

* Advocate Health Care Network v. Service Employees Int’l Union: Obtained dismissal of defamation, commercial disparagement, unfair trade practices, and maintenance claims arising from union’s support for community campaign to change hospital chain’s practice of overcharging uninsured patients.

* In re Opinion of Bill Lockyer, Attorney General (State Allocation Board): Obtained interpretation from the California Attorney General requiring school districts to utilize competitive bidding laws to award public school construction projects, thereby insuring that union contractors have an opportunity to bid on such work.

* In re Santa Ana Transit Village: Obtained a California administrative ruling that a transfer of property for a redevelopment project at so-called “fair reuse value” is not equivalent to a transfer at the “fair market price,” and therefore California construction workers who perform work on such projects must be paid prevailing wages.

* Wagner v. Professional Engineers in California Gov't.: Established that the appropriate remedy for legal deficiencies in a union's annual fair share fee notice is for the union to correct and re-issue the notice, not to refund fees previously collected.

* Granite Rock Co. v. Int’l Bhd. of Teamsters: Obtained federal district court order dismissing employer’s unprecedented attempt to expand Section 301 of the LMRA to include tort theories for interference with contract by international union.

* Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Local 3 v. Northern California Mason Contractors Multiemployer Bargaining Ass’n: Obtained an arbitration award upholding a union’s right to allocate annual economic increases under a collective bargaining agreement between wages and fringe benefits.

* Mendoza-Barrera v. San Andreas HVAC, Inc.: Obtained a stipulated judgment of more than $200,000 for four sheet metal workers whose employer failed to pay them the prevailing wage on public works projects.

* Santa Ana Transit Village: Obtained an administrative decision from the State of California’s Department of Industrial Relations that workers on redevelopment projects involving transfers of public property for “fair resuse value” are entitled to be paid prevailing wages.

* Orff v. United States : Obtained ruling (based on arguments in merits brief filed on behalf of environmental organizations) rejecting challenge brought by agribusiness interests to the federal goverment's reduction of contractual water allocations to a local water district for the purpose of protecting threatened salmon and smelt.

* United Steelworkers of America v. California Dept. of Forestry and Fire Protection: Obtained a decision holding that the California Department of Forestry's approval of a plan to log vast portions of California's redwood forests violated the California Forest Practice Act's requirements for a sustainable yield plan.

* NRDC v. Patterson: Obtained a district court ruling that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation illegally dried up California's second longest river by diverting excessive amounts of water for agricultural and other uses, and subsequently negotiated settlement providing for restoration of the river.

* California Healthcare Ass'n v. California Dep't of Health Svcs.: Defeated a hospital industry challenge to a California health regulation requiring minimum nurse-to-patient staffing ratios.

* Les v. Reilly: Required the Environmental Protection Agency strictly to apply the Delaney Clause's prohibition against cancer-causing substances in processed foods.

* Public Citizen v. Dep't of Transportation: Obtained a Ninth Circuit ruling (later overturned by the Supreme Court) blocking for several years the federal government's decision to allow Mexico-domiciled trucks to travel throughout the United States without an Environmental Impact Statement and a Clean Air Act conformity analysis.

* California v. Browner: Obtained a consent decree, in a challenge to EPA's systematic failure to enforce federal food safety laws, that required dozens of cancer-causing pesticides to be removed from the food supply.

* NRDC v. Price Pfister: Compelled major faucet manufacturers to eliminate lead from drinking water faucets pursuant to Proposition 65, the California Toxics Initiative.

* NRDC v. The Reclamation Bd. of the Resources Agency of the State of California: Obtained a writ of mandate overturning a state administrative agency’s approval of an extensive development project on top of a major levee in the Sacramento River Delta, for violating regulations governing flood control levees.

* Sunshine Canyon: Successfully advocated in land use proceedings, on behalf of a coalition of environmental, labor, and community organizations, for stringent environmental conditions to be placed on a large solid waste landfill in Los Angeles County.

* NRDC v. EPA: Settled Clean Air Act case requiring warning labels on processed foods manufactured with methyl bromide, an ozone-depleting substance.

* NRDC v. EPA: Compelled the Environmental Protection Agency to stop holding "closed-door" meetings with industry representatives before setting pesticide health and safety standards.

* NRDC v. Whitman: Forced the EPA to reassess the safety of some of the nation's most dangerous pesticides to protect children, farmworkers, and consumers.

* NRDC v. Smith Kline: Required reductions in lead content of calcium dietary supplements.

* EDF & NRDC v. Sta-Rite: Successfully challenged the widespread use of lead in submersible water pumps under the California Toxics Initiative.

* Tosco Corp. v. Communities for a Better Environment: Defeated a declaratory judgment action brought by an oil company to preclude environmental organizations from seeking penalties for its discharges of dioxin.

* AFL-CIO v. Deukmejian: Required the Governor of California to expand tenfold the list of carcinogenic chemicals included within the California Toxics Initiative.

* California Labor Federation v. Cal. OSHA: Preserved the California Toxics Initiative against an OSHA preemption attack.

* AFL-CIO v. Deukmejian: Overturned a regulation exempting food, drugs and cosmetics from the California Toxics Initiative.

* NRDC v. OEHHA: Forced state environmental agency to withdraw "records retention" policy that had required agency scientists to destroy data and documents that were inconsistent with final agency position.

* AFL-CIO v. Gorsuch: Overturned an EPA moratorium on public disclosure of industry pesticide health and safety studies.

* NRDC v. Wilson: Required the Governor of California timely to determine whether to expand the list of reproductive toxicants included within the California Toxics Initiative to include five dozen chemicals identified as reproductive toxicants by US EPA.

* NRDC v. Badger Meters, Inc.: Required manufacturers of water meters that leach lead into residential drinking water to shift to a low lead emitting alloy.

* NRDC v. Safeway, Inc.: Required large grocery retailers to achieve a substantial reduction in diesel truck emissions around their grocery distribution centers, which are located primarily in low-income areas.

* Environmental Law Foundation v. Crystal Geyser Water Co.: Required manufacturers to eliminate unlawfully high levels of arsenic, trihalomethanes, and heterotrophic bacteria from bottled drinking water.

* City and County of San Francisco v. United Tobacco Co.: Required warnings to be provided to consumers regarding the health dangers of smokeless tobacco products.

* Environmental Law Foundation v. Ironite Products Co.: Obtained a consent judgment banning the continued sale in California of a fertilizer manufactured from hazardous waste that contained excessive levels of arsenic and lead.

* In re Vinegar Litigation: Obtained settlements requiring food retailers to post consumer warnings regarding the presence of lead in balsamic vinegar.

* In re St. Lukes Hospital Merger: Persuaded the California Attorney General to conduct a review of the terms of a proposed merger of two hospitals, including the extent to which the merger would serve or disserve the needs of the affected communities.

FREE SPEECH

* Conant v. McCaffrey: Obtained a permanent injunction under the First Amendment prohibiting the federal government from revoking or threatening to revoke the prescription drug licenses of California physicians on the basis of their confidential communications regarding medical marijuana with seriously ill patients.

* Walker v. Air Line Pilots Ass'n: Obtained a jury verdict following a ten-week trial upholding the right of the Air Line Pilots Association to engage in free speech activities promoting solidarity among strikers.

* Eller Media Co. v. City of Oakland: Defeated efforts by billboard and alcohol industries to overturn City of Oakland ordinance prohibiting billboards advertising alcoholic beverages in residential neighborhoods and in proximity to schools and playgrounds.

* SEIU v. City of Houston: Obtained a preliminary injunction under the First Amendment against the enforcement of Houston ordinances that restrict parades, public gatherings in public parks, and the use of sound amplification equipment.

* Connelly v. No On 128, the Hayden Initiative: Enforced a California law requiring state initiative campaign advertisements to identify industry campaign contributors.

* Crawford v. Int'l Union of Rubber Workers Local 703: Obtained reversal of a six-figure jury verdict against union and picketers who had exercised free speech right to disparage strikebreakers.

* Buyukmihci v. Regents: Obtained a permanent injunction protecting the free speech rights of a professor of veterinary medicine whom the University of California had tried to fire because of his animal rights views.

* Furukawa Farms v. CRLA: Successfully defended a statewide poverty law office against a suit brought by agricultural growers to block its advocacy on behalf of farm workers.

* Auvil v. CBS 60 Minutes: Obtained dismissal of a class action product defamation suit brought by Washington apple growers against the Natural Resources Defense Council for having publicized the public health hazards of the growth regulator Alar.

* Coors v. Wallace: Defeated an antitrust suit brought by Adolph Coors Company against the organizers of a nationwide consumer boycott of Coors beer.

* Evergreen Oil Co. v. Communities for a Better Environment: Obtained the dismissal under California's anti-SLAPP statute of an oil company's defamation action against a non-profit environmental advocacy group.

* Tosco Corp. v. Communities for a Better Environment: Obtained dismissal for lack of federal jurisdiction, affirmed on appeal, of an oil company's federal court defamation action against an environmental group that had engaged in free speech about air pollution issues.

* POSCO v. Contra Costa Building & Construction Trades Council: Defeated an antitrust suit brought against various labor unions for engaging in environmental lobbying and litigation.

* Schavrien v. Lynch: Obtained dismissal, under California’s anti-SLAPP law, of a suit against the former President of the California Public Utilities Commission brought by an executive of an energy company regulated by the Commission, for publicly exposing the executive’s attendance at a campaign fundraising event in support of the spouse of a Commissioner.

* Knox v. Westly: Defeated preliminary injunction motion brought several days before statewide election to prohibit union from spending union dues and fees to oppose anti-worker ballot initiatives.

* Mosqueda v. CCPOA: Defeated a libel action brought by prison warden against correctional officers union for statements made in support of litigation initiated by a union officer.

* Western Growers Ass'n v. UFW: Obtained dismissal under California's anti-SLAPP statute of an "unfair business practices" action brought by a growers' association against a union for its free speech activities.

* Allied Pilots Ass'n v. San Francisco: Obtained an injunction allowing pilots to handbill and picket at San Francisco International Airport.

* Bruce Church, Inc. v. UFW: Overturned on First Amendment and statutory grounds a $10 million judgment against the United Farm Workers for engaging in allegedly improper boycott activity.

* Guess?, Inc. v. UNITE: Obtained dismissal under California's anti-SLAPP statute of complaint alleging union had unlawfully supported picketing and litigation activity directed against employer's workplace practices.

* UFW v. Dutra Farms: Obtained judgments against 18 growers and growers' association prohibiting them from illegally financing "employee committee" to defeat union organizing drives.

* Steam Press Holdings, Inc. v. Hawaii Teamsters, Local 996: Established that federal labor law precludes an employer from obtaining damages under state defamation law for economic losses resulting from a strike.

*AFL-CIO v. Eu: Invalidated a proposed initiative requiring a new federal constitutional convention on the ground that it violated Article V of the US Constitution.

* Common Cause v. Jones: Obtained a court order requiring the replacement of pre-scored punch card voting machines in California prior to the 2004 Presidential election.

*Fleischman v. Protect Our City: Obtained, and successfully defended in the Arizona Supreme Court, an injunction removing an anti-immigrant initiative from the November 2006 Phoenix ballot on the ground that the city law granting initiative supporters the right to supplement signatures after the filing deadline is preempted by state law.

* Hawaii State AFL-CIO v. Yoshina: Overturned on state election law grounds Hawaii's decision to ignore abstentions in determining whether the required percentage of votes was cast in favor of a ballot measure calling for a new state constitutional convention.

* Central California Farmers Ass'n v. Eu: Defeated on state constitutional grounds an attempt by agribusiness to remove a comprehensive environmental protection initiative from the California ballot.

* Cardona v. Oakland Unified School District: Upheld the City of Oakland's right to delay redistricting on the basis of the 1990 census until the census was adjusted to correct for the disproportionate undercount of minorities.

* Bennett v. Yoshina: Successfully defended against a federal court due process challenge the Hawaii electorate's vote to refuse to hold a new state constitutional convention.

* Barry v. Nishioka: Obtained a writ of mandate ordering election officials to place candidates on ballot despite apparent noncompliance with nomination petition formalities.

* Edrington v. Floyd: Successfully defended City of Oakland's wording of ballot question and ballot analysis for "just cause" eviction initiative against challenge by landlords.

IMMIGRATION

*AFL-CIO v. Chertoff: Obtained nation-wide injunction against a Department of Homeland Security regulation that would turn Social Security Administration "no-match" letters into an immigration-enforcement tool without authorization from Congress.

* Catholic Social Services/Ayuda/Immigrant Assistance Project v. Reno/Ashcroft: Obtained the right to apply for legalization under the Immigration Reform and Control Act for hundreds of thousands of undocumented aliens who were prevented from applying because of unlawful INS regulations; and negotiated temporary work authorization for approximately three million aliens potentially eligible for legalization under the Immigration Reform and Control Act.

* Calif. Rural Legal Assistance v. Legal Services Corp.: Overturned a regulation prohibiting the provision of federally-funded legal services to a nationwide class of several million aliens who had been legalized through the amnesty process.

* SEIU Local 535 v. Thornburgh: Compelled the Immigration and Naturalization Service to rescind a regulation that deprived temporary nonimmigrant workers of the right to strike.

* Patel v. Quality Inn South / EEOC v. Tortilleria "La Mejor": Through a series of cases, established the eligibility of undocumented immigrant workers for the full remedial protections of the Fair Labor Standards Act and Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

* Lopez-Alvarado v. Ashcroft: Obtained Ninth Circuit reversal of Board of Immigration Appeal's decision ordering deportation of an immigrant family that had lived in the United States for more than ten years.

* Int'l Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftsmen v. Meese: Obtained decision prohibiting government and employers from using non-immigrant business (B-1) visas to circumvent the requirement that temporary, non-immigrant, foreign workers not undercut the prevailing wage.

MISCELLANEOUS

* Blessing v. Freestone (Supreme Court): Preserved the availability of 42 U.S.C. §1983 in cases seeking enforcement of federal statutory rights.

* Kashmiri v. Regents: Won a $33.8 million class action judgment against the University of California for improperly charging fee increases to tens of thousands of undergraduate, graduate and professional students, and obtained a preliminary injunction prohibiting the University from charging professional students an additional $15 million in fees.

* Anderson v. Regents: Obtained an $11 million recovery in a Contracts Clause class action challenging the University of California's refusal to fund thousands of university professors' merit salary increases.

* Eklund v. Byron Union School District: Established the right of public school teachers to use games, role-playing, and other methods considered to be best pedagogical practices to teach about the history, culture and religion of Islam as part of a secular program of education in a world history class.

* People v. Horton: Obtained a California Supreme Court death penalty reversal on the direct appeal of a capital case.

* Horton v. Mayles : Obtained a Ninth Circuit habeas corpus remand of former death penalty defendant's murder conviction due to the prosecutor’s failure to disclose potentially exculpatory evidence, and obtained reversal of the conviction after district court evidentiary hearing.

* California Labor Federation v. Cal. OSHA: Invalidated, on state constitutional grounds, California Budget Act restrictions on the state's payment of public interest attorneys' fees.

* NAACP v. Davis: Reinstated statutory requirement that California Highway Patrol collect racial profiling data, despite gubernatorial funding veto.

* Jane Doe v. Reddy: Obtained $11 million settlement in human trafficking case on behalf of young Indian women who were unlawfully brought into the United States and forced to provide sex and free labor.

* Gardner v. Schwartzenegger: Obtained restraining order and preliminary injunction against enforcement of a state statute that would have permitted incarceration of non-violent drug offenders, contrary to California Proposition 36, which mandated probation and drug treatment.

*Hamilton v. Great Expectations: Negotiated an $8.5 million settlement of a statewide class action against a video dating service that had electronically eavesdropped on confidential membership interviews.

* In re Sealed Cases: Obtained a $13.2 million settlement of a False Claims Act case and two related wrongful termination cases on behalf of a husband and wife who were terminated after disclosing extensive fraud committed by their government contractor employer; obtained a $30 million settlement of a False Claims Act case against a manufacturer of defective medical home monitoring devices.

* In re Gulf USA Corporation and Pintlar Corporation: Preserved millions of dollars of retiree medical benefits in a major bankruptcy proceeding on behalf of thousands of retired Idaho mine and smelter workers.

* Utility Consumers' Action Network v. Sears/California Federal Bank/Household Credit Service/ Texaco Credit Card Services/ Capital One/ Bank of America: Obtained settlements in a series of consumer privacy class actions against financial institutions and credit card companies prohibiting unauthorized dissemination of personal account information to third party telemarketers.

*IBEW Local 595 v. Aubry: Enjoined the Department of Industrial Relations from spending taxpayer funds to implement a new methodology that would drastically cut prevailing wage rates, where the Legislature had refused to appropriate funds for that purpose.

*Davidson v. County of Sonoma: Obtained a substantial settlement on behalf of a law enforcement officer injured as the result of his employer's mock hostage training exercise in which he was seized and threatened at gunpoint.

*Jensen v. Kaiser Permanente: Obtained the rescission of an HMO's cost-cutting policy requiring staff psychiatrists to prescribe psychotropic medications for patients whom they have not examined.

*Welfare Rights Org. v. Crisan: Established an evidentiary privilege for communications between applicants for public benefits and their lay representatives, including union representatives.

*County of Alameda v. Aubry: Enjoined California from reducing the prevailing wage in the construction industry by 20 precent where the agency had failed to comply with APA rulemaking requirements.

*California State Building and Construction Trades Council v. Duncan: Enjoined the expenditure of state funds on administrative rulemaking proceedings that would have lowered the minimum wage for apprentices throughout California, on the ground that the Governor lacked the authority to item-veto the Legislature's decision not to fund such proceedings.

*Rogers v. Governing Board of the Sacramento City Unified School Dist.: Obtained a writ of mandate and a permanent injunction under the California Charter Schools Act prohibiting a school board from converting an existing public high school into a charter school without the approval of a majority of the school's teachers and requiring the school district to open a new non-charter public high school upon a showing of community support.

*California Court Reporters Ass'n v. Judicial Council: Struck down rules that would have allowed replacement of official court reporters with audiotape recordings in California Superior Courts, and obtained an injunction against expenditures of taxpayer funds in furtherance of such rules.

*Olney v. Pringle: Negotiated a settlement prohibiting state legislators from paying large retroactive salary increases to select staff in violation of the State Constitution.

*Gary W. v. State of Louisiana; La Raza Unida v. Volpe: Required Louisiana and California to pay federal court civil rights attorney's fee awards despite refusal of State Legislatures to appropriate the monies.

     Our firm has also consulted on federal legislation involving reform of the nation's pesticide food safety laws and immigration laws, violence at abortion clinics, protection from ERISA preemption of state apprenticeship and prevailing wage laws, and state legislation involving unemployment insurance, prevailing wages, the provision on health insurance for uninsured workers, protection of the right to strike, apprenticeship, rights of public employees, nursing home reform, and other areas of importance to labor unions and workers.