Justia Legal Services & Lawyers Directory

See my biography and photo at www.msslc.com/bio.html

Bryan Schwartz is an Oakland, California-based attorney dedicated to helping employees protect their rights in the workplace. He has fought prohibited discrimination, retaliation, and harassment, obtained reasonable accommodations for disabled employees, vindicated whistleblowers' rights, and ensured that corporations pay workers all wages they are owed. He has successfully litigated individual and class action complaints nationwide, helping to recover millions of dollars for thousands of employees, forcing corporations and Government agencies to change their practices and punish wrongdoers.


Bryan Schwartz is also one of the few Bay Area-based attorneys with extensive experience representing Federal employees in their unique Merit Systems Protection Board and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaints.

MICHA STAR LIBERTY is a civil rights attorney specializing in litigating serious injury, civil rights, sexual abuse, consumer, and employment matters in both individual and class actions. She is a certified mediator with over 40 hours of training who performs mediation for the Contra Costa Superior Court.

A frequent lecturer and widely published author, Ms. Liberty focuses much of her public speaking on trial practice, discovery techniques, the importance of mentoring, and the best practices for opening a law office and law office management. Additionally, she speaks on the topic of women in politics.

Ms. Liberty is a graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. Born in San Francisco, California, Ms. Liberty is a member of the California bar and is admitted to practice in the United States District Court for the Northern, Eastern, Central and Southern Districts of California. She is also admitted to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Ms. Liberty has worked at the White House and for two Members of Congress, first for U.S. Representative Mel Watt, from North Carolina, and then for U.S. Representative Anna Eshoo. She has also served as a judicial extern to Senior United States District Court Judge Thelton E. Henderson. While in law school, she served as a Moot Court Board member and teaching assistant and an editor for the Womenâs Law Journal.

A proud plaintiffs' attorney, Ms. Liberty has taken a leadership role professionally. Ms. Liberty is the Treasurer and on Executive Committee of the Alameda-Contra Costa Trial Lawyers Association (former Editor in Chief of The Verdict magazine). She actively serves on the governing boards of the following organizations: Consumer Attorneys of California, the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association (Women's Caucus and Chair of the New Lawyers), the Congress of Neutrals, the California Young Lawyers Association, and New Lawyers Division Board of Governors for AAJ. She is also a member of the Earl Warren Inn of Court, Public Justice Foundation, and a Emerge-California graduate. She is a former board member of the Women's Section of the Contra Costa County Bar, and Past Chair of the Contra Costa County Bar Association's Barristers Section.

Ms. Liberty is also leader in her community. She is the President of the National Women's Political Caucus (San Francisco), in that function she strives to recruit, support and endorse female candidates for political office. She testifies at the Board of Supervisors on issues that impact the lives of women and girls locally and frequently gives political commentary for local news outlets.

Ms. Henderson has been representing clients in criminal and juvenile cases since 1997. Her clients have been found not guilty on all counts in over half of her trials. The focus is always to understand the personal needs of the client (obtaining employment in the future, licensing, how the case impacts the client personally, professionally, legally and emotionally.) Often times success is gauged in reducing time,protecting the client's record for the future (avoiding strikes, priors, prison) and looking at alternative sentences.

The approach to criminal defendants in most counties in California is very impersonal and often times unbending. The legislature has limited many of the protections that were once afforded people accused of a crime. They allowed themselves to be influenced by fear and a corrections model. Many of our clients today pled guilty to a strike, either as a very young person or when they were juveniles not knowing the affect it would have in the future. Those strikes are alleged on most complaints to encourage you to plead,increase the penalty, and require a prison sentence. One way to avoid this is to educate yourself and others about their legal rights so that they do not make the same mistakes the previous generation has made.

If bail is a possibility let your attorney know. In Sacramento a two day notice for bail or release on OR must be given to the District Attorney. Decisions that an attorney can make for you are whether requesting a reduction in bail will risk it being raised significantly and whether the judge that you are in front of is one who will listen fairly to the facts. Clients are often much better off out of custody so that they can access services through their own resources to show the court that the allegations are either not true or an anomaly.

The Sacramento jail has been the subject of numerous law suits and suicides in the past several years and is not a place where you or anyone you care about should stay for any length of time. Ms. Henderson's concern for the medical, mental health care and conditions in the juvenile halls and jails has led her to involvement in civil rights cases against the Sacramento County jail.

Ms. Henderson represents clients in Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo, Marysville, Placer, El Dorado, San Joaquin counties, Alameda, Contra Costa County. Recall petitions from the California Youth Authority/DJJ are handled all across the state.

Mr. Vlasak focuses his practice on civil litigation for plaintiffs, including habitability and wrongful eviction suits for tenants, as well as consumer, employment and personal injury actions. Mr. Vlasak earned his Juris Doctor degree from Temple University Law School in Philadelphia, where he was Staff Editor of Temple International and Comparative Law Journal.

Prior to his career as an attorney, Mr. Vlasak was an Adjunct Professor and taught courses including philosophy, ethics, and logic.

Tim Hoffman is a pioneering California attorney with a storied, 45-year legal career, during which he has helped recover more than $1 billion for his worthy clients. Mr. Hoffman has successfully tried dozens of matters to verdict, specializing in complex civil cases, and has litigated over 200 arbitrations. He has practiced in Oakland, CA, since 1971, and was most recently selected for inclusion in 2009 Northern California Super Lawyers.

Since the mid-1990's, Mr. Hoffman has been a leader among plaintiffs' employment lawyers, scoring huge victories for classes of thousands of employees at Pacific Bell (who recovered $36 million), Macy's, Starbucks, and many other Fortune 500 companies. In overtime class actions, Mr. Hoffman has represented misclassified assistant managers, stockbrokers, truck drivers, and reservation clerks, among many other categories of employees. Among employees forced to work off-the-clock, Mr. Hoffman has represented classes of handymen, janitors, bike and driver messengers, and others. Mr. Hoffman has represented victims of sexual harassment and numerous other forms of discrimination.

Mr. Hoffman has also specialized in consumer protection cases, including, for example, class actions against credit card companies, and a current case against termite-protection providers Orkin and Terminex, who misrepresent the nature of their services and provide false guarantees to customers.

Other current cases on which Mr. Hoffman is working include: Mevorah v. Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, regarding misclassified loan officers denied overtime; Chu v. Wells Fargo, regarding misclassified stockbrokers denied overtime; and Contreras v. Bank of America, regarding misclassified personal bankers denied overtime.

Mr. Hoffman's best known cases, the Continental Can class actions, alone recovered nearly half a billion dollars from the company after a four-month trial. The company had been discriminating against employees based upon their pension benefits, a practice prohibited under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). In that case, the company was shutting down plants based upon how many employees in each location would soon vest their full pensions, laying off wholesale any employees whose benefits were about to vest.

Among Mr. Hoffman's favorite career moments were: having lunch with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Alabama when Mr. Hoffman was a member of the Law Students Civil Rights Research Council; defending famed 60's radical Abbie Hoffman in a free speech case; preceding current President Barack Obama as a Chicago community organizer and attorney in Chicago Legal Aid; introducing Cesar Chavez at a banquet for the National Hispanic University, where Mr. Hoffman served as General Counsel and a founding member of the Board of Trustees; successfully settling his own whistleblower retaliation case, after he (as a then-Presidential appointee) reported a federal government manager's improprieties; serving as President of his American Federation of Government Employees Union Local, and a member of the San Francisco Labor Council, and representing the Communication Workers of America Local for the last 38 years; volunteering on the Board of Visitors to College of Arts & Sciences at Howard University; and, playing craps with Thurgood Marshall in Puerto Rico.

Mr. Hoffman is a native of Chicago, IL, an alumnus of the University of Illinois (in Champagne, IL), a former President of Oakland's Beth Jacob Congregation, and former Board member of the Anti-Defamation League.

He has been practicing law with Arthur Lazear for more than 30 years, is married, and has four children.

Prometheus: A Social Justice Law Firm

Mailing Address:
PO Box 1742
Santa Cruz, CA 95061-1742

Offices: Campbell (San Jose), San Francisco, Oakland, Santa Cruz, Redwood City, CA.

Contact Information.
Tel: 510.910.3198
Email: PrometheusLaw@Gmail.com
Website: www.PrometheusLaw.Blogspot.com


AREAS OF PRACTICE:

1. Criminal Defense & Civil Disobedience

Violent and Non-Violent Felonies
Misdemeanors and Infractions
Sex and Drug Crimes
Juvenile Crimes
Police Brutality & Civil Rights


2. Alternative Family & Gender Law

Parenting Coordination (Special Master)
Mediation, Collaborative Divorce
Custody and Property Litigation
Restraining Orders & Harassment
Gender and LGBT Discrimination


3. Property, Estates & Business Law

Mediation and Arbitration Services
Property Contracts and Litigation
Fraud, Bad Faith, and Breach of Contract
Business Contract Formation
Wills and Trusts Formation & Litigation



About Mr. Aly Ebrahimzadeh, Esq.:

A former successful Governor's Teaching Fellow public school teacher, college teacher and organic farm-worker, Mr. Aly Ebrahimzadeh, Esq. is a dynamic public interest attorney possessing very successful years of experience working with Plaintiff-side and Non-Profit law firms in the San Francisco Bay Area, including Communities for a Better Environment, Earthjustice, and Education Not Incarceration. In both state and federal courts, Mr. Ebrahimzadeh has worked successfully with colleagues on multi-million dollar cases representing both Plaintiffs and Defendants, high stakes criminal actions, class action lawsuits, complex multiparty actions, very high-conflict divorces, and on social impact litigation and anti-legislation efforts in the public's interest. Further, Mr. Ebrahimzadeh serves as the General Counsel for MaPhone, LLC, a mobile phone software company employing groundbreaking technology in GPS navigation systems and mobile telephony. With such an intense schedule and outstanding experience and credentials as an attorney, Mr. Ebrahimzadeh nevertheless donates between 50 to 100 hours of his time every year to clients in desperate need of legal representation because he is committed to delivering to the people of our community the justice they truly deserve, rather than merely the justice they can afford.

Mr. Ebrahimzadeh is a highly persuasive Litigator, an engaged and dynamic Mediator, Arbitrator and Parenting Coordinator (Special Master), and a sharp Legal Strategist focused on preventing unnecessary conflicts and resolving disputes efficiently and fairly. His clients very much appreciate his uniquely personable and communicative style, and see Mr. Ebrahimzadeh as a great ally in bringing clarity and justice to turgid legal conflicts. Similarly, opposing counsel respect Mr. Ebrahimzadeh as a sincere negotiator and as a powerful opponent. Be it on paper, in court, or at the negotiation table, Mr. Ebrahimzadeh is a formidable force, bringing passion and experience in the name of justice to the practice of the law.

Mr. Aly Ebrahimzadeh, Esq. is a Juris Doctor graduate of the distinguished top-tier University of California, Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, a proud recipient of the coveted Witkin and CALI awards for outstanding legal scholarship, a Member In Good Standing of the State Bar of California, and a Phi Beta Kappa National Honor Society graduate of Brandeis University, a top-ranked national university which dignified him with the full four-year tuition merit-based Justice Louis D. Brandeis Scholarship.

Mr. Ebrahimzadeh has proudly served as an At Large Member of the Board of Directors of the National Lawyer's Guild, San Francisco Chapter - one of our nation's oldest, most prestigious, and effective associations of progressive attorneys committed to working for social justice. Much respected for his dedication to Pro-Bono community education and professional expertise, Mr. Ebrahimzadeh has also been internationally broadcast on progressive television and radio stations where he provides free attorney consultation to minority and low-income callers and professional legal commentary on complex and current environmental and constitutional issues affecting civil rights and justice. Mr. Ebrahimzadeh is the Founder and President of Ethos Pathos Logos, a Pro Bono Organization of Concerned Citizens motivating and informing the public on how to become Earth and People Friendly.

A bit about Aly, personally: He speaks fluent French, Spanish, Italian, and Farsi, as well as basic German. He has traveled and worked extensively throughout Europe, the Middle East, the Caribbean, and North America. He is a musician, a dancer, a writer, and a visual artist. He enjoys motorcycle travels, slow food, music from bluegrass to folk, jazz to classical, rough playing with his two white German Shepherds, and coaching youth sports. More than anything else, he loves walking in local flower gardens and having quiet picnics with his son.

As our attorney, he understands and appreciates our clients' need for justice, and he is dedicated to providing exactly that with grace and passion. Through his work, he represents a very diverse clientele. He focuses on nurturing serenity and creativity, and he remains a zealous and intensely aggressive advocate of all our Civil, Human and Environmental Rights.

We invite you to contact us so that we can meet soon in one of our elegant offices for an Initial Consultation to discuss an effective strategy to peacefully resolve your serious concerns. We look forward to working together with you to help you bring Justice to our world.


Past and Present Professional Affiliations
Of Mr. Aly Ebrahimzadeh, Esquire:

National Lawyer's Guild, Board of Directors
Iranian-American Bar Association
Alameda County Bar Association (ACBA)
Santa Clara County Bar Association
Santa Cruz County Bar Association
San Mateo County Bar Association
ACBA, Volunteer Legal Svcs. Corp.
California Lawyers for the Arts
American Bar Association
US Federal Court, Northern District of CA
US Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit