Maurice Mandel II
Aggressive Employment Trial Attorney, Highly Skilled Mediator
Greetings and Welcome!
My practice has focused on EMPLOYMENT LAW cases in Federal and California Courts for 40+ years. I am a trial attorney, and have handled employment and housing cases involving race, age, gender, and physical disability harassment and discrimination and cases involving sexual harassment and discrimination.
I also handle WAGE AND HOUR matters involving the wrongful theft of wages, including class actions. I have represented both the employee and employer although I predominately represent the employee. Sometimes, I accept cases on a negotiated contingent fee.
I associate with specialists in Worker's Compensation matters, as well.
But I do more than just try cases, I am a professional ARBITRATOR and MEDIATOR and I have also served our Courts as a Court appointed mediator for many different types of cases. Housing discrimination, contract, personal injury and more. COUNSEL, I AM AVAILABLE TO SERVE AS A MEDIATOR FOR YOUR CASE, you really want me as your mediator. Not only will you get a highly trained and dedicated Mediator to help you resolve your case, you will get ADR services at a great rate.
One of my interests is speaking other languages, because you learn about other cultures that way. I have received training in many of the subtle differences in cultures that we deal with in day to day contacts. If you need someone to be sensitive to the needs of another culture, I either have experience or understanding.
I have consistently received the highest peer rating from Martindale-Hubble, an “AV” rating meaning that I had reached the highest of professional excellence and am recognized for the highest levels of skill and integrity.
I look forward to hearing from YOU about YOUR situation and whether you need an advocate, an arbitrator or a mediator to help you resolve your difficulties. (It is an old photo, I have grey hair now!)
- Employment Law
- Employment Contracts, Employment Discrimination, Overtime & Unpaid Wages, Sexual Harassment, Whistleblower, Wrongful Termination
- Arbitration & Mediation
- Business - Arbitration/Mediation, Consumer - Arbitration/Mediation
- Consumer Law
- Class Action
- Traffic Tickets
- Landlord Tenant
- Evictions, Housing Discrimination, Landlord Rights, Tenants' Rights
- Wage and Hour law- employee or employer
- Sexual Harassment or Discrimination including Gender inequity
- Employment Harassment/Discrimination- Race, Handicap, Age, Medical Condition, Pr
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Free Consultation
Usually if you can provide a summary of your situation by email with attached documents in pdf format, this will work best. Free consultations are not for the purpose of receiving free legal service. A consultation is not the retention of an attorney, which is only by written retainer agreement or engagement letter, signed by all. Opinions given during the free consultation would only be based on the information provided, and newly discovered or additional information may create a substantial change. In any litigation, where the ultimate determination is made by a stranger or strangers, no attorney can guarantee any particular result. Please be very wary of any attorney who says he can. -
Contingent Fees
Contingent fees are accepted in an appropriate case, which is determined by the Attorney. Contingent fees are not set by law and are subject to the negotiation between the attorney and the client. Costs and expenses incurred are not a part of the contingent fee, and they will be explained in detail before retaining the attorney. -
Rates, Retainers and Additional Information
Your contract with an attorney is called a retainer. We will only work for you when we have a written retainer agreement with you, signed by everyone, that sets forth what we are supposed to do and how much it will cost you. It may be very difficult to estimate in advance the amount of fees, costs or expenses to resolve your case if you retain us as trial attorneys. That may be likewise if you retain us as a Mediator or Arbitrator. We will try our best to provide you with a reasonable estimate, but it is predicting the future. We accept payments via electronic transfers using ZELLE, an interbank transfer system.
- California
- ID Number: 98593
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- 9th Circuit
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- U.S. Supreme Court
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- USDC/ Los Angeles- since inception of committee
- Court Appointed Mediator
- - Current
- Handling numerous Federal cases, particularly ADA Accessibility cases, as a Court Appointed Mediator in Conjunction with Court's ADR program.
- Trial Attorney- lead counsel
- Solo Practitioner- 1980- present
- - Current
- Presiding Arbitrator
- OCBA- Mandatory Fee Arbitrator
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- Served both as sole and presiding arbitrator in 3 arbitrator panels; handled numerous cases involving attorney fee disputes. Attended numerous MCLE presentations re: adjudicating fee disputes and ethical concerns for attorneys. Authored opinions.
- Professor of Legal Studies- Paralegal Certificate Program
- Coastline Community College- Orange Coast Comm. College District
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- dates approximate. Coastline is located throughout Orange County with classes held at various locations. The Paralegal Certificate Program was developed by Margaret Lovig in the 1980's and I was a Professor of Law for that program for a number of years. Originally I developed and taught a course on Federal Civil Procedure in California, then I took on teaching Civil Litigation, Legal Research and Business Law. I really enjoyed working with all the students at Coastline, but I had a reputation of being the "Kingsfield" (from Paper chase) of the program. I also taught remotely through a program we had with the USMC to students that accessed the class via computer- JUST LIKE WE ARE DOING TODAY WITH COVID!!! But this was more than 20 years ago.
- Professor of Law- lower and upper division courses
- Irvine University College of Law
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- dates approximate. Irvine University College of Law was a private Law School located in Irvine, CA at which I was a professor of law for several years. I taught Contracts, Civil Procedure and other Courses. I enjoyed the practice of teaching law very much.
- Western State University College of Law
- J.D. (1979) | Law
- Activities: Surviving law school
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- University of Southern California
- M.S. (1972) | Education
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- Honors: numerous honors at graduation
- Activities: Student Council member during turbulent era of student strikes in protest of Vietnam War, other duties. Recognized by Dean of Students and College President with awards.
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- University of Southern California
- B.S. (1971) | Business Administration
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- Honors: Honored Senior at Graduation, numerous certificates and awards
- Activities: Tommy Trojan- rode the school Mascot at games and in Rose Parade, 1969
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- Orange County Trial Lawyers Association
- Member
- Current
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- Federal Bar Association
- Founding President/Orange County Chapter
- Current
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- California State Bar # 98593
- Member
- - Current
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- Orange County Bar Association- Mandatory Fee Arbitration Committee
- Member of Committee and Fee Arbitration- Handling attorney fee disputes
- Activities: Served as sole arbitrator and as Presiding Arbitrator on 3 member panels.
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- Presenter, California MCLE program, Sexual Harassment in Employment, Costa Mesa, CA
- Orange County Bar Association
- Chairman and creator of a multi attorney panel to discuss impact of new sexual harassment cases as a Continuing Education of the Bar series for OCBA.
- Q. does anyone know of a contingency lawyer
- A: When your case is worth $2million, there are lots of contingency lawyers for you, but when your case is worth less than $2000 there are usually none. This is because many Attorneys charge more than $500 per hour and your case will take several hours to resolve. But, there is hope for you, it is called Small Claims Court, where you can recover the costs to repair your car to like it was before the damage, and you can recover loss of use, which you can show by using car rental rates for a comparable vehicle. No attorneys in Small Claims, so go prepared. Thanks for using Justia Ask a Lawyer.
- Q. Do I have the right to claim overtime compensation?
- A: Your rights are governed by 2 different things. first there are the laws, which are found in the wage orders for your type of job, located on the Labor Commissioner website. You may be WO 4 as a professional. In the wage orders there are special rules that apply to "Health Care Workers." Since you are working in a Hospital you may come within that category. There is a 3 year statute of limitations under the labor code and you could get a 4th year for unfair competition. Laws come first. Then there is your contract- collective bargaining agreement. No contract or CBA can contradict a law that is to promote public policy, like getting paid. You have a complicated issue and should see ... Read More
- Q. As plaintiff, how do I prepare for an appellate hearing (small claims) in CA?
- A: I think you misconstrue what your Appeal is about. A TIMELY Appeal from a Small Claims Judgment by a losing defendant usually results in a "trial de novo" this means a new trial, the same as if no prior trial had occurred. You seem to think this will be a trial about whether the LL was served or was entitled to vacate the judgment. Now, if the LL failed to TIMELY appeal from the SC judgment, then his issue may very well be whether the court that denied his motion to vacate the judgment correctly applied the law. Look up small claims rules on the Cal Legislature website, "California Law" and "Code of Civil Procedure." They are in about section 116 as I recall. In ... Read More
